Produced by Al Haines
[Illustration: Title page]
CHRONICLES of STRATHEARN
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
W.B. MACDOUGALL
COVER DESIGNED BY
A. L. RANKIN
CRIEFF
PUBLISHED BY DAVID PHILIPS
1896
[Transcriber's note: the errata below has been applied to this etext.]
ERRATA
The arched stone (Forteviot) does not appear, p. 77 having, through
inadvertence, been printed off without allowing space for it.
In note at the foot of p. 89, "scallop-shel" should be scallop-shell."
In note at the foot of page 90, "1896" should be "1890."
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
By Rev. JOHN HUNTER, M.A., Crieff.
CELTIC SAINTS AND ANCIENT CHURCHES OF STRATHEARN
By Rev. JAMES RANKIN, D.D., Muthill.
NEAR THE PICTISH CAPITAL
By Rev. P. THOMSON, B.D., Dunning.
THE HISTORIC PRESBYTERY OF AUCHTERARDER
By Rev. G. D. MACNAUGHTAN, B.D., Ardoch.
MEMORIES OF GASK
By Rev. JAMES MARTIN, Gask.
AT THE HEAD OF STRATHEARN
By Rev. JOHN MACPHERSON, Comrie.
ON THE BANKS OF THE DEVON
By Rev. E. B. SPEIRS, B.D., Glendevon.
BY THE WELL OF ST. FILLAN
By Rev. THOMAS ARMSTRONG, Dundurn.
THE PLAIN OF THE BARDS
By Rev. A. GORDON, M.A., Monzievaird.
BETWEEN STRATHALLAN AND STRATHEARN
By Rev. J. MACGIBBON, B.D., Blackford.
THE ABBEY OF INCHAFFRAY
By Rev. JAMES BROWN, M.A., Maderty.
A SOUTHERN OUTPOST ON THE EDGE OF THE HIGHLANDS
By Rev. HUGH M. JAMIESON, Monzie.
THE CASTLE, BARONY, AND SHERIFFDOM OF AUCHTERARDER
By A. G. REID, F.S.A., Scot., Auchterarder.
AT THE GATE OF THE HIGHLANDS
By Rev. JOHN HUNTER, M.A., Crieff.
ILLUSTRATIONS
INCHAFFRAY
GATEWAY, FOULIS CHURCH
[Transcriber's note: The illustration captions below were those in the
source book. The captions above match the actual illustrations.]
AULD HOUSE OF GASK
CHURCH GATE AT FOULIS
PREFACE
This book has been written in connection with a Bazaar held in Crieff
in the month of August, 1896, for the better endowment of the Parishes
of ARDOCH, CRIEFF WEST, GLENDEVON, and MONZIE. The Editorial Committee
venture to hope that the contents will be of some interest to the
dwellers in Strathearn, especially those within the bounds of the
Presbytery of Auchterarder. The warm thanks of the promoters of the
Bazaar are due to the ladies and gentlemen who composed the various
Committees. To them, as representing many hearty sympathisers and
willing workers, the "CHRONICLES OF STRATHEARN" is respectfully
dedicated.
In name of the Editorial Committee,
JOHN HUNTER, M.A., CRIEFF.
HUGH M. JAMIESON, MONZIE.
INTRODUCTION
THE OPENING UP OF STRATHEARN
By Rev. JOHN HUNTER, M.A., Crieff
Quite recently it was said to me by a man who had been holiday-making in
Switzerland, that he greatly missed the Alps in every home landscape.
The remark was made on the Knock of Crieff, one beautiful afternoon in
the late autumn, when the sun was setting and the after-glow lay like a
purple semi-transparent mist all along Glenartney from Ben Ledi to
Comrie. I felt rich enough in the enjoyment of the surpassing loveliness
of our own Strath to say "Laich in"--(I would not hurt any person's
feelings for the world)--"Plague take your Alps, with their sky-scraping
ridges and peaks and winding sheets of snow,--we don't want them here;
they would simply spoil a scene like that before us." I don't know, and
may never know, the meaning my companion read into my silence. Having
shortly before made the frank confession that I had never seen the Alps,
he may have intended to excite envious feelings within me, and imagined
he had succeeded. But I can deny the fact with a good conscience, and
until some benevolent person shall give me the opportunity of making a
comparison between home and foreign landscapes, I shall continue to
assert--happy in my ignorance, it may be, but still happy--that there is
no fairer prospect upon earth than the Strath of Earn from the Knock of
Crieff. "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."
