PerthshireCrieffStrathearn Local History

The Witches Maze At Tullibole Castle Crook of Devon     This week   my   eye   caught the   newspaper article and the BBC News story on the opening of the “ Witches Maze “ at Tullibole Castle in the Crook of Devon . Quite an appropriate “blog “ as Halloween approaches   complete with witches , black cats , turnip lanterns and the inevitable guysers ! Tullibole Castle   Lord Moncrieff and Lesley Riddoch (  who used to live in Fowlis Wester )at the opening     The memorial however is a somewhat sad reflection on the evil and indeed   bizarre behaviour of our ancestors and in particular our   Established   Church . These pillars of society undertook a spate of trials   which on reflection   make the Salem Witch Trials across the “ Pond “ resemble a Sunday school picnic ! The Witches Maze at Tullibole Castle commemorates the victims of the Crook of Devon witch trials in 1662. ...

St Fillans – a look into its past   Much of the input in this   blog   was published in the “Guide to St Fillans “ about 1980 . It is said that Queen Victoria swithered at   one   time   between St Fillans and Balmoral when she   was seeking a Scottish Estate . I   my self   was delighted   to   be invited to appear in the BBC TV   Landward programme in 2010 concerning the village   and its origins .  Some two hundred years ago it was known as   Port of Lochearn and consisted of a few   thatched biggins or cottages   . The largest one was   called Portmore and another was called   Portbeag or Littleport . Above   St Fillans as we know   it   today lies the remains   of an old township called Morell located to the west of Glentarken Wood . It   was eventually abandoned at the beginning of the 19 th Century when the occupants   moved down the hill a...