PerthshireCrieffStrathearn Local History

The language of Crieff and Strathearn in the 1790s and how a concerted   effort was made in the 18 th Century to remove Gaelic as the spoken language of the people       Like   many Scots , I have a thoroughly mixed pedigree .I do believe that this factor , perhaps   more than any   other , allows   one to analyse and appreciate   one’s genetic heritage without the innate prejudice that all too frequently mars true objectivity in Scottish   discussions especially those   concerning politics and religion   ! My maternal great grand parents Archibald and Mary McFarlane   were   born and raised in the   delightful Kintyre village of Clachan some miles south of the fishing port of Tarbert on Loch Fyne in the County of Argyll – the ancient Kingdom of Dalriada   . They were first cousins – their   fathers Duncan and Archibald McFarlane   being brothers. Archibald   was   some eleven years older than   Mary and   was a widower at the time of their marriage in Campbeltown

 I'm not saying what glen it belonged to and its not the Clans I'd be thinking of then When I came at the turn of the evening To the mouth of yon Glen Twas a desolate Glen as I'd known it With never a stick upon stone And a scattering of sheep on a hillside That was bare as a bone ( Robert Bain 1865 - 1955, father of Elizabeth Colvin Bain  )  I recall many moons   ago talking   to three charming elderly sisters   in a pleasant end terrace house in Nellfield Road Crieff . In those   days the houses   overlooked   the green expanse of what were the girls’ hockey pitches of Morrison’s Academy , a well established   seat of learning in our small town . The eldest of the ladies   was Elizabeth Colvin Bain   - a retired   geography teacher   from the Academy and unbeknown to me then a more than competent amateur archaeologist ! Elizabeth Bain died in 1999 aged   94 years but left behind an incredible   legacy of applied logic and analysis in