Let me adventure to describe it. Right opposite to the south-west is
Turleum--rising to the height of 1300 feet--the highest hill in Scotland
wooded to the top, as our local boast was--shorn of its beauty somewhat
in recent years, but, although bare, still picturesque enough with its
comb of sturdy fir-trees, survivors from the destructive gale of
November, 1893. To the right of it, and running due west, is the pass
into the misty hill country by Comrie and St Fillans--the glen of Bonnie
Kilmeny and Dunira. Midway between us and the mouth of the pass is a
miniature Turleum--Tomachastel to wit, the site of the old Castle of the
Earn, famous in the days when the Celtic Earls of Strathearn were a power
in the land. Lovers of the old ways were these proud and wily
Earls--fiercely impatient of the incoming Saxon customs which found
favour at the Court of Malcolm Canmore and his sons--genuinely pious men,
too, in some instances--(did not Earl Gilbert found or endow Inchaffray,
so that masses might be said for his soul?)--of a keen courage as with
Earl Malise, who at the Battle of the Standard dared his mail-clad
fellows--the barons of King David--to show themselves a single foot in
advance of his naked breast. Right worthy and most noble men they were
in their noblest--they were not all so--cherishers of the national spirit
in the dreary times that followed upon the death of Alexander III. at
Kinghorn, like the one who gave a fair daughter of the house and land in
tocher to the son of Sir Andrew Moray, patriot and friend of Wallace, in
whom the Morays of Abercairny find their origin. Such were the men; and
over there on Tomachastel was their home--a place famous then, and very
noticeable still, with its gleaming memorial obelisk to "oor Davie" of
Ferntower, the hardy soldier who overcame the fierce Tippoo Sahib at
Seringapatam. Beyond lie the Aberuchill Hills, with the flat pyramidal
face of Ben Voirlich filling up a gap, and sending its roots, on one
side, down into "lone Glenartney's hazel shade," and, on the other, into
Loch Earn--sixteen miles away. Further off, and only to be seen on rare
days, when the sun's rays are dancing to be dry after rain, are sturdy,
broad-shouldered Benmore, and slender, graceful Binnein, the twin
guardians of the enchanted region beyond, where Beauty lies in the lap of
Terror, and the Atlantic surf sings lullaby. There are the Monzievaird
hills to the right, rising in Benchonzie to the height of 3048 feet, and
to something under this figure in the Cairngorm or Blue Craig, upon which
you see the stone-heap of Cainnechin--memorial, as it is said, of a
battle fought within what are now the policies of Ochtertyre, and as the
result of which Malcolm II. came to the throne of Scotia, having defeated
and slain his rival Kenneth Duff or Don--Kenneth, the swarthy--"at a
place where two valleys meet." Many battles have been fought out in the
Strath, for it must always have been a rich prize; but this one has a
special historical interest, inasmuch as it connects us with one of the
great tragedies in our annals, in which the genius of Shakespeare found
material for one of his masterly delineations of the strange workings of
human passion. It is said that Fraoch, wife of Macbeth Maormor of Moray,
had a good claim to the throne as the grand-daughter of this Kenneth
Duff, and, prompted by ambition and revenge, instigated her husband to
the murder of his Sovereign and guest--the gracious Duncan, grandson of
Malcolm II., at Bothgowan, near Elgin. Loch Turret lies in the gorge
that separates Benchonrie from the Blue Craig. It is likely enough that
the descendants of the wild fowl that Robert Burns scared on the occasion
of his visit to Ochtertyre still nest and pair in the solitude.
To the left of Turleum is a wider expanse, that carries the eye to the
Moor of Orchill, which overlooks the plain of Ardoch--the Lindum of the
Romans--traditional scene of the battle of Mons Grampus. Some miles away
Stirling finds shelter under its rock,--not visible to us, however, where
we stand, and only audible across the intervening twenty-two miles when
birthday and other honours are paid to Royalty.
The Ochil range--memorial of fierce volcanic action when the lower old
red sandstone was being deposited in the inland lake which stretched from
east to west across the Lowlands of Scotland, and away southward without
a break to the southern uplands, close to the border of England;--this
Ochil range, which means high ground, as Glenogle means high glen, bounds
our view to the south-east. It has no towering peaks, but Bencleuch and
its neighbour, King Seat, command magnificent panoramic views to north
and south from an elevation of 2000 feet. The gap before us is
Gleneagles,--Glen-eccles--Kirk glen--one of the passes into the Lowlands
of Fife and Kinross, by which, it may be, Agricola found his way into
Strathearn after the conquest of Fife. In the very heart of the Ochils
its name changes from Gleneagles to Glendevon. Here again we are upon
classic ground--in the vale of the clear winding Devon, which more than
any other stream recalls Yarrow with its hills green to the top and its
pastoral melancholy. And let me note the fact that here, too, is the
tiniest and daintiest parish church in Scotland--the outpost of the
Presbytery of Auchterarder in this direction.
Between us and the gap, but much nearer the gap, is a bit of rising
ground, running eastward almost parallel with the Ochils, with a downward
slope from west to east, upon which may be seen, if the atmosphere is
clear, smoking chimneys and a faint ruddy hue, as if with the memory of
tiles now discarded for the prosaic if more permanent roofing slate.
That is the "lang toon" of Auchterarder, climbing up the slope somewhat
after the fashion of the Canongate and High Street of Edinburgh, not so
conspicuously or hurriedly, however, as if aware that there was no Castle
Rock from which to view the fertile Strath below. An ancient place,
truly, pedigreed, but by no means penniless, the Presbytery seat, famous
in ecclesiastical annals for its creed, crotchets, and conflicts;
resonant, too, in profane history for its fifty drawbridges--the gift of
the imagination and pawky Scotch humour of George Buchanan, Latinist,
publicist, and tutor to that high and mighty Prince, the British Solomon,
James I. of England and VI. of Scotland. The drawbridges are no more,
for the "lang toon" is a burgh now, with a douce Provost of its own, and
Bailies, and such like novel things and persons. But this we cannot tell
from our present standpoint, and we might easily persuade ourselves this
afternoon that Auchterarder has suffered no sea change, were it not that
every now and again the columns of our local newspaper foam under the
rage of its municipal contendings.
