At the time, the islands were owned by the Thom family, though permission was willingly given by them,[1] despite the fact that they were not Catholics, and would later build the Protestant St Columba's Church on Canna in 1912.

At the time, the islands already had a Catholic chapel, dedicated to St Columba, which had been built on Canna in c. 1770.

In the face of this loss of parishioners, the church began to suffer from structural deterioration and closed in 1963.

Services have now been moved back into the old St Columba's chapel on Canna (a replacement post office was built nearby).

After closure, the church was used as a hostelry, and in 2001, was converted into a Gaelic study centre at the cost of £860,000.