Lairds and Lands of Loch Tayside John Christie (1892)

BALLOCH

IT is said that when Sir Colin Campbell, the sixth laird of Glenorchy, built the Castle of Balloch at the extreme east end of his property, he intended that it should ultimately be the centre of his domain—that his lands should extend as fai to the east as they did to the west. His territory, however, did not stretch in one unbroken line to the west, as is the case with his descendant at the present day, for the lairds of Weem and Strowan owned lands on Loch Tayside, and the chiefs of Macnab held a considerable portion of Glendochart.

The Castle of Balloch is supposed to have been founded in 1570, [A stone bearing that date, which formed a pediment to a dormer window in the old castle, is to be seen above the archway of the principal entrance to Taymouth Grounds.] but fully a century prior to that the Glenorchy Campbells had established a firm footing in Perthshire. Sir Colin Campbell, the first laird, and founder of the family, was possessed of the ruling principle which became a characteristic with his descendants. His patrimony lay on Lochaweside and in Glenorchy, but it was not long before he was in a position to exclaim : “It’s a far cry to Lochawe.” He was four times married, and by two of his wives he came into substantial “tochers” in the shape of land in different parts of the country. About 1440 he married Mariott Stewart, grand-daughter of Isabella, Duchess of Albany, the latter of whom granted him certain lands in Lennox under the grim stipulation that thieves convicted there should be hung on her gallows at Faslane. His first wife died without issue. Sir Colin married secondly Janet Stewart, the second of the three daughters and heiresses of William, Lord of Lorn, by whom he got the eighteen-merk land of the Brae of Lorn. By her he had a son, Duncan, who succeeded him, and one daughter. On the death of his father-in-law without male issue, Sir Colin succeeded to the whole superiority of the Lordship of Lorn, which he held for a time. Thus by his two first wives Sir Colin added considerably to his lands, and he displayed his achievements on the arms of his house. His third wife was a daughter of Robertson of Strowan, and his fourth was Margaret Stirling, daughter of the laird of Keir. Of the lands on Loch Tayside, Sir Colin acquired Auchmore in tack from Menzies of Weem. For the assistance he rendered in the capture of the murderers of James I., he was granted by James III. the barony of Lawers, on the north side of Loch Tay, formerly held by Chalmers, who was accessory to the assassination of the unfortunate king. He built Inveraray Castle for his nephew, the Earl of Argyll, whose guardian he was; but regarding Kilchurn Castle, on Loch Awe, there is doubt as to whether he was the actual founder of it, as there is a story that it was the work of one of his wives, who built it out of the accumulated rents of the estate during seven years’ absence of her lord and master, when he was fighting against the Turks in the Isle of Rhodes. He died in 1475, and was buried at Kilmartin.

Sir Duncan, the second laird, extended the family possessions on Loch Tayside by acquiring the barony of Finlarig, which had been long in the hands of the Drummonds of Stobhall, and also the tack of the twelve-merk land of Crannich from the Laird of Weem. About 1492 he came into possession of the lands of Balloch. Glenlyon likewise fell into his hands, and he received a charter from James IV., appointing him Bailie of Discher and Toyer, and Glenlyon, when he took in tack the King’s lands in Breadalbane. He was twice married, and had four sons and three daughters. To Archibald, his second son, he gave Glenlyon, and to his brother John, who had in his father’s lifetime received the barony of Lawers, he gave the eight-merk land of Shian, in Glenquaich, which he had also acquired.

Until the purchase of Finlarig, with its old castle, which had been built by the Drummonds, the Augustinian Priory, in the Isle of Loch Tay, seems to have been the residence of the Glenorchy Campbells in this quarter. There was certainly, in those days, a degree of security both from man and beast in living on an island. Kilchurn Castle, however, continued to be the chief seat for some time, and it was there that the third and fourth lairds breathed their last. They were both buried in the chapel of Finlarig, which had been erected by the third laird to be “ ane Buriall for himself and his Posteritie.” Sir John, the fifth laird, died on the Isle of Loch Tay, on the 5th of July, 1550, and Sir Colin succeeded as sixth laird.

From the time of the second laird to the date of the building of Balloch, the feus of the King’s lands in Breadalbane had been purchased, and several properties, including Ardbeich, Edinample and Edinchip, in Perthshire, besides others in Argyllshire, had been added to the patrimony or given to younger sons.

It would seem that Sir Colin, the sixth laird, did not at first intend to build his castle at Balloch, for it is said he commenced to rear a structure overlooking Loch Tay, on the farm of Easter Acharn, about two miles from Kenmore; but in this his plans were frustrated by the interposition of his clan, or, as another story has it by a witch, who prevailed upon him to hold eastward, and stop where he heard the first mavis sing, which was in the hedges at Balloch, and there to establish his castle. (The site of the former is yet pointed out at Tomvoulin, about 300 yards from the bridge which crosses the Acharn burn above the falls). He could not have gone much further to the east for a site, as his territory was bounded in that direction by Cromauldan, a small burn which runs into the Tay opposite Inchadney. He had as his immediate neighbours a cadet of the house of Weem, who held the barony of Comrie on the eastern shoulder of Drummond Hill, the Earl of Athole, who had Wester Stix, and the Stewarts, afterwards of Ballechin, who had Middle Stix. Within a stone-throw of the castle, on the opposite bank of the Tay, was the glebe of the parish minister, and there also stood the manse, church, and churchyard of Inchadney, as the parish of Kenmore was then designated.

