Chronicles of Strathearn

by Unknown

We have briefly traced the history of the Oliphants during the long period they have been in possession of Gask estate, and while many of them have been distinguished in different walks of life, none of them ever occupied the high position which the present Mr Oliphant does for literary attainments and scholarly accomplishments. He has unfolded the history of his family with all that fulness of information by which he is characterised in The Oliphants in Scotland and The Jacobite Lairds of Gask. And I must express my great indebtedness to Mr Oliphant for the information I have derived from these volumes in writing this article. But I am persuaded that Mr Oliphant's literary fame will rest more on another work he produced some years ago, entitled The Old and Middle English, in one volume, and The New English, in two volumes, than on the other two, interesting as they are. In these volumes Mr Oliphant has traced the development of the English language during the last 600 years. The most competent scholars and critics have spoken of these volumes in the highest terms of commendation, and declared that Mr Oliphant has done, unaided, what would have required a company of philologists to achieve. Mr Oliphant, however, is not only devoted to literary pursuits, but he also takes a practical interest in the welfare of all in the parish; often visits them in their dwellings, and has a great pleasure in promoting their social enjoyments. In these respects he is cordially supported by Mrs Oliphant. And I only express the best wishes of all on the estate that they may be long spared together to dwell among their own people, and to maintain the same friendly relations with them in the future as they have done in the past.

AT THE HEAD OF STRATHEARN

By Rev. JOHN MACPHERSON, Comrie

The head of Strathearn may be said to be the parish of Comrie, because it comprises some miles of the strath as well as the lake from which the strath derives its name. The name Comrie is taken from a Gaelic word Comhruith, signifying confluence or running together of streams, and is aptly applied in this case. This one can easily see by standing for a few moments upon the Bridge of Dalginross. Looking westward, he sees the River Ruchill joining the Earn behind the Parish Church; and, turning to the east, at a distance of a few hundred yards he sees the Lednock discharging its waters into the same river. Hence the name Comrie, probably in the first instance applied to the village built at the junction of the three rivers, was afterwards given to the parish. The parish of Comrie, as presently constituted, includes what was formerly called the parishes of Comrie and Tullichettle. Hence the minister of Comrie owns two glebes—the Tullichettle glebe in the vicinity of the manse, and the Comrie glebe situated on the south bank of the Earn. The date at which this union took place is not known, but in the year 1702 the Commission of Teinds, at the request of the General Assembly, made additions, quoad sacra, from the parishes of Monzievaird, Strowan, and Muthill, and annexed a portion of the parish of Comrie lying upon the north side of Loch Earn, also quoad sacra to the parish of Balquhidder. This arrangement holds good at the present day. The parish quoad civilia extends from the Bridge of Lednock to Lochearnhead, a distance of thirteen miles, and is about nine miles in breadth. It contains some of the grandest mountains of the Grampian range—Benchonzie, 3048 feet; and Ben Voirlich, 3224 feet above the level of the sea. The latter, it is said, can be seen from Perth, Edinburgh, and Ayrshire.

