Tour
The Great County Of Perthshire
By
any standards Perthshire is one of the truly great old counties
of Scotland. In size it is the fourth largest of the old
counties in Scotland, comprising 1,595,804 acres. But size
is not everything; and despite having no extremely large
city, it has a much larger population than the other Scots
counties which top it in size, Inverness, Argyll and Ross
and Cromarty. Yet it has no industrial area, apart from
the town of Perth itself. It has its great mountain tracts,
of course, including some of the most famous scenery in
the United Kingdom; but there is an enormous amount of fertile,
populous countryside--far more, probably, than is generally
realised--its great green straits, or wide open valleys,
its especial pride. Contrary, therefore, to frequent pronouncements,
the true glory of Perthshire is not its hills and lochs,
however fine--for in these it can be excelled by Argyll
and Inverness-shire, Ross or Sutherland; it is in its magnificent,
age-old settled lowlands, its characterful small towns and
its unnumbered villages. Especially the latter. Here are,
probably, more ancient and interesting small communities
than anywhere else in Scotland. And these communities are
unfortunately generally bypassed by the typical traveler.
Basically, Perthshire is the basin and catchment area of
the great River Tay; although the south-west section, or
Menteith (more properly Monteith) as its name suggests,
is the mounth of the Teith, principal tributary of the Forth.
But in the main, Perthshire's innumerable and often splendid
rivers reach the sea via the silver Tay. The county has
another basic feature--the great Highland Fault, which runs
across Scotland from the Gareloch to the Tay, most of it
in Perthshire. This, because in general it marks the division
between Highlands and Lowlands, is important. The old county,
therefore, has a split personality.
Owing to its great size and ancient lineage, Perthshire
has always been split up into large sub-provinces, with
very pronounced characteristics and identities of their
own, mainly themselves ancient earldoms--Menteith, Strathearn,
Gowrie, Atholl, Breadalbane, each with its own subdivisions.
These, all themselves mighty areas, are the very stuff of
Scotland's story, an integral and vital part of Scotland's
exciting past. Perthshire is, in fact, a historically exciting
county. Here, indeed, the past can be studied at its earliest,
as far as Scotland is concerned, better than most; for it
so happened that into Perthshire, Strathearn in especial,
came the early Christian missionaries of the Irish Celtic
Church, via Iona, the Brethren of Columba, to set up their
cells and churches in these lovely valleys. The greatest
concentration of early Celtic Church sites are here; also
a large number of those quite extraordinary Pictish sculptured
stones, with their symbols, things of splendid beauty and
workmanship, full of as yet unsolved mystery, which so give
the lie to the folly that the Picts were a race of savages,
painting their bodies and going about half naked. Quite
clearly these Pictish ancestors of ours, whom the Celtic
Church missionaries Christianised, were a highly developed
and artistic people, with unique culture. Perthshire is
where they can best be studied, probably.
Each town, village and parish of the county is dealt with
hereafter in some detail. But perhaps some reference here
to the ancient basic divisions would be appropriate and
revealing. Menteith is the most southerly, a large area
stretching from the Allan Water to Loch Lomond, including
the Doune, Callander and Trossachs districts; and of course
the parish of Port of Menteith itself and the Lake thereof--no
significance about that appellation of lake, despite the
nonsense talked by some about it being the only lake in
Scotland. It was called Loch of Menteith until well into
the last century. The early Celtic Earls of Menteith were
a great force in Scotland, for their territory straddled
the waist of the country, and, moreover, held the line between
Highlands and Lowlands. Their principal castle was on the
island of Inch Talla, in the Loch of Menteith, where they
kept up princely state, with the Priory of Inchmahome on
the next islet; but when Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany,
James I's cousin, married the heiress in the early I5th
century, he found the island-fortress inconvenient, and
built a great new castle at Doune, which thereafter became
the capital of Menteith. On his execution, for treason,
James split up the earldom, as being too powerful for any
one subject, giving Doune and the eastern part to another
branch of the Stewarts--who still hold it--and the rest,
with the earldom itself, to the Grahams. Certain descendants
of the Grahams, also, are still landholders here, though
the earldom itself was eventually suppressed by Charles
I in shameful fashion. Menteith is half Highland, half Lowland,
fertile, scenic, non-industrial, typical indeed of the county
as a whole. Being within easy reach of Edinburgh and Glasgow,
it is very and deservedly popular with the visitor who has
not time to 'do all the Highlands properly'.