We have no idea as to the style of structure of the Castle of Balloch in those days, for although we have prints showing what it was like in the last century, we cannot accept these as representations of the old building, as doubtless it had been altered to suit the taste and requirements of the intervening generations. Sir Colin died within its walls on the eleventh of April, 1583. He was succeeded by his son, Duncan - "the Black Duncan", as he came to be called in after days, more it is said, from his black deeds than from his dark visage. His mother was Catherine, second daughter of Lord Ruthven.

About sixteen years after he succeeded, Sir Duncan purchased from the Earl of Athole, the forty-shilling land of Wester Stix, for which he gave five thousand merks, and for a like sum he acquired the eight-and-a-half-merk land of Middle Stix and the superiority of Garrows, in Glenquaich, from the Laird of Ballechin. He apparently had in view his father’s ambitious intention of holding his face to the rising sun. In Athole he purchased the five-pound land of Dumfallandies, the thirteen-merk land of Drumquhassil, the four-merk land of Pitnacree, and the barony of Lude also fell into his hands; these, in addition to numerous other properties, both in Perthshire and Argyll. He had to disburse to King James VI. the sum of two thousand merks to renew the feu of the Lordship of Discher and Toyer, it having been again annexed to the Crown, owing to the low ebb to which the Royal Exchequer had fallen. He gave to Menzies of Weem twenty-eight thousand merks for the lands of Crannich, Morenish, Auchmore, and Kenknock, lying on Loch Tayside. All these possessions, with the exception of Morenish, formed parts of the Parish of Weem, recently transferred to Kenmore.

Sir Duncan is erroneously looked upon in Breadalbane as the founder of the family, but well might he have been, were it only for the acquisitions he made in land. He was also a great castle-builder. He built Finlarig Castle on the site of the old one ; the tower of Achallader, wherein the first Earl of Breadalbane afterwards held his meeting with the chiefs of the insurgent clans in July, 1691 : the House of Lochdochart: “ane great howse” in Benderaloch; and the House of Barcaldine. He made improvements on Kilchurn Castle, and also threw up an embankment along the Tay at an enormous cost, to keep back the waters from flooding Balloch. He took a fatherly interest in his sisters, saw the surviving ones all married to powerful chiefs, and provided them with handsome tochers.

The Tom-na-croiche in Kenmore Park, and the pit and gallows tree at Finlarig, are looked upon as memorials of Black Duncan’s sway, and those who have but a hazy knowledge of the family history, would ascribe to him all the iniquities of the times. One local tradition credits him with the execution of the chief of the Macgregors, called by some Macgregor of Coul, on Kenmore Green, while in reality it was his illustrious father who performed that grim ceremony. The seat of this Macgregor has erroneously come to be located at a spot called Coul, some hundred yards to the west of the principal entrance to Taymouth Grounds, and some time ago there were pointed out to us, in all seriousness, the foundations of his castle. The configuration of the ground would certainly give one the idea that a building of considerable size had stood there, as a building actually did, but the foundations shewn us were merely the remains of a summer-house, called the Temple of Eolus, erected by one of the Earls of Breadalbane in the last century, and long since demolished — so long as to be entirely beyond the ken of our informant. The temple was circular in form, and what is left of it could without a great stretch of imagination be transformed into the round tower of an ancient fortalice. This Coul is situated in Wester Stix, which, as already mentioned belonged to the Earls of Athole. Close to the principal lodge, on the east side of the gateway, are three stones, placed slightly apart, also erroneously connected with the Macgregors as boundary marks of their property. They are stones which were used in connection with an old gateway, or rather two gateways, which formerly stood there, and gave admittance to Muttonhole and Inchadney Ferry the one way, and to Kenmore the other. This was before the present road by way of the Fort was constructed.

We are indebted to Sir Duncan Campbell’s taste and wise judgment for many of the fine trees which adorn the parks and country about Taymouth, for we are told he “causit saw ackornis and seid of fir therein, and plantit in the samen young fir and birk, Anno 1613 and 1614.” The avenue called the Dark Walk, behind the castle, was planted by him, as well as the terraces on each side of the river. The grounds of Balloch, confined within small limits at the time, were laid out by him; and he instituted regulations and laws for his tenantry in the management of their holdings and morality of their homes.

In 1617, Sir Duncan was appointed to the office of Heritable Keeper of the Forests of Mamlorn, Bendaskerly, and Finglen. In 1625, he was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia. He was twice married—first to a daughter of John, Earl of Athole; and, secondly, to the only daughter of Patrick, fifth Lord Sinclair. He had a family of eight sons and three daughters. He died at Balloch, 3rd June, 1631, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Colin, who is best known as the patron of George Jamesone, many of whose paintings still hang on the walls of Taymouth Castle. Sir Colin married Julian, daughter of Hugh, first Lord Loudon, and died without issue in 1640.

