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Showing posts from August, 2019

A Walk Around Old Crieff in the Steps of the Drovers

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A Walk Around Old Crieff in the Steps of the Drovers When the Crieff Tryst ( Cattle Market ) was active , our little town was , for a month in October , a bustling frenetic place . There was an intriguing mixture of hardened  Gaelic speaking Highlanders and quick talking Lowland cattle dealers forever on the look out for a quick deal and profit . Many of the Highlanders came from the West - from Kintyre, Skye and other parts  of Argyll- the Dalriata of Celtic legend . They made their way to Crieff by traversing the south bank of the Earn and crossing into the town by Gallowford ( Ford Road ) , passing the Kind Gallows  and entering the free pasturage that was the Acrelands in what is now the Market Park .  Market Park or the Acrelands was where the good citizens of Crieff could graze their beasts without hindrance or charge  and where the drovers rested their cattle before the start of the Michaelmas Tryst . There were a number of sites about the town where