The beauties of Strathearn have often been pictured by writers of poetry and prose, but without reaching the head of Strathearn these beauties can be only partially seen. The drive from Crieff to Lochearnhead in a summer day is universally regarded as one of the finest in all Scotland. To within a mile or so of St. Fillans the road resembles one long avenue stretching along the base of the Grampians. The scenery is unequalled for its mixture of grandeur and beauty. There you have the rough, rugged hills of the Highlands combined with the cultivated plains of the Lowlands, and waving woods, affording an air of warmth and freshness to the landscape. The great storm of 1893 has, indeed, laid low many of our finest plantations and marred the beauty of our scenery. Turleum Wood, which used to wave its shaggy head so high, is now laid prostrate, and appears to the eye what its Celtic name implies—tor lom, a bare hill. And yet, as far as appearance and scenery are concerned, there are few places which can as well afford to part with some of its trees as the head of Strathearn. Comrie is best known to the public generally by its earthquakes, and as a quiet summer resort, with sequestered walks over hills and dales and along the banks of flowing streams. But to the botanist, the geologist, the antiquarian, and the lover of ancient legend and historic incident there is, besides all this, something to awaken interest and engage attention. The number and variety of plants is very considerable. Slate is the predominant rock, but there are also limestone, whin, the old red sandstone, and granite. At one time there were two slate quarries wrought on the Aberuchill Hills, but for the last twenty years they have been closed. A lime quarry on Lochearnside in former times supplied the whole district with material for lime, but carriage, labour, and fuel have become so expensive, that both builders and farmers find it more economical to get lime ready for use from the south. There is granite in Glenlednock, and as the railway has now been extended to the village from Crieff, it is possible that some day it may be a source of industry to the inhabitants. In several places in the district of which we write there are traces of what are supposed to be Druidical remains. One cannot help regretting that the old Druids should have confined the knowledge of their religion to their own order, and that they should have left so few traces of their mystical rites to posterity, except what may be gathered from rude stones scattered here and there throughout the country. On the plain of Tullybannocher, and near the east lodge of Dunira, there are several standing-stones, which antiquarians believe to be the remains of Druidical circles. On the plain of Dalginross, also, near the junction of the manse road with the public road, there are three large stones, supposed to be the remains of a Druidical temple. One of these, about 8 feet in length, stands, or rather leans, at an angle of 45 degrees; the others are lying flat upon the ground. One of them, a round, flat boulder, bears upon its surface cup-marks arranged in irregular concentric circles. Was this the sacrificial stone of an ancient Druid; or are these boulders relics of the glacial period, and were the marks alluded to caused by the action of the weather? When we come to deal with Roman remains we stand upon firmer ground. On the same plain of Dalginross, and a short distance to the north of these boulders we have referred to, is the site of the old Roman Camp, Victoria. About the end of last century the outlines of the fortifications seem to have been quite distinct, but since that time the plough has obliterated almost every trace of them. There seem to have been two camps at Dalginross—a larger and a smaller one, the former capable of holding 10,000 troops. Here, it has been held by some writers, the great Battle of Mons Grampius was fought between the Caledonians under Galgacus and the Romans under Agricola. This, however, is not probable. Seven cities of the ancient world laid claim to Homer's birth-place. About the same number of places are pointed to as the scene of the Battle of Mons Grampius. Gordon says it was at Dalginross, Chalmers says it was the Moor of Ardoch, some say it was in Fife, others at Urie, in Kincardineshire. Skene, in his Celtic Scotland, places it on or near the Muir of Blair, about the junction of the River Tay with the Isla. Mr Hill Burton abandons the task of determining the site as hopeless. If we accept the description given by Tacitus, in so far as it says the battle was fought "in conspectu classis"—that is, "in sight of the fleet," the place could not have been Dalginross, and for this one reason, that unless the Earn was very different in the days of Agricola from what it is in our day, the Roman fleet could not possibly have sailed to a point within sight of Dalginross. Judging, however, from some place-names in the neighbourhood, there is little doubt that Dalginross has been the scene of some bloody conflict or conflicts during the period of the Roman occupation of Britain. The name of the farm adjoining the old Roman Camp, for example, is Blardhearg, which in Celtic means "the red battle-field." To the west, and beyond the River Ruchill, is Dalrannaich, in Celtic, Dailranaich—"the field of mourning or lamentation"; and a little to the north is Dalchonzie, in Celtic, Dailachaonaidh—"the field of weeping." To the south of the plain of Dalginross, and upon the road to Ardoch, there are still traces of the Roman occupation of Strathearn. At Blairinroar there must have been a bloody conflict between the Romans and the Caledonians. The very name of the place implies it, for Blairinroar in Celtic is the "field of violent onset." There are still to be seen in this neighbourhood huge slabs of standing-stones, some of them 20 feet in height. Those upon the level ground probably mark the graves of distinguished Romans or Caledonians who fell upon the field of battle; but others, which run in a line extending north and south, were probably landmarks to guide messengers on their way from Lindum, the camp at Ardoch, to Victoria, the camp at Dalginross.