In the far east, the Strath seems to be shut off by the Moncrieffe
Hill--wooded still, as in the days when it was first named. But the Earn
slips between this seeming obstacle and the spurs of the Ochils, making
such haste as it can through carse-like land to join the lordly Tay hard
by Abernethy--the ancient capital of the Southern Picts--the centre of
missionary enterprise, when darkness was thick upon the land after Ninian
had died at Whithorn, on the Solway, and before Columba had set foot upon
Iona. The valley at our feet, the limits of which I have attempted to
mark off, is Strathearn--a right noble expanse of fertile soil, richly
wooded, abundantly watered, dotted over with villages and guardian Parish
Churches, like that of Muthill; bright with Castles that have left their
names in history, and with mansion-houses of hardly less fame, that gleam
from among their ancestral trees--a Strath that may be fitly
characterised as the Scottish Esdraelon, in which many things have
happened, and many men have been well worthy of being held in remembrance.
I had intended in this paper to give an account of some early inroads
into Strathearn, but the exigencies of space have determined for me that
I can deal with only one--the earliest of all--the Roman invasion. I
should have liked to have told the story of the invasion by Egfrid of
Northumbria, which ended so disastrously for him at Nechtansmere--most
likely Dunnichen, in Forfarshire, in the year 685 A.D., and of which it
may well be that we have a solitary trace in the name Abercairny--plainly
identical with Abercornig--Abercorn in the Lothians--where the Angles
founded a monastery under Abbot Trumuini, who, being engaged in
Strathearn advocating the adoption of the Roman in opposition to the
prevalent Columban cult, had to beat a hasty retreat beyond the Forth
when disaster came to Egfrid. The larger subject would have included
also the invasion by Siward, Earl of Northumberland, in support of the
claims of Prince Malcolm, afterwards Malcolm Canmore, in opposition to
Macbeth, the usurper, as he is commonly, perhaps unfairly, called. The
first stage of the inroad ended with an encounter at Tula Amon--at the
junction of the Tay and the Almond, near Perth. The result was not
decisive, for it would seem that for a little while Macbeth kept
possession of the country north of the Forth, being especially strong in
Fife, where he had powerful family connections and friends in the Culdee
brotherhood at Lochleven, while Malcolm reigned in the Lothians. And a
little later, in connection with the complications into which Malcolm was
forced through his fortunate marriage with Margaret, sister of the
Atheling, we have traces--somewhat indistinct, truly, but still
historical--of an inroad by the grim conqueror of England--William, and
of a meeting between him and Malcolm at Forteviot. All this might have
proved instructive in detailed exposition, but I must content myself with
this condensed reference. My subject is, therefore, the earliest
historical inroad into Strathearn--the Roman inroad, which I have called,
in the heading of this paper, the Opening Up of Strathearn.
Everybody knows that Julius Caesar set foot in Britain and conducted a
campaign against the native tribes in 55-54 B.C. He made no permanent
impression. But successive expeditions were sent out, and the tide of
conquest flowed further and further east and west and north till it
reached the Solway. The details of the conflict do not concern us here.
But it would be unpardonable to omit mentioning Boadicea, Queen of the
Iceni, in the East, and of Caractacus, leader of the Silures, in the
West, both of whom offered strenuous opposition to the Roman advance.
The powerful tribe of the Brigantes, who possessed the country between
the Humber and the Solway, made a stout defence in the North, but by the
year 70 A.D. the Roman province was coterminous with the present southern
boundary of Scotland. It was now that the Romans heard the name of a new
tribe--the Caledonian Britons, who, according to report, lived upon fish
and milk, clearly indicating a less advanced stage of civilisation than
that of the tribes they had encountered hitherto. The unexplored
territory in which they dwelt was vaguely called Thule. Tacitus, the
historian, and son-in-law of Julius Agricola--the discoverer of
Strathearn--imagined it to be an island formed by the meeting of the
Firths of Forth and Clyde. But the time was now come when more accurate
information was to be obtained concerning Caledonia and its inhabitants.
Some external characteristics had been noted. The Caledonians were
described as Caerulei, from the green colour with which they stained
their bodies. It was also said that they fought with chariots like the
Britons of the interior, whom Caesar heard of 125 years before.
Julius Agricola was the man who first brought the Caledonians within the
ken of distinct history. He came to Britain in 78 A.D. His first
campaign was on the Welsh border, his second in the territory of some
outlying Brigantian tribes along the northern shores of the Solway.
These were the Selgovae, who occupied what is now the county of Dumfries,
and the Novantes further to the west in the modern counties of
Kirkcudbright and Wigton. To the north of these lay the great nation of
the Damnonii--of the same stock as those who occupied Devonshire in the
south of England. They held extensive territories in the centre of
Scotland, including the counties of Ayr, Lanark, Renfrew, south of the
Firths of Forth and Clyde, and, north of these estuaries, the counties of
Dumbarton and Stirling and the districts of Menteith, Stratherne, and
Forthreve, or the western half of the peninsula of Fife. They were the
"novae gentes," or new nations, whose territories Agricola ravaged as far
as the "Tavaus," or Tay, in his third campaign. They were somewhat
civilised, having towns, of which we know the names of six--three lying
south of and three north of the Firths. The chief of the southern towns
was Coria--Carstairs, near Lanark, on the Clyde. North of the Forth
there were Alauna, where the Allan joins the Forth; Lindum--that is
Ardoch, at our own doors; and Victoria, in Fife, situated on a small
lake. The lake has disappeared, but the name Lochore remains, and is
otherwise famous than as a town of the Damnonii. The natural division
line between the Selgovae, Novantes, and Damnonii was the hilly country
which separates the waters that flow north from those that find their way
into the Solway--the Ituna Aestuarium, as its name then was. Crossing
this mountain barrier, Agricola struck into the valley of the Clyde,
passed with his legions through Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire, then by
the fords of the Forth and the Vale of the Allan into Strathearn, thence
onward to the Tay. There was an alternative route. A fleet accompanied
his movements. He might have crossed the Firth of Forth--the Bodotria
Aestuarium--and penetrated through Fife to the Tay. But Tacitus usually
mentions the crossing of estuaries, and he omits it in this case.