Sir Robert, his brother, succeeded as ninth laird and third baronet, and it was during his time that Montrose laid waste his lands “betwixt the ford of Lyon and point of Lismore,” causing damage to the amount of 1,200,000 merks. The Castle on the Isle of Loch Tay was besieged by the Royalists, whose guns— planted where Taymouth Gardens now are, and within easy range— did much damage to the structure. From Sir Robert descended the Campbells of Carwhin, of Glenfalloch, of Lochdochart, and of Auchlyne.

John, his eldest son, succeeded as fourth baronet. He was twice married, and by his first wife, Lady Mary Graham, daughter of William, Earl of Strathern, he had several children, amongst them a daughter, Agnes, who became the wife of Sir Alexander Menzies of Weem, and an only surviving son, also named John, who was destined to figure conspiciously in the history of the country.

The latter was born about 1635. In 1657, he married Lady Mary Rich, daughter of Henry, Earl of Holland, who was beheaded for his attachment to the cause of Charles the Martyr. By her he had two sons, Duncan and John. In 1672, for pecuniary assistance rendered, he received a disposition of the lands held by George, sixth Earl of Caithness, who at the same time nominated him as his successor to the titles on his demise, which took place in 1676. This disposition was at first acknowledged by Parliament, and accordingly Sir John Campbell was in the following year created Earl of Caithness, by patent dated at Whitehall. His first wife having been dead by this time, he, in April, 1678, married the deceased Earl’s widow, who was a daughter of Archibald, Marquis of Argyll, by whom he had one son Colin, who was afterwards styled of Ardmaddy, and who died at London on the 31st March, 1708, at the age of twenty-nine. It was this Colin who left what was known as the Ardmaddy Mortification, secured over his estate in Nether Lorn, for the relief of the poor of the parish of Kenmore. It amounted to one hundred pounds, the interest of which the minister and kirk session had the distribution of.

George Sinclair of Keiss, the heir male of the Caithness family—the sixth Earl having had no issue—at once set about to dispute the new Earl’s right to the titles and estates, and seized the lands by force, upon which Earl John gathered together his clansmen and followers in Breadalbane, and marched thence into Caithness and engaged in a conflict near Altimarlach, which ended in the utter route of the Sinclairs. Keiss, however, did not rest there, and by dint of perseverance he got Parliament to listen to his claim, and it was eventually found that he was the rightful heir to the title, which was accordingly conveyed to him in 1681. To compensate Sir John Campbell for the loss he thus sustained, he was, the same year, created Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Viscount of Tay and Paintland, Lord Glenorchy, Benderaloch, Ormelie, and Weik, with the precedency of his former title. He had for a time to relinquish the Caithness estates also, but on the death of his old opponent, in 1698, he again succeeded to them, and held them up till his death in 1717, when they were sold. The connection of the Campbells with Caithness is commemorated in a saying still current in Breadalbane, Or Ghalhi air bord Bhealaich — the Caithness gold on the Balloch table — and the march called the Breadalbane Salute, or Bhodach nan Brigeis, is said to have been composed by Glenorchy’s piper before the battle of Altimarlach.

The action which the first Earl of Breadalbane took in connection with what led to the Massacre of Glencoe is well known, and will ever cause his name to be mentioned with ignominy and opprobrium. Although unable to take an active part in the Rebellion of ’15 through the infirmities of old age, he sent his clan out in favour of King James. General Wade estimates the number of the Breadalbane men who took the field at one thousand. They were placed under the leadership of Campbell of Glendaruel, a cadet of the house, who joined the main force of the Jacobite army under General Gordon. In the attempt to take the Duke of Argyll’s Castle of Inveraray, a body of the Glenorchy Campbells took part, although somewhat unwillingly be it said, owing to the power that nobleman exercised in the west; but on the withdrawal of the insurgent clans from the county of Argyll, they returned to their homes, and do not appear to have again taken up arms. The remainder followed the fortunes of the Rebellion, and at Sheriffmuir on the 13th -of November, 1715, fought in Mar’s victorious right wing, against the Duke of Argyll, who was at the head of the Royalist troops. There is a tradition in Breadalbane that Duncan, Lord Ormelie, the Earl’s eldest son, was present and fought at Sheriffmuir along with his clan, but for this we believe there is no foundation. He appears to have been rather weak minded, and was under control. We cannot, therefore, be surprised that his father should have passed him over and nominated John, Lord Glenorchy, his second son, to succeed him both in the titles and estates. This procedure on the part of the Earl has been much commented on, and various reasons assigned without arriving at the true one. Lord Ormelie was born in 1660, and died in 1727, ten years after his father. He lived at Achmore when his brother succeeded to the Earldom. The first Earl married a third time, and had a daughter, Mary, who became the wife of Sir Archibald Cockburn of Langton. This estate passed by purchase in 1758 from the Cockburns, who had held it since the fourteenth century, to David Gavin, whose daughter was married in 1793 to John, fourth Earl and afterwards first Marquis of Breadalbane.