Strathearn is the next stratum of Perthshire northwards,
and even larger. As the name implies, it comprises the very
wide and fertile vale of the River Earn, from Lochearnhead
right down to the river s confluence with the Tay estuary
near Bridge of Earn, with all its feeder glens and flanking
territories. Crieff is its largest town, with the more ancient
Auchterarder, however, its capital. The sheer extent and
rich fairness of this magnificent strath has to be seen
to be appreciated--and nowhere is it better observed than
from high on the north-facing Ochil Hills that separate
it from the Forth plain, above Dunning or Forteviot. From
one of the side-road summits up there, on a clear day, Strathearn
is a splendid sight indeed, one of the finest in the land--although
seldom remarked upon. Some two hundred square miles of Scotland's
best is spread out below, great fields, rich pastures, ancient
parkland, rolling woodlands, villages, castles and mansions
innumerable, all flanking the noble, coiling river, and
all contained within the vast bowl of the hills, the green
Ochils to the south, the infinity of the Highland giants
to the north.
All this splendid heritage was the domain of another line
of Celtic earls. The Strathearn earldom, if slightly less
strategically placed, was much richer than that of Menteith;
and for the same reason, was finally incorporated into the
Crown--so that, for instance, one of Queen Victoria's sons
was Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. But the place was
royal even before the earls, for this was Fortrenn, the
Pictish kingdom, with its capital at Forteviot--in the parish
church of which there are still sculptured stones dating
from that early period. The famous Dupplin Cross near by,
too, is one of the finest early Christian monuments in the
country. At Forteviot was the palace of Angus MacFergus
(A.D. 731--61) of St. Andrew's Cross fame, and a long succession
of kings thereafter until Malcolm Canmore. Here died the
great Kenneth MacAlpine who, conquering the Picts, finally
united the Dalriadic Scots kingdom with that of the Picts
to form the Scotland we know today. Perhaps, because of
these royal origins, the Celtic Earls of Strathearn always
styled themselves 'by the Indulgence of God'!
Gowrie is the next great division, and rather less easily
delineated. Indeed, not everyone even in Perthshire could
tell you what was in Gowrie and what was not. Many think
of it merely as the Carse of Gowrie, that level plain between
the Sidlaws and the Tay, between Perth and Dundee. But this
is not to take into account Blairgowrie, many miles to the
north; nor the Gowrie in the Stanley area; nor the fact
that the seat and centre of the Earls of Gowrie was at Ruthven,
north-west of Perth. The name merely means the Plain of
the Wild Goats, which is not much help. In fact, Gowrie
seems really to have been all eastern Perthshire, from the
head of Strathmore and the flanking Grampians down to the
Tay estuary, including the western Sidlaws. The city of
Perth itself, therefore, is in Gowrie. Also the highly important
areas, in previous ages, of Scone, Dunsinane and Inchtuthill--all
of which indicates the enduring status of the area, from
Roman times onwards, The great family of Ruthven dominated
most of it, once, and in 1581 became Earls of Gowrie. The
notorious Gowrie Conspiracy, one of the murkiest incidents
in Scots history, is linked with their name--but they were
the victims of it, not the perpetrators. That shame belongs
to James VI, who, owing the young Earl 80,000 pounds, organised
his murder, and that of his brother, at Perth in 1600; and
six weeks later, to clear his own name, had the two dead
bodies tried for treason in court at Edinburgh, himself
attending. The Murrays of Tullibardine, who had aided the
King in this sorry business, were rewarded with large sections
of Gowrie, especially in the Stormonth or north-western
area. Their representative, the Earl of Mansfield, still
holds sway hereabouts from Scone Palace, his eldest son
Lord Stormont.
The northern parts of Perthskire are divided between Breadalbane
and Atholl, huge tracts both, and largely mountainside.
