MINISTER ON THE LOCH

The Minister On The Loch, a strathspey dance devised by Roy Goldring, is named after the oil painting by Sir Henry Raeburn of the Reverend Robert Walker. 

The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, is an oil painting attributed to Henry Raeburn in the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. It was painted during the Scottish Enlightenment.

The minister portrayed in this painting is Robert Walker, a Church of Scotland minister who was born in 1755 in Monkton, Ayrshire.  Walker was the minister of the Canongate Kirk as well as being a member of the Edinburgh Skating Club, the first figure skating club formed anywhere in the world. The club met on the Loch  shown in the painting.

Information sourced from: Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/dance-crib/minister-on-the-loch.html