By disposition dated 1685, John, Lord Glenorchy, second son of the first Earl of Breadalbane, succeeded to the honours and estates on the death of his father in 1717. He was born on 19th November, 1662. He was twice married—first, in 1685, to Lady Frances Cavendish, eldest daughter of Henry, Duke of Newcastle. She died without issue in 1690. He married secondly, in 1695, Lady Henrietta, sister of the Earl of Jersey and daughter of Sir Edward Villiers. He died on 23rd Feb., 1752, at Holyrood House, leaving a son, John, and a daughter, Lady Henrietta, who died unmarried. Another daughter, Lady Charlotte, predeceased him.

During the Rebellion of ’45, the Earl of Breadalbane espoused the Hanoverian cause, and was the means of preventing the most of his clan from taking up arms for Prince Charlie, as their inclination would have led them to do. Kilchurn and Finlarig Castles, both occupied for the last time, were garrisoned by the Royalists, as well as Kingshouse, which had purposely been built as a barracks after the ’15, when General Wade constructed the military road through the Blackmount. It may be interesting to state here that the lead mines at Tyndrum, the property of the Earl of Breadalbane, were in full operation at this time. They were wrought by Sir Robert Clifton, of Clifton, apparently a keen Jacobite, as we find considerable destruction was done to his mining apparatus and other furnishings by the Argyllshire Militia when passing that way. There is no doubt that the little village of Clifton, near Tyndrum, the origin of which name has latterly puzzled many, was called after Sir Robert, in whose time we may assume the lead was first worked, and the village built for the accommodation of the miners.

John, the third Earl, was born in 1696. In 1721 he married Jemima, eldest daughter of Henry, Duke of Kent, and by her had a son, Henry, who died in 1727, and a daughter, who succeeded her maternal grandfather, and became Marchioness of Grey, and married Viscount Royston, afterwards Earl of Hardwicke. His first wife dying in 1727, Lord Breadalbane married in 1730, Arabella, grand-daughter of Sir Thomas Pershall, Baronet, of Great Sugnall, Staffordshire, by whom he had two sons, the eldest of whom, George, died at Moffatt, on the 24th March, 1744. The second son, John, Lord Glenorchy, was born in London in 1738. He married in 1761, Willielma, the youngest daughter of Dr. William Maxwell, of Preston. This was the good Lady Glenorchy, whose memory will ever be cherished for her pious actions and useful life. Of this marriage one son was born, who died in infancy. Lord Glenorchy, through his mother, succeeded to the estate of Sugnall, which he afterwards sold, and he purchased the property of Barnton, in Midlothian, where he died on the 14th November, 1771. His widow survived till 1786.

The third Earl was educated at Oxford, and at the early age of twenty-two became Minister Plenipotentiary at the court of Denmark. He sat in Parliament for Saltash for a time, and afterwards represented Oxford. In 1731 he was appointed British Minister in Russia. When spoken of in Breadalbane to the present day, he is referred to as the Ambassador. He was Senior Knight of the Bath, and Lord High Admiral of Scotland. He made a great many improvements on his vast estates. He can never be excused however, for the obliteration of the Parish Churchyard at Inchadney, an act carried out purely on selfish grounds. At his death, which took place at Holyrood House, on 26th January, 1782, the male line, as descended from the first Peer, became extinct.

The succession then devolved, by virtue of a clause in the patent in favour of heirs male general, on John Campbell, born in 1762, the elder son of Colin Campbell, of Carwhin, descended from the second surviving son of the third Baronet. His mother was a daughter of Archibald Campbell, of Stonefield, and sister of Lord Stonefield. She died 16th April, 1813. His only brother, Colin, a captain in the 99th Regiment of Foot, was granted the lands of Edinample, Glenogle, and Glenbeich, the last named being designated Carwhin, in Balquhidder. Colin also possessed Balnaguard, a property in Strathtay. He superintended many improvements which were carried out in Breadalbane, principally fencing, planting, and road-making. He died, unmarried, at Edinample Castle, in 1792.

In 1793 two fencible regiments were raised by the fourth Earl of Breadalbane, and in the following year a third battalion was embodied, bringing up the total strength to 2,300 men, of whom some 1,600 were drawn from the Breadalbane estates. The first and second battalions were disbanded in 1799, and it was not till 1802 that the third battalion was reduced, on its return from Ireland, whither it had been sent in 1795, it having been raised for service in that country if necessary. A great number of the men were granted holdings in Breadalbane, many free of rent, during the remainder of their lives. Employment was found for others about Taymouth and elsewhere.