Breadalbane is the more westerly, stretching from the edge
of Argyll, at Strathfillan, Mamlorn and Moor of Rannoch
right across the country to Glen Almond, Aberfeldy and Strathtay--braid
Alban indeed, the very geographical centre of Scotland.
It measures almost a thousand square miles, 33 by 31 miles,
according to the gazetteer, and is basically the basin of
the upper Tay, including the great Loch of that name and
all the catchment area. Aberfeldy is sometimes claimed as
its capital; certainly it is the largest town and only burgh.
But Kuhn, at the other end of Loch Tay, has the better claim,
as the original centre, where the Campbell lords had their
main seat, at Finlarig Castle. Strangely, although the name
is ancient and the area an entity from early times, there
were no great Celtic earls or mormaers here. It was not
until 1681 that the 11th Campbell of Glenorchy, having by
then got rid of the MacGregors who anciently lorded it hereabouts,
got himself created Earl of Breadalbane, and by peculiar
means. His successors became almost the greatest landowners
in Scotland, being able, at one time, to ride from the Atlantic
shores to the North Sea on their own land--or so it is said.
These territories include some of the most renowned scenery
in the Central Highlands, from Glen Ogle to the Tarmachans,
from Glen Dochart to Glen Lyon.
Finally there is great Atholl, another 500 square miles,
celebrated in song and story--even for a special drink compounded
of whisky, eggs and honey, called Atholl Brose--its duke
the proud possessor of the only private army still left
in these islands, The Atholl Highlanders. Everybody knows
Dunkeld, Pitlochry, Killiecrankie and Blair Atholl, amongst
the most popular tourist areas of the land. Not so well
known, however, are the great stretches of Strathardle,
of Tilt and Tarf and Edendon, of Errochty and Fincastle,
of Craiganour and Talla Bheith, mainly far from roads. Atholl
was always a semi-royal territory. Indeed it is claimed
that there were once Kings of Atholl. But less misty is
the fame of Madadh, grandson of King Duncan, Earl of Atholl,
whose own grandson Henry, dying in 1210, left only a legitimate
daughter--though his illegitimate son, Conon, was the forebear
of the Robertsons of Clan Donnachaidh who, next to the earls,
were the greatest landholders in Atholl. The Crown bestowed
the earldom on one of the sons of Robert III, the second
of the Stewart kings, and for long the Stewarts lorded it
here. Then, in the early 17th century, the 2nd Murray Earl
of Tullibardine married the Stewart heiress, and got Atholl--and
have held it ever since, becoming marquises thereof in 1676
and dukes in 1703. Their castle at Blair is a treasure-house,
one of the most magnificent in Scotland, with no fewer than
32 rooms, filled with objects of value and interest, open
to the public.
The last of Atholl is the lumpish mountain, the Sow thereof,
facing the Boar of Badenoch at the Pass of Drumochter, and
thereafter we are in Inverness-shire. Perthshire therefore
is more like half a dozen counties than one-- and even so,
great semi-subdivisions such as Strathallan, Strathbraan,
Strathardle, Rannoch, Glen Shee, Stormont and Mamlorn, have
scarcely been mentioned, if at all.
Obviously this could not be an industrial county. But Perthshire
contributes much to the national economy. Its farms are
legion, and many of them in the southern half are rich indeed
and highly productive. Fruit-growing, especially in Gowrie,
is widespread and profitable. In the Highland parts hydro-electricity
is developed on a huge scale--indeed it was here that the
first schemes commenced, in the Grampian projects. Forestry
has become an ever more important feature of the scene,
and a very large area is now under commercial timber. And
tourism, of course, flourishes here on a larger and more
organised scale than anywhere else in Scotland.
Sir Walter Scott, that fervent Borderer, yet said: "If an
intelligent stranger were asked to describe the most varied
and most beautiful province in Scotland, it is probable
that he would name the County of Perth." The present day
visitor would find no fault with that statement.
Southern Perthshire, and Kinross, are ideally situated for
base locations from which to tour much of Scotland. If you
would like to visit this area as part of a highly personalized
small group tour of my native Scotland please e-mail me
at;
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