Besides, he states that the natives on the north shore of the Forth were
new to him in the fifth campaign.
It was, therefore, in the year 80 A.D., during his third campaign, that
Agricola entered Strathearn by way of Alauna. He did not effect a
permanent conquest. His operations rather resembled a reconnaisance in
force. But he meant serious business. He planted forts in commanding
situations, choosing so wisely, from a strategic point of view, that not
one of them was ever taken or surrendered. They were placed so as to
command the principal passes into the Highlands. They form a ring-fence
round the territory hastily overrun by Agricola in this third campaign.
Beginning in the west with Bochastle, at the Pass of Leny, near
Callander, we come successively to Dalginross, at Comrie; Fendoch, at the
mouth of the Sma' Glen; the camp at the junction of the Almond and the
Tay; and, Ardargie, in the parish of Forgandenny, on the River May,
commanding an extensive prospect of the Ochils, and along the course of
the road from the Tay to the great camp at Ardoch. Here was evidently
the base of operations, with accommodation, if need arose, for the entire
Roman army in Scotland.
Having thus viewed the land and pegged out his claim by means of forts,
Agricola returned to winter quarters. In the following summer--the
summer of 81 A.D., he made no forward movement. But he was meditating a
great enterprise--no less an enterprise than to penetrate beyond the Tay
and break the power of the Caledonians in their remote fastnesses. It
behoved him to be cautious, so he constructed the chain of forts which
afterwards became the Wall of Antonine--from Borrowstonness, on the
Forth, to Old Kilpatrick, on the Clyde. Meantime he was laying his plans
with admirable foresight. He entrusted the forts in Strathearn to the
courage of their slender garrisons, and the issue proved that he could do
so safely. But there was unexplored territory westward and eastward.
Nobody knew what dangers might be lurking there, ready to assail him in
rear the moment he left the security of his fortified place. So we find
him in the summer of 82 A.D., in Argyll and Kintyre, with a small force,
not fighting so much, as simply exploring, at one point feasting his
Roman eyes, greedy for conquest, upon the coast of Ireland, seen dimly in
the distance, and perhaps scheming in his heart and head to add it also
at a fitting time to the Roman domains.
Returning from the west country, Agricola entered upon the campaign of
three years' duration, which issued in the Battle of Mons Grampus, the
crowning glory of his arms in Scotland, and the immediate occasion of his
recall. He chose the alternative route this time. From his chain of
forts he could see the broad expanse of the Firth of Forth, the coast of
Fife, the central Lomonds, and the distant hill-country, whose
acquaintance he had already made. That distant point was the goal of his
endeavour, and the shortest way to it was across the Firth of Forth,
through the western division of Fife, and on by one of the Ochil
passes--Glendevon, or some other further east into Strathearn. There was
no time to lose. For, while he was engaged in the subjugation of Fife,
the fleet, after exploring the harbours, had doubled the East Neuk,
passed safely through St Andrews Bay, and entered the Firth of Tay. Its
unexpected appearance caused the greatest consternation among the
Caledonians. The immediate result was to greatly increase the peril in
which the devoted garrisons in Strathearn stood. So great was their
danger, and so well was it known, that there were those with Agricola who
advised a retreat to the chain of forts between the Firths. But Agricola
was not to be shaken in his resolve, which was to finally break the power
of the tribes who dwelt to the north and east of the Grampians, and who,
so long as they remained free and unchastised, were a standing menace to
the Strath of the Earn and to the garrisons who held it at the hazard of
their lives. He formed a camp to winter in at a place called Grassy
Walls, on the east side of the Tay, near to Perth. But there was still
time, before the winter set in, for a little exploration and a brush with
the enemy to revive the courage of his soldiers, which had begun to droop
a little. Advancing northward on the left bank of the river, Agricola
reached the Isla, and not caring to cross it so late in the year, in the
face of the enemy who were massed upon the Hill and Muir of Blair beyond,
he diverged to the right, following the course of the Isla until he came
to the place where Coupar Angus stands now. Here he paused. He had
marched from Perth in three divisions to prevent surprise, and in this
neighbourhood there are three positions marked by Roman remains that
correspond with these divisions. The main force was stationed at Coupar
Angus; the Ninth Legion at Lintrose, two miles south-east; a third small
body at a place two miles south-west, overlooking the Tay, and guarding
the passage. These details are important, as helping to determine the
true site of the Battle of Mons Grampus. It may be taken for granted
that the Roman General made good use of his opportunity to survey the
ground upon which the decisive battle was fought. Before retiring to
winter quarters at Grassy Walls, the Roman soldiers had a chance given
them of testing the strength and valour of the Caledonians. The Ninth
Legion was stationed at Lintrose, and here the enemy delivered their
attack under cover of night. They had penetrated into the camp ere they
were discovered, and it might have gone hard with the Legion if help had
not been at hand. But the alarm quickly spread to where Agricola was
stationed with the main body. On his arrival the Caledonians took to
flight. With the first touch of winter the march southward was begun,
and when the summer came the legionaries and the auxiliaries clamoured
impatiently to be led northward to the final encounter.
