PerthshireCrieffStrathearn Local History

THE QUEEN’S VISIT Introduction My last two Blogs have looked at the 1745 Jacobite Rising with a particular relevance to Crieff and Strathearn. The aftermath saw a vicious retribution against the Gàidhealtachd- the Gaelic speaking areas of Scotland and those lands on the periphery. Apart from the mass killing of prisoners – many of the Jacobite persuasion were transported to the “colonies “and their homes were burned to the ground. Contrary   to what   has   been   written about Strathearn and   the general attitude   towards the “ rebels “ by , in most   cases, Presbyterian clerics , it is   clear that there   was   considerable support in this area   for the Rising . The list of Jacobite prisoners has been published and part was included in my previous Blog . Crieff and Strathearn worthies like the local doctor and the post   master were some of the   ones   who took up arms as well as a host of weavers , farmers and farm workers . Most of the local lairds   were Jaco

     The Aftermath of Culloden, April 1746             Written by  Robert Forbes who witnessed the Battle " But the most shocking part of the story is yet to come, - I mean the horrid barbarities committed in cold blood, after the battle was over. I do not know precisely how many days   the dead bodies lay upon the field to glut the eyes of the merciless conqueror ; but certain it is , that there they lay, till the stench obliged him to cause to bury them. In the meantime the soldiers , like so many savages , went up and down, knocking such on the head as had   any remains of life   in them , and ,except in a few instances , refusing all manner of relief to the wounded , many of whom, had they been properly taken care of , would have undoubtedly recovered .A little house into which a   good many of the wounded had   been carried , was set on fire about their ears ,and every soul in it burnt alive , of which number   was Colonel Orelli, a brave old gentleman, who was

Culloden Crieff figures in the Uprising of 1745 .On the 18 th August that year, Prince Charlie raised the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan. That very day, Sir John Cope, Commander – in – Chief of the Hanoverian army in Scotland, left Edinburgh to attack the so called rebels in the Highlands, and to dispatch Charlie back to France from whence he came. Cope’s army consisted of about fourteen hundred men, with two Regiments of Dragoons.. The latter, however, he left behind as unserviceable in the mountainous regions in what we Scots call the Highlands. He carried   with him a large quantity of baggage , a drove of black cattle for food , and about a thousand stands of arms for the “ volunteers “ whom   he expected   to join   him on the way . He marched by Stirling and Dunblane to Crieff and in Crieff remained for several days .He pitched his camp to the east of the town on what is now Crieff Golf Course           or  the  grounds of Ferntower. Here there was a very fine wel