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...

  Fowlis Wester Kirk       Once I am sure there's nothing going on I step inside, letting the door thud shut. Another church: matting, seats, and stone, And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff Up at the holy end; the small neat organ; And a tense, musty, unignorable silence, Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off My cycle-clips in awkward reverence, Move forward, run my hand around the font. From where I stand, the roof looks almost new- Cleaned or restored? Someone would know: I don't. Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce 'Here endeth' much more loudly than I'd meant. The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence . . Religion is an intensely personal thing and indeed   traditionally it is passed   down   through the generations . I come   from a long line of non conformist Presbyterians...

Religion is an intensely personal thing and indeed   traditionally it is passed   down   through the generations . I come   from a long line of non conformist Presbyterians . My four times great grandfather John McPhorich Lamont was born about the time of the Jacobite   Rising that was to end so tragically at Culloden . John was a Seceder - followers of the ministers   who broke away from the   Established Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1732 . He lived   in that beautiful part of Argyll   called Cowal bounded   by the   waters of the Firth of Clyde   to the   south   and   the rolling hills   and mountains of Argyll to the north . He and his brother Neil   were herring curers and lived a nd worked   on the shores of the aptly named Holy Loch to the east of Dunoon . The   brothers and   their   families   travelled on foot   each Sunday to Toward Nuilt a round trip o...

Balloch Loch     Lewis Miller was a local lad who of all the outstanding people   from the Strath in the 19 th century most stand out clearly from the crowd . Farm worker, forester, entrepreneur, philanthropist are but a few words to describe a man who in a comparatively short life achieved so much. The Parish of Muthill lies immediately to the south of Crieff and is extensive – extending to Braco and Greenloaning in the south, Blackford in the east and Comrie in the west. Registration of births, marriages and deaths was brought into force in Scotland on the 1 st of January 1855. Prior to that we had to rely on the parish registers which were not compulsory and covered baptisms (christenings), births and marriage but seldom deaths. The records of Muthill commenced in 1676 but were lost and recommenced in 1704. These records were destroyed in an accident when there was a fire in the Parish Clerk’s house. They were partially re written but sadly are seriously...