The theory maintained in this paper regarding the last campaign of
Agricola, and the site of the Battle of Mons Grampus was first broached
in the Statistical Account of the parish of Bendochy, published in 1797.
It has been since adopted by Skene in his classical work on Celtic
Scotland, to which I desire in this place to acknowledge my great
indebtedness. Other sites have been fixed upon, but there are none that
can fairly be put in comparison with the neck of land at the junction of
the Isla with the Tay. What may be called the traditional view of the
site of the battle locates it at Ardoch, in the vicinity of the great
camp. No doubt, good authorities can be quoted in favour of the
correctness of the traditional view. But there are several reasons which
render it highly improbable that the great battle was fought at Ardoch.
The very name Mons Grampus implies the existence of some conspicuous
eminence in the near neighbourhood. There is no such eminence near
Ardoch. Further, we know that Agricola's scheme of operation embraced
joint action on the part of the fleet and land forces. There could have
been no such co-operation if the movement of the legions had been west of
the Tay. And it is a fatal objection to the Ardoch site that there are
not three stations corresponding to those which we have seen the three
divisions of Agricola's force occupied on the night of the surprise.
General Roy, indeed, has tried to turn the edge of this objection by
placing the Ninth Legion at Dalginross, the main body under Agricola at
Ardoch, and the other division at Strageath, overlooking and guarding the
Earn. But it has been retorted upon him that Agricola could have made no
worse disposition of his forces, from a strategic point of view, than to
have stationed his weakest division at Comrie, nine miles distant from
the main body, in the very heart of the enemy's country, close to the
hills, from which they could rush down upon any favourable opportunity,
and to which they could retreat in the event of a repulse.
Besides, help came from the main body in the course of a few
hours--between night and morning. It would be a difficult task even now
for a body of men to cover the ground between Ardoch and Comrie in the
dead of night; and we must remember that in the time of Agricola the
country was a pathless wild, rough with woods in the higher parts, and
covered with treacherous morasses in the valleys. The Damnonii--within
whose territories Ardoch, Comrie, and Strageath lay--were more highly
civilised than the Caledonians beyond the Tay and the Grampian range.
They had towns, as we have seen; they probably engaged to some extent in
agriculture; their food did not altogether consist of fish, milk, and the
produce of the chase. But their towns were few and far between, and the
means of communication very imperfect. The native tribes were not
road-makers, and the Romans had not been long enough in possession, nor
had leisure been granted them to form the solid and straight lines of
communication upon which, everywhere, their power was based. We have
Roman roads in Strathearn, and I daresay a careful student of the
district could walk every foot of the way from Ardoch to Perth along
these roads--street-roads, they are called locally, as I discovered one
night to my surprise on making inquiries as to the shortest route between
the manses of Gask and Trinity-Gask. But these roads were not in
existence when the Battle of Mons Grampus was fought. Much rough
pioneering work had to be gone through ere it was possible to lay them
down. Meantime, the respective positions of the Romans and Caledonians
had changed somewhat. The tide of conquest did not remain at the
high-water mark of Agricola's advance. The Roman garrisons were
withdrawn from Strathearn and from Ardoch. The Wall of Hadrian, between
the Solway and the Tyne, was substituted for the frontier chain of forts
between the Forth and Clyde, and, in consequence, the native tribes kept
pressing ever southward. Hadrian's Wall checked their progress, but
their presence in ever-increasing numbers was a danger to the province.
They had now come to be known as the Caledonii and the Meatae--the men of
the hills and the men of the plains. At length the spirit of Rome
revived in the Emperor Severus, who determined to revisit the scene of
Agricola's early conquests. He came to Britain in 208 A.D., fully one
hundred and twenty years after the Battle of Mons Grampus had been fought
and won. He moved slowly, but did his work effectively. It was a costly
process both in treasure and human life; but, from the point of view of
permanent conquest, it was well done. Roads were formed, bridges built,
and the habits of civilisation introduced into the wilds of Strathearn,
and far away in the North. For, marching by way of Forfar, Kincardine,
and Aberdeen, Severus reached the Moray Firth, and got from the
Caledonians a cession of land to the north of the Tay. It has been
conjectured that he returned south by way of Fortingall and Fendoch and
Ardoch, where are Roman remains of a peculiar kind, of which no more
satisfactory explanation can be given than that they mark the sites of
his stations. Severus was borne on a litter in his northward march,
frail and aged. He accomplished his purpose, but the undertaking was
greater than his strength had warranted. He died at York in 211 A.D.
But to return to Agricola--to whom the honour belongs of opening up
Strathearn. He had gone into winter quarters near Perth, after his
autumn expedition to the Isla. All hesitation had vanished from the
minds of his soldiers. They were impatient to try conclusions with the
barbarian Caledonians; and so soon as the season permitted, the camp was
broken up. They retraced their steps to the Isla, and found the enemy
occupying the old position on the lower slopes of the Hill of
Blair--battle-hill; probably so called in memory of the big fight now
impending. It was a well-chosen position, showing no little military
skill on the part of Galgacus, the Caledonian chief. From the foot of
the hill a plain extended southward to the junction of the rivers. The
Isla bounded the plain on the east, while a series of morasses, moors,
and small lochs stretched to the west, in the direction of the Grampian
range. Upon their defeat, the Caledonians made their escape this way.