Lord Breadalbane sat as a Scotch representative peer, from 1784 to 1806. when he was created Baron Breadalbane of Taymouth, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In 1831, at the coronation of William IV., he was made Earl of Ormelie and Marquis of Breadalbane. He married in 1793 Mary Turner, eldest daughter and co-heiress of David Gavin, of Langton, who in 1770 had married Lady Elizabeth Maitland, daughter of the seventh Earl of Lauderdale. David Gavin’s father and grandfather successively held the office of beadle at Lunan Parish Church, in Forfarshire. He went to Holland, where he amassed considerable wealth, and, returning to Scotland, purchased in 1758 the estate of Langton from the Cockburns. He had three daughters, who inherited his large fortune. This family the poor of Kenmore have reason to bless, for the Gavin mortification, which is distributed half-yearly among the most necessitous in the parish, was left by Elizabeth, one of the daughters. The principal, which is secured over a portion of the Breadalbane estate, yields a sum of fifty pounds per annum. Lord Breadalbane erected a monument to his wife during her lifetime, within the policies of Taymouth. It occupies the site of an old summerhouse, called Maxwell’s Buildings, on the north bank of the Tay. Surmounted by a stone cross, it stands about 30 feet high, and is of shapely proportions. It is approached by a flight of steps, which encircles the building. A heavy door of chlonte-slate—of which stone the monument is built—gives admission to a spiral stair, which leads to a small arched gallery running round the structure, open to the exterior. On a brass mural tablet there is the following inscription:—

This Building is Dedicated to my Faithful Friend and Fellow-Labourer,
MARY, COUNTESS OF BREADALBANE,
Whose maternal care has been long extended to all around this place.—Anno Domini, 1831.

She died on the 25th September, 1845, leaving two daughters and one son. Lady Elizabeth Maitland, the elder daughter, became, in 1831, the wife of Sir John Pringle, of Stitchell. Lady Mary, the younger daughter, was married in 1819 to the Marquis of Chandos, afterwards Duke of Buckingham, and died 28th June, 1862. Taymouth Castle was built by the Marquis, and there he died, on the 29th of March, 1834. His only son, John, Earl of Ormelie, succeeded as second Marquis. He was born at Dundee on the 26th of October, 1796, and married in 1821, Eliza, daughter of George Baillie, of Jerviswood. He successfully contested Perthshire in 1832, with Sir George Murray, and sat in Parliament for that county till his father’s death. In 1862 he died, without leaving issue, at Lausanne, in Switzerland, where his father had spent a good many of his young days. At his death the Marquisate of Breadalbane became extinct, but the Earldom being a Scottish honour, passed to John Alexander Gavin Campbell, of Glenfalloch, descended from the third surviving son of Sir Robert Campbell, third Baronet.

The sixth Earl, who was born in 1824, was a captain in the 1st Royals. He married Mary Theresa, daughter of Mr. J. Edwards, of Dublin, by whom he had three sons (one of whom, Norman, born in 1866, died the same year) and one daughter. The Countess of Breadalbane died at Nice, on the 27th of February, 1870, at the early age of 38. The sixth Earl died at his residence in London, on the 20th of March, 1871. His eldest son, Gavin, born at Fermoy, 9th April, 1851, succeeded to the titles and estates, and in 1872, married Lady Alma, youngest daughter of James, fourth Duke of Montrose. The following year he was created Baron Breadalbane of Kenmore in the peerage of the United Kingdom, and in 1885 he was raised to the dignity of Earl of Ormelie, and Marquis of Breadalbane in the same peerage. He is seventeenth laird of Glenorchy, counting from his ancestor, Black Colin of Rhodes.

Since the time of Sir Duncan Campbell, the seventh laird, over a century elapsed before any addition was made to the lands about Balloch. The office of Bailie of the King’s lands in Breadalbane, including the Lordship of Discher and Toyer, had been bestowed on the second laird by James IV. during his minority, and afterwards confirmed by him by charter dated at Perth, 3rd September, 1498. This office was a hereditary one, and in 1748, when the Act for the Abolition of Heritable Jurisdiction in Scotland came into force, the second Earl of Breadalbane was deprived of the Bailliary, and having, in terms of the Act, to expend the solatium made him for the loss of the office in the purchase of land, he acquired the Barony of Comrie, a seventeen-merk land, after that date. The lands comprehending this barony, lie in the parishes of Kenmore, Dull and Fortingall, the portion now in Dull being formerly in Weem; and were then divided into the following possessions:—Strone Comrie and Point of Lyon, Little Comrie, Mains of Comrie, Auchinleys, and 'Comrie Castle, on the banks of the river Lyon, now an ivy clad ruin, is said to have been the first residence of the Menzieses of Weem in this quarter. It was destroyed by fire in 1487, and afterwards repaired and given to a second son when the old castle of Weem was built.

At the east end of Drummond Hill, situated on a huge mass of rock jutting out from the hillside, are the remains of an ancient castramentation locally known as “the Roman fort” and also called Dune-mackh-Tual. It is a hill fort of the rudest character. A precipice of considerable height rendered it impregnable from the east, and on the west, where, from the nature of the ground it would have been otherwise defenceless, it appears to have been protected by a double line of wall of undressed stone, void of mortar, outside of which was an entrenchment. The walls had been continued on the north and south where necessary. Probably of Pictish origin, it had been the standpoint to which the natives were driven when the valley beneath was being overrun by invaders. That its chief object was a place of defence is apparent, but it may also have been used as a beacon station, for which, from its command of a vast stretch of couutry, especially towards the east, it would have been most suitable. Indeed, this would seem obvious, if we attach signification to the name of a possession close by. Almost immediately below the fort, on the north side, and sloping to the river Lyon, are the lands of Auchinleys. This name, now corrupted into Achloa, signifies the field of the beacon.

