The chaplain's best efforts notwithstanding, the islanders' isolation and dependence on the bounty of the natural world meant their philosophy bore as much relationship to Druidism as it did to Christianity until the arrival of Rev John MacDonald in 1822. For example, Macauley (1764) reports the existence of five druidic altars including a large circle of stones fixed perpendicularly in the ground, by the Stallir House on Boreray.