The Roman army boldly crossed the Isla this time, and began to throw up
entrenchments. Traces of a rampart are to be seen extending from
Meikleour on the Tay across country to the Isla. In connection with this
a fort was constructed and a triangular bit of ground enclosed, capable
of containing the whole force. The local name of the rampart is Cleaven
Dykes, and all the while the Caledonians were gathering from all
parts--from the distant Highlands and from the siege of the Strathearn
forts. The Buzzard Dykes, on the lower slopes of the Hill of Blair,
marks their position. At length they thought themselves strong enough to
begin the attack. A defensive policy would have been wiser. But the
concentrated power of a trained army--the very regularity of its motions
always draws the attack of a less highly disciplined force. Probably the
Caledonians deceived themselves into thinking that fear was the cause of
the inaction of their opponents. It was not so. Agricola had come so
far in order to fight, and his soldiers were impatient to be led against
the enemy. They had gained confidence from the experience of the year
before--they were hungry as wolves for the honour of victory. They knew
that upon their valour depended the lives of their fellow-soldiers, who
had been fighting for well nigh four years against tremendous odds away
west in Strathearn. And when the Caledonians came on, Agricola promptly
advanced to meet them, having 8000 auxiliaries in his first line,
protected on the wings by 3000 cavalry. The legionaries were stationed
behind these--veteran Roman soldiers, upon whose steadiness he could rely
if there should come repulse and panic. The rampart at Meikleour was in
the rear of the reserve force--to serve as a last defence if the worst
happened. Agricola himself went to the front with the colours. As
usual, the battle began with a discharge of missiles from a distance.
The darts and stones flew thick, and all the while the Caledonians were
edging away to right and left in the hope of surrounding the Romans.
Agricola strained his thin line almost to breaking point, but his
opponents had the advantage of numbers, and still pressed him. The
danger of a gaping centre grew imminent. The crisis of the conflict
came. Three Batavian and two Tungrian cohorts charged sword in hand.
The issue was not long in doubt. The small shields and long swords of
the Caledonians were ill-fitted to encounter the straight home-thrust of
the finely-tempered blade, 19 inches in length, with which the Roman
soldiers were armed. They wavered, and then the end came quickly. The
whole line of the auxiliaries charged uphill and carried everything
before them, and although the war chariots, armed with scythe-blades,
were brought into action, they did more harm than good. The ground was
rough, and unsuitable for the effective use of these murderous weapons of
warfare. Their own men, now in hopeless confusion, were the chief
sufferers from them. And although the Caledonian reserve succeeded in
getting behind the Roman first line, they were promptly checked by a
cavalry attack. It was never necessary to bring the Roman reserves of
legionary soldiers into action. The fight was over, and the Caledonians
sought safety in headlong flight among the morasses which stretched
westward in the direction of the Grampian range.
Agricola did not push his advantage further. He was content with the
victory he had gained, He could now hope that there would be peace in
Strathearn, bringing with it the opportunity of extending the boundary of
the Roman province to the Tay. His eager Roman spirit was planning other
enterprises. He had seen the coast of Ireland from Kintyre, and
doubtless courted the distinction of annexing it to the Empire. One
can't help thinking what a pity it was that the opportunity of doing so
was not given him. Had the distressful country got the benefit of the
firm and civilising Roman rule, a happier history might have been hers.
From his winter quarters behind the Firths of Forth and Clyde, Agricola
sent his fleet to explore the distant northern parts. His sailors
visited and took possession of the Orkney Islands--sighted a distant
peak, which became the "Ultima Thule" of history; noted the peculiar
feature of the West Coast of Scotland--the sea-lochs now so well known to
the tourists of every land; circumnavigated the island till they reached
the Trutulensian harbour--Dover, as we call it now; and then returned to
their station in the Firth of Forth. It was not permitted to Agricola to
turn the information thus acquired to practical use. His brilliant
success in Scotland had excited the jealousy of the Emperor Domitian, and
he was recalled under the pretence of appointing him to a higher command.
The traces of him in Strathearn and elsewhere were speedily obliterated.
The Roman province shrank to the wall of Hadrian between Tyne and
Sol-way; civilisation was beaten back, and kept back for four generations.
CELTIC SAINTS AND
ANCIENT CHURCHES OF STRATHEARN
S. FILLAN, DUNDURN
S. RONAN, STROWAN
S. BEAN, KINKELL AND FOULIS
S. SERF, DUNNING AND MONZIEVAIRD
S. KESSOG, COMRIE AND AUCHTERARDER
S. PATRICK, STROGEATH
S. FERGUS, MUTHILL
S. CATTAN, ABERUTHVEN
S. BRIDE, ABERNETHY
CELTIC SAINTS AND ANCIENT CHURCHES OF STRATHEARN
By Rev. JAMES RANKIN, D.D., Muthill
The vale or strath of the Earn may best and simplest be said to extend
from the head of Loch Earn along the course of the River Earn to its
junction with the Tay, two and a quarter miles above Newburgh. The
distance from top to bottom as the crow flies is about thirty-six miles,
and the direction is very nearly due west and east. The valley may be
sub-divided into four portions. The uppermost is Loch Earn itself, which
is six and a half miles long and 306 feet above sea-level, so that the
descent of the river in its thirty miles of course is not much. The
surface of Loch Earn, James' Square in Crieff, and the Manse of Muthill,
across the valley, are as nearly as possible on the same level. The Earn
may be sectioned as follows:--From Loch Earn to the Bridge of Comrie;
thence to the Bridge of Crieff; thence to the Bridge of Kinkell; thence
to Bridge of Earn; thence to junction of Earn with Tay. For our present
purpose we may stop near Forteviot, at the Earn boundary of the
Presbytery of Auchterarder.
