PerthshireCrieffStrathearn Local History

A Highland Family Saga Introduction I recently published   a blog   about my great grand uncle – Dugald McFarlane   and how   he   was, by necessity,   forced   to   emigrate   to Victoria in Southern Australia on an assisted passage .It is often assumed   that the   terrible   potato famine   which hit Ireland in the late 1840s was a   comparatively localised   happening . Not so – the blight that hit the potato crop extended throughout much of Northern Europe. Scotland – and the Highlands in particular , had   been subject   to a   string of   disasters affecting many of its   inhabitants ever since   the cessation of the Jacobite Uprising   ( or the ’45   as it was generally known ). The virtual genocide instigated   by Cumberland was   both savage , merciless and a vicious   over reaction against a Clan system   which was an integral ...

1900 pic of Muthill Parish Church 1. Culdees in Muthill   I have  a particular interest in the religious  sect  known as the Culdees . I lived for a number of years in an old  stone  house in Muthill called “ Little Culdees ” It had been built circa 1790 using stones from the remnants of Culdees Castle in what is now the farm and estate of the Maitland Gardners . A somewhat be- turreted idiosyncratic dwelling located over a flowing burn and distinctive  but with its  stone slabbed flooring perhaps the coldest house I have  ever lived in ! " Little Culdees " from a painting by my old friend the late Norman Aiton of Muthill Who then were the Culdees ?  Culdees were holy men who loved solitude and lived by the labour of their hands. Gradually they came together in a community, still occupying separate cells, still much alone and in communion w...

NN81NE 4 c. 881 159. A House of Culdees at Muthill. A prior and two brethren are mentioned 1178-95. The latest specific reference seems to be 1236 but a prior of Muthill witnessed a charter probably of 1284-96. D E Easson 1957 Traditionally a church of the Culdees existed on the west end of Culdees estate (NN 8816). S Korner 1858 The traditional site of the church is within the area centred on NN 881 159. An avenue of trees to the SE, known as the Monk's Walk, leads to an old orchard at NN 884 157 called the Monk's Garden (Mrs Maitland Gardner, Culdees, Muthill). Visited by OS (RD) 19 May 1967.