Laggan. These, with the exception of the field at Lyon Point, are now in one farm. The Shealings of Comrie lay near Schiehallion. The Mains of Comrie was, for a number of years, the home-farm to Taymouth Castle.

The whole of the lands on the north side of the River Tay, from the Point of Lyon westward, were now in the Earl’s possession with the exception of a portion of Inchadney. There the minister of the parish had his glebe. His manse stood at the angle formed by the bend of the river, while a little to the east of it were the church and churchyard of the parish. There is doubt as to the derivation of the word Inchadney, but in all probability the place takes its name from Aidan, the titular saint of Kenmore. We give most of the ways in which we have seen the name spelt: —1491, Inchaden; 15n, Inchadin; 1522, Inchaidin; 1523-97, Inchadden and Inchaddin; circa, 1619, Inschschaddin; 1629, Inshyddin; 1643, Inchadine; 1740, Inschchecharden; 1728, Inchaldne ; 1754, Inchaddon ; 1759, Inchaidne; 1779, Inchadny ; 1781, Insh Hadney; 1785, Inshadney; 1862 (Ordnance Survey), Inchadney. It is a very old ecclesiastical site ; and from the Chronicle of Fothergill we find many interments of local magnates were made within the walls of the church. Some were buried in the choir of the church, and on the north and south sides of the great altar, and others before the steps of the altar and in the nave. Inchadney formed the last resting-place of the Macgregors, the old lairds of Balloch, and of the Robertsons, Barons of Carwhin. An entry in the Chronicle shows that, in 1526, the pedestal of the cross of the church was repaired by Dougall Johnson (McGregor).

Among the pre-Reformation clergy here, we find the following:—1468, Robert Mclnayr; 1510, Sir Maureis McNauchtane; before 1523, Sir Duncan McNachtane, and 1547, Sir Alec McGillespie. Sir Duncan Campbell, seventh laird of Glenorchy, “conquessit the patronage of Inschschaddin,” prior to 1619, for the right of which he gave two thousand merks. Sir Colin, his successor, paid a similar sum for the annuity of the teinds of his lands, which the King had taken possession of, but there being a mistake in the conveyance of those of Inchadney, through the omission of the signatures of the Bishop and Dean of Dunkeld, he obtained a new tack in 1636, from the Rev. William Menzies, then minister, at a cost of one thousand merks. About 1762 an excambion took place between the third Earl and the Rev. James Campbell, minister of the parish, whereby the glebe at Inchadney became the property of the former, and a new one was portioned off at Croftnacaber, near Kenmore, and a manse erected thereon. The parish then appears to have given up its rights to worship at Inchadney, as well as to bury its dead there. The Earl of Breadalbane attained his end—the whole of Inchadney was now his own.

Inchadney was used all along as a general place of burial irrespective of parishes. According to local tradition, the last to be interred there were two persons, one of whom had died at Bolfracks, and the other at Fearnan; and to relieve the spirit of either of the departed from for ever undergoing the doom of the Faire-chlaoidh, the relatives arranged that the two burials should take place on the same day and at the same hour, and this was solemnly carrried out. When Inchadney ceased to be a place of burial, one or two of the tombstones were removed from there to Kenmore Churchyard, where they may be identified by the curious fact of their being placed at the foot of the graves at which they stand. The others were rudely thrown aside, and in the beginning of this century were taken to the front of Taymouth Castle, then in course of erection, and made serviceable in places where the ground was rendered soft by the constant traffic of the builders.

[It was generally believed that the spirit of the last person buried had to keep watch at the entrance to a graveyard until the next burial. The writer was told, by an eye witness, of a funeral at which the mourners ran with the coffin to be in advance of another burial, which was to take place the same day.]

Within six years after the last interments, the graveyard was planted with trees. The old church was converted into a steading or stable, and was latterly used in connection with Comrie, when it formed the home-farm. It was pulled down in 1828, and one alive until recently, who assisted in the demolition, told us of the great strength of the structure. The woodwork of the roof was of natural fir, axe dressed, and as hard as bone, and the rafters were nailed through the wall-plates into the walls with iron nails, a foot in length. The greatest difficulty was experienced in unroofing the building. The graveyard was replanted some years ago with spruce fir. A clump of similar trees marks the spot where the manse stood.

Markets were held at Inchadney up to 1575, when they were removed to Kenmore. Until 1469 markets in Scotland were held on Sundays and other holy days, and often took place within the kirkyards and even within the kirks. In that year an act was passed forbidding them to be held on holy days, but it was not till 1503, that it was made illegal to hold them within the kirkyards. Little attention was paid to the enactments, and the disregard for the religious observation of Sunday continued. In 1579, James VI., in ratifying the acts already passed, added a fine of ten shillings Scots, and also a fine of twenty shillings for anyone “gaming, playing, passing to taverns or ale-houses, selling of meat and drink and wilful remaining from the kirk in time of sermon or prayers,” and if the offenders were unwilling or unable to pay they were put in the stocks or jougs.