Before we can rightly appreciate the more or most ancient Christian
history of the Strath, we require to lay aside, and partly reverse,
certain modern associations as to lines of travel. We think of
Strathearn as running westward from Auchterarder, which lies on both the
turnpike and railway route from Stirling to Perth. But in the days of
our early Christianity it was mainly the sea on each coast that joined
north and south of Scotland; whereas the more frequented routes were
across country from west to east, because the west was then the seat of
government and source of culture. Our early Christianity came from
Ireland, and the route was by the Firth of Clyde, where Kintyre, Arran,
Cumbrae, Bute, Kilmun, Dumbarton, Luss, and Balquhidder were all already
provided with places of worship. The Vale of Leven and Loch Lomond were
the natural approaches from the west to the upper end of Loch Earn and
Strathearn. Another route connecting Perthshire with Iona was by Loch
Etive, Dalmally, Tyndrum, and Glendochart. But the Leven and Loch Lomond
route, judging by the saints to whom the oldest churches were dedicated,
was the actual one usually traversed in reaching the valley of the Earn.
The oldest settlement is that of S. Fillan, at Dundurn. His day in the
Kalendar is June 22, and he died about 520 A.D. Dundurn=Dun d'Earn. In
the martyrology of Donegal (for he was a pure Irish Celt) he is called of
Rath Erann--_i.e._, the fort on the Earn. Besides the old chapel and
burial-ground, a memorial of the Saint is in Dunfillan, where are his
chair and well. A fine eye for the picturesque the good man must have
had to select a hill of so striking aspect and commanding so charming a
landscape as Dunfillan. A little later Dunfillan became a king's seat or
fort. S. Fillan is called _an lobar_, leper, or perhaps stammerer, to
distinguish him from S. Fillan the abbot, connected with Strathfillan and
Killin, whose day is January 9, and who died about 703, nearly 200 years
after his namesake the leper. He of Dundurn was of the race of AEngus,
King of Munster, and was trained under S. Ailbe of Emly. Dr. Marshall,
in his "Historic Scenes in Perthshire," in company with several other
writers, mixes up the two S. Fillans. Bishop Forbes, in his "Kalendars
of Scottish Saints," gives a clear account of each, mentioning that
Aberdour, in Fife, is dedicated to him of Dundurn, as was also Cill or
Kil-Faelin, in Leinster.
Tullichettle and Comrie may be taken together, the distance between them
being only one mile; the former meaning "The Vale of Sleep," now known
mainly by its little kirkyard, having once been the more important of the
two. The proof of this is seen in an extract from the Register of
Ministers and Readers in the Miscellany of the Wodrow Society. In 1574,
where our Presbytery has now sixteen parishes, there were only four
ministers and sixteen readers, thus grouped:--Auchterarder--Stipend,
£100, and kirk-lands--had readers at Auchterardour, Kinkell, Abirruthven,
and Dunnyng. Strogeith--£60, and kirk-lands--had readers at Strogeith,
Muthill, and Strowane. Foulis--£80, and kirklands--had readers at
Foulis, Madertie, Trinite-Gask, and Findo-Gask. Tullichettil--£100, and
kirk-lands--had readers at Tullichettil, Cumrie, Monivaird, Monzie, and
Crieff. The system of readers was a beggarly makeshift for the Christian
ministry, and shows the sore straits to which the Reformed Church was
reduced after what was supposed to be the grand victory of 1560. Then
Tullichettle was more than Comrie, as Strageath was more than Muthill.
The dedication of Tullichettle does not appear in any record that I have
seen, but that of Comrie is evident from its fair, which bears the name
of S. Kessog. There is also a Tom-na-chessaig, just behind the old Free
Church, now a public hall. The old name has a modern recognition in a
local Freemasons' Lodge of S. Kessack. What is known of the Saint is
given further on under Auchterarder.
Downwards on Earn the next ancient riverside church is Strowan, which,
being a small parish, was united to Monzievaird before 1662. The site is
one of remarkable beauty and quiet, almost ideal as a place of worship
and burial. Ronan or Rowan was a bishop and confessor under King
Maldwin, Feb. 7, 737, according to Adam King's Kalendar. He was of
Kilmaronen or Kilmaronoc, in Lennox. Other dedications to him are
Kilroaronag, in Muckairn; Teampull Ronan of Ness, in Lewis; Port Ronan,
in Iona. At his death in 737 A.D., S. Ronan was abbot of Kingarth, in
Bute. Connected with the church of Strowan is a Ronan pool on the Earn,
and a bell remains from the old days. An adjacent farm is called Carse
of Trowan.
The old church of Monzievaird on the east avenue to Ochtertyre, and now
the private burial-place of the Murrays, is dedicated to S. Serf. But
his legend may be reserved till we reach Dunning, at the end of our
narrative.
The next in order of the old Celtic Churches on the Earn is that at
Strogeit, or usually Strageath. This church and churchyard are close on
the Earn, at a very picturesque spot, where are two very old mills--one
on each side of the river--and a mill-dam between, and serving for both.
The church is dedicated to S. Patrick, of Ireland, and was planted by an
Irish missionary called S. Fergus.
