Further dissent gripped the nation again in 1843 when the Church of Scotland split over state interference in religion. 450 Evangelical ministers departed from the church leaving not only their places of work but the manses that were there homes. Often hounded out of their parishes by unsympathetic landowners who wanted to preserve their rights of patronage, many, like the Covenanters before them, sought refuge on the moors. Sadly they led many parishoners who looked to them for guidance with them, prioritising belief over reality. Out on the moor many a preacher drew comparison not only with their Covenanting past but with desert of the Holy Land. For them, perhaps like those of the iron age cultures who sacrificed victims to their gods in the bogs of Northern Europe around the time Jesus was preaching in the Middle East, the moor was a littoral place, a place of transition between Heaven and Earth.
Robin A Crawford 