After the acquisition of Wester and Middle Stix, the Breadalbane property, on the south side of the Tay, extended to Croftmoraig burn, which formed the boundary between Middle and Easter Stix. It would be a difficult matter at the present day to trace the original marches of the lands of Balloch, Wester and Middle Stix, but roughly speaking the parish boundaries, as they stood before the recent alterations, may be taken as the divisions of these properties. Balloch lies wholly in Kenmore parish, and was divided into two portions, Wester and Easter. Cromauldan, already referred to, is, for the greater part of the way, the boundary between Kenmore and what was formerly a detached part of the old parish of Weem, which latter may be recognised as embracing solely the forty-shilling land of Wester Stix. Included in Wester Stix were the inn and braes of Muttonhole and island of the same name opposite Inchadney. Not a vestige of the inn remains, but the road leading to it is still discernible. An apple tree, the last remnant of the garden, was cut down some years ago. To the east of Wester Stix are the lands of Middle Stix, extending from the river Tay to Easter Ledchrosk. These lands belonged to the Cardneys of that ilk, and were, about i486, sold by Patrick Cardney to Sir John Stewart, a natural son of James II., and progenitor of the Stewarts who afterwards acquired Ballechin, in Strathtay. Middle Stix, therefore, may be called the cradle of that family. Croftmoraig or Croftmorry (Mary’s Croft), also formerly called Marchfield, forms part of these lands. Two possessions there were called Drumcroy and Drumnamuick, names long obsolete. The tenants of Dull village in olden times had their shealings on Croftmoraig hill. Easter Stix—which lies between the burn of Croftmoraig and the Tullichuil burn—is the only portion of these lands which has retained the old name to the present day. This property latterly belonged to James Menzies of Culdares, who, in 1775, excambed it for Kenknock and Eastermore in Glenlyon, which then belonged to Breadalbane.
It was divided into Lower, Middle, and Braes of Stix. The buildings on these different possessions have long since been razed to the ground, with the exception of Stix House, on the banks of the Tay. Culdares’ sister lived there for many years when he was in the army. It was afterwards occupied by Dr. McLagan, who left it when he purchased the estate of Glenquaich, in Strathmore. The neighbouring field, known as the Doctor’s Park, was called after him. The houses of Middle Stix lay between the public road and the present village, which was erected about 1816. There was a meal mill on Croftmoraig burn, near to Lower Stix.

Four years previous to the excambion of Easter Stix, the adjoining property of Tullichuil was purchased by the third Earl from Sir Robert Menzies, Baronet, of Weem, who at the same time sold the lands of Borlick, Aberfeldybeg, Aberfeldy, Dun-taylor, and Duntuim. Bolfracks was then in the possession of a cadet of the house of Weem; so that, prior to 1771, the whole stretch of country, from the Grandtully march to Croftmoraig burn, was, with the exception of the estate of Moness, in the hands of the Menzieses. Moness was for long owned by the Flemyngs, and in 1787 was sold by James Stewart Flemyng, W.S., who also then possessed the estate of Killiechassie, to the fourth Earl of Breadalbane. The barony of Bolfracks was anciently part of Garth, which would seem to account for its being formerly in the parish of Fortingall. In 1635, the Earl of Athole had Bolfracks. In 1707 it was feued to Alexander Menzies, whose descendants held it till 1808, when it was sold to Lord Breadalbane. It is held under the crown.

[The one-merk land of Kenknock, and the ten-shilling land of Eastermore, with the shealings of Innervarrane, Garvletter, and Ariphoula, all in Glenlyon, formed part of the Barony of Glenlyon, which was held from 1502 to 1685 by a branch of the Glenorchy Campbells. In the latter year the then laird conveyed Glenlyon to the Marquis of Athole, whose son the Earl of Tullibardine sold Kenknock and Eastermore to Angus Macdonald in 1699. Angus Macdonald, who died in 1731, was succeeded by his son Angus, who with the consent of his son, Angus, sold the lands to Breadalbane.]
The old roadway from Kenmore ferry to Aberfeldy passed behind the inn at Kenmore. At the foot of the brae, where the estate office stable is, it turned to the left at a right angle, and proceeded through the Taymouth parks in a straight line till in front of the castle, whence it crossed the Balloch burn and ran along the slope of the hill to where the principal lodge now is. Here and there it can be distinctly traced, but of the trees which lined it on both sides to within sight of the castle only two or three are now standing. A road branched off near Tom-na-croich to the braes of Balloch, and thence to Glenquaich. Tom-na-croich —the hanging hill, as its name implies—was where the knights of Glenorchy, great justiciaries in their time, carried out the last penalty of the law on offenders found guilty at the courts at Balloch and Kenmore. In the Chronicle of Fothergill there are two entries for 1570,
“The VII. da of Apryill, Gregor McGregor of Glenstra heddyt at Belloch anno sexte an ten yeris.”
“Item. Donald Dow McCouil Vc. Quhewin heddyt at the Kenmore be Collyn Campbel of Glenurquhay, the servint day of Apryill, and zirdyt in Fortygill that samyn day, the yer of God ane M. Vc. sexte xiiij yeris.”
A portion of the retaining wall of the plateau on which the gallows stood is still remaining. Within view and close to the river is an eminence, partly artificial, called the Lady’s Mount. As it was no uncommon occurrence in olden times for women of gentle birth to witness executions, this spot may thus have been occupied on such occasions. In 1804 Tom-na-croich was planted with larch trees, and several carronades were placed on the summit.