Patricius was bishop and confessor--his day of death and commemoration,
March 17, 493. He was the son of Calphurnius, a Roman decurio or
magistrate at Dumbarton, his mother being Conkessa, sister or niece of
the great S. Martin of Tours. He was born at Kilpatrick, on the Clyde,
and called Succat=Succoth, the name of a neighbouring estate. At
sixteen, Patrick was carried off to Ireland by pirates, and sold to a
chief, Michul of Antrim, where he served six years, when he escaped to
Scotland. He then went to S. Germanus of Auxerre for forty (more
probably four) years' study. After becoming monk with his uncle S.
Martin, he visited Rome, and was sent to Ireland, where he laboured sixty
years, consecrating 365 churches and bishops, and ordaining 300--some say
3000--presbyters. Writings of S. Patrick are his "Confessions"--"Hymn
before Tara," called "Breastplate," in eleven verses, and "Letter to
Caroticus, Caradoc, or Ceretic Guledig," from whom the kings of Alcluith,
Patrick's birthland, were descended. (See Christian Classics--The
Writings of Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland. Religious Tract Society,
London.) S. Patrick's churches in Scotland are sixteen, of which three
are in Muthill--viz., Strogeit, on the Earn; S. Patrick's, at
Blairinroar; and S. Patrick's, at Struthill; each of the two latter
having a S. Patrick's Well, anciently used in baptism. At Blairinroar,
five miles west from Muthill, two or three cot-houses still bear the name
S. Patrick's, but I don't know that the site of the original chapel is
identifiable. At Struthill, two miles south of Muthill, both chapel
walls and ancient burial-ground remained till about 50 years ago, when
they were shamefully turned--the one into dyke material, and the
consecrated soil and remains into top-dressing for corn land. The sacred
well was also run off into a drain, and the site marked by a modern
cattle trough. The burial-ground at Strageath is still in use, but the
corner stones of the old church have been brutally abstracted for use in
neighbouring buildings. These desecrations ill agree with what is truly
stated by my predecessor in the New Statistical Account, that "the
inhabitants of Muthill, until very lately (_i.e._, about 1835), held S.
Patrick's name in so high veneration that on his day (March 17) neither
the clap of the mill was heard nor the plough seen to move in the
furrow." Across the Earn from Strageath is a farm called Dalpatrick, and
a ford known as Dalpatrick Ford.
This well-deserved honour to the patron saint of Ireland is traceable
here to the presence of one of his disciples and countrymen, S. Fergus,
whose work, however, must have been about 150 years after S. Patrick's
death. After his work of chapel building in Muthill, S. Fergus quitted
his hermitage at Strageath and went northward to Caithness and Buchan, on
the same gospel errand, where, after good work again, he moved southwards
to Glamis, the scene of his death and burial. The churches dedicated to
him are six--viz., Wick, Halkirk, S. Fergus or Lungley, Inverugy, S.
Fergus, at Banff; Dyce. Glamis has S. Fergus' cave and well. There was
a S. Fergus chapel in the church of Inchbrayock, at Montrose, and a
chapel and well at Usan, three miles south-east of Montrose. His head
was preserved at Scone in a silver casket, his arm in a silver casket at
Aberdeen, and his staff, baculus or bachul, at S. Fergus, in Buchan. In
721, _Fergustus Epis. Scotiae Pictus_ signed at Rome canons as to
irregular marriages. He belonged to the party that conformed to Rome as
distinguished from the strict adherents of the old Celtic ritual.
About one mile below Strageath is the old Collegiate Church of
Innerpeffray, dedicated to S. Mary, mentioned in 1342, and made
collegiate in 1508 by the first Lord Drummond. But as this belongs to a
later ecclesiastical system (1200-1560) it may be passed over for the
present.
About two miles lower than Innerpeffray is Kinkell Church, dedicated to
S. Bean. Here we come on a group of three, the next being Aberythven,
three miles east of Kinkell, dedicated to S. Cathan; and Auchterarder,
one mile south of Aberuthven, dedicated to S. Makessock. These three
churches, along with Strageath and Madderty, have this in common at a
later date--viz., 1200 A.D., that they were granted by Earl Gilbert of
Strathearn and his Countess Matildis, as endowment to the newly-founded
Abbey of Inchaffray. A few years later the Church of S. Bean of Foulis
and the Church of the Holy Trinity of Gasc were added to the same
endowment. Although now desolate, and appearing as a pendicle to an
adjacent farm-steading, the old Kirk of Kinkell occupies a beautiful site
in the valley, on a knoll, close by the river, and the kirkyard is still
occasionally used. S. Bean, who was bishop and confessor, died about
920, and his day in the Kalendar is 26th October. He was uncle of S.
Cadroe, who was taught at Armagh, and whose mission in Scotland marks the
origin of the Culdees, strictly so-called, as is traced in Skene's Celtic
Scotland, II., 346, in connection with Kinkell and Abernethy.
Particularly interesting is the Church of Aberuthven, now in the parish
of Auchterarder. The eastern end of the building is evidently of extreme
antiquity, with two narrow windows, between which would stand the altar,
probably of stone. The dedication was to S. Cathan or Cattanus, bishop,
May 17, 710. Cathan was uncle of S. Blain, of Bute, whom he ordained and
consecrated bishop. Cathan is most closely associated with Bute, his
original chapel having been on the south side of Kilchattan Bay. Cattan,
the Pict, planted a church in Gigha, then went to Colonsay, which has
another S. Cattan's, and to Iona, and settled at Scarinche, in Lewis,
where his remains were preserved, and where, after Bannockburn (1314), a
church was built and dedicated to S. Cattan, and affiliated to
Inchaffray. There was also a Clan Chattan. (See Hewison's Bute, I.,
136-8.)