At the west side of the new cemetery, close to the public road, there is a curious round knoll, which at one time must have been used as a place for the burial of the dead. The attention of the writer of this was drawn to it about twenty years ago. There were three large slabs of stone lying upon the ground, which apparently had been at some former period placed erect by some loving hands to mark the last resting-place of some departed friend or hero. By the aid of some of the Comrie masons the stones were placed in a standing position. Curious to know what lay beneath the surface, we dug up the earth in front of the largest slab, and came upon a stone cist placed north and south, 7 inches long, 1 foot 8 inches broad, and 1 foot 3 inches deep. The only remains discovered was a thigh-bone, but whether it at one time formed a part of the leg of a Celt, a Roman, or a Saxon we could not tell. An old man who then lived in the village of Comrie told us that in his young days the same mound was dug up, when an urn filled with ashes was discovered. This, perhaps, would indicate that it formed a place of burial for Romans rather than for Caledonians. The spot is called Dunmoid, or "hill of judgment." Besides the parish churchyard, there are three old burying-grounds in the parish—Leckin, on Lochearnside; Dundurn, and Tullichettle. From an antiquarian point of view, the most interesting, perhaps, is Tullichettle. It is situated in a sequestered spot on a rising ground on the right bank of the River Ruchill, near the farm-house of Cultabraggan. The name, which is Celtic, Tulachchadail—"hill of sleep"—well describes the place, for a more solitary spot could hardly be selected for the repose of the dead. Judging from the inscriptions upon the tomb-stones it has been for long the burying-place of the Macnivens, the Macgreuthers, the Maccullochs, and other clans. There is a curious slab over the grave of the Riddochs. The following description of it, extracted from the proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, has been kindly sent by the Secretary, Dr. Anderson:—

"It measures 5 feet 6 inches in length and 18 inches in breadth, tapering slightly towards the lower end. It bears a sword with straight guard in the centre of the stone, and the name James Ridoch on the blade. In the spaces on either side are a number of trade emblems—a square, an axe, an adze, a mallet and chisel, a millrind, an axe-pick of the kind used by millers for dressing the mill-stone, the coulter of a plough, a hammer and anvil (?), and an auger, indicating probably the various mechanical aptitudes of the deceased. The connection of the family of Reidheuchs or Ridochs with Strathearn began in 1502, when King James IV. granted a charter of confirmation of the lands of Tullychedile, Culturagane, &c., to his familiar servitor and steward, James Redeheuche, burgess of Stirling. In 1573, these and other lands acquired by him were erected into the Barony of Tullichiddil. In 1542, James Reidheuch of Tullichiddil is mentioned as dead, and it is not till 1610 that another James appears in the line of the Reidheuchs of Tullichiddil. The probability is that the stone here figured belongs to the seventeenth century, as it was only then that the name Reidheuche began to be spelt Ridoche. Of course, it is impossible to say whether this is the tomb-stone of the James Ridoche of 1610, or of a successor; but there seems to be nothing against the idea of the stone being as old at least as the date thus indicated."

Tullichettle must have been an old parish. Shortly after the Reformation, in the year 1572, it was served by John Edmeston, exhorter, and in 1574 by William Drummond, who had also under his charge Comrie, Monivaird, Monzie, and Crieff. The ruins of the church are still to be seen within the wall of the churchyard, but of the old manse there is no trace left now. We have often been asked the derivation of the word Ruchill, the name of the river, which, rising at the head of Glenartney, passes the graveyard of Tullichettle and falls into the Earn at the village of Comrie. It is compounded of two Gaelic words—ruadh (red), and tuill (flood). Ruadhthuill, therefore, is the red flood, and any one who has seen the red turgid waters of the Ruchill in time of flood will see that the name is significant of the thing itself. The word occurs in a shorter form—Ruel, a river in Argyllshire, which gives its name to the valley through which it flows—viz., Glendaruel. In the good old days when our Highland glens and straths were thickly populated, every hill and dale and crag and knoll had its name, and every strath and valley had its traditions. From many of our Highland glens the people are gone, and their traditions along with them. Sir Walter Scott, however, has rendered famous at least one of the glens at the head of Strathearn and preserved a few of its traditions. Who ever read that beautiful poem, "The Lady of the Lake," but knows something of Glenartney, Benvoirlich, and Uam-Var. Here the chase, which he sings in the first canto, begins:—

"The stag at eve had drank his fill,
When danced the moon on Monan's rill,
And deep his midnight lair had made
In lone Glenartney's hazel shade.
***
Roused from his lair,
The antler'd monarch of the waste
Sprang from his heathery couch in haste.
***
With one brave bound the copse he clear'd,
And, stretching forward free and far,
Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var."