About the middle of last century the policies of Taymouth underwent a great change at the hands of the second Earl and his son. The public road through the grounds was converted into a private drive to the castle, and a new one was constructed from Kenmore to near the foot of the Balloch burn, where it joined the old road. The line of the new road, in admitting of a considerable addition being made to the policies near Kenmore, was certainly a peculiar one. Running along the end of the loch, it ascended the hill with a steep incline for some distance, then turning sharply eastward, it passed the old houses of Balnaskiag or Bigrow, and thence down the hill till it reached Ballivouline, a small hamlet with a mill—as the name signifies—and an inn, the site of which is now occupied by Taymouth sawmill. The arable ground of the tenants of Ballivouline lay on the slope of the hill. The large field to the east is still called Croft Bisset, and traces of several buildings are to be seen close to the burn of Balloch, which was here crossed by a bridge yet standing. Other crofts in the vicinity of Taymouth were known as Peat Croft, Coupar’s Croft, and Mclnesker’s Croft, names long forgotten. Near the wooden bridge in front of Taymouth castle there is a clump of Portugal laurels which marks the site of a porter’s lodge which was built there, and which was demolished about 1799. It stood on the south side of the public road, and opposite one which branched off to the castle. Along the whole line, from Kenmore to near Croftmoraig burn, a park wall was erected, and numerous walks and footpaths were cut on the hillside. The Surprise Walk was made about this time, and from it led what was called the Nutting Walk. In 1762 the former was planted with larch trees, many of which were blown down during a severe gale which occurred on the 11th November, 1829. Those remaining have attained considerable growth, and are, perhaps, the finest to be seen in the locality.

Here and there, both within and without the park wall, numerous summer houses sprang up, only one of which now remains on a conical mound near the sawmill. It was called Apollo’s Temple, and was surmounted by a metal cast of the god, now lying at the base with dismembered limbs. The Temple of Venus stood on Tom-more, and was demolished before 1830 to make way for the dairy, which was then built on its site. (The latter is constructed of quartz from Kenmore hill and Fearnan, chiefly from the former). Another summer house, called the Recess, stood at the east end of the Surprise Walk, and above Muttonhole was the Temple of Eolus already referred to. On the field below Croftmoraig was Mary’s Temple, called also the Octagon from its shape. It was removed in 1836. On the north terrace walk, at Inchadney, was the Star Seat, the stones from which were used towards the construction of the battery on the same site in 1829; and Maxwell’s buildings stood at the west end of the walk. About the same time as these summer houses were built, Rhevard on Drummond hill was brought into cultivation, possibly as an experiment. The flower and kitchen gardens of Balloch, hitherto in front of the castle, were transplanted to the east of Newhall, which was then called the poultry court. The old Chinese bridge across the Tay, behind the castle, the first tower near Druimntuirk or the Boar’s Ridge, and the Hermitage at the Falls of Acharn, were all erected about the same period.

In the end of last century one of the houses at Newhall was reconstructed as a residence and office for John Kennedy, who was appointed factor of Breadalbane about 1794—an appointment formerly held chiefly by relatives of the family, who, possessing properties of their own, did not reside permanently at Balloch. In 1675 Duncan Campbell of Auchlyne was factor of the Perthshire property. He was followed by Mungo Campbell of Kinloch. John Campbell of Achallader, and his son who succeeded him, held continuous office for the long period of ninety years till 1786, when William Stewart of Ardvorlich became factor. He in turn was succeeded by David Campbell of Glenlyon, who remained in office for about a year, and after a similar period during which the affairs of the estate were carried on by the Earl’s cashier in Edinburgh, John Campbell, W.S., son of John Campbell, first cashier of the Royal Bank, John Kennedy became resident factor. He died at Edinburgh on the 19th June, 1812. That year, on the appointment of Robert Reid, Bolfracks House became the factor’s residence, and remained as such till 1888. The estate office was also there till 1875, when the present building at Kenmore was erected.

Shortly after the fourth Earl succeeded to the property, the construction of the present road along the south side of Loch Tay was begun. It was completed in 1786. About the same time a bridge over the river Lyon near Comrie Ferry was built by public subscription, the commissioners of the annexed estates giving £,200 towards its erection. In 1788 the public road by way of the fort was commenced, and on its completion six years later the old road past the sawmill was closed. An additional entrance to Taymouth grounds was made near the cross roads at Kenmore about 1798, and called Gardener’s Gate, in contradistinction to one nearer the village, which was then known as Simon Fraser’s Gate. This Simon Fraser was a natural son of Lord Lovat, and was formerly a waiter in the inn at Muttonhole. Gardener was a stone hewer brought from Aberdeen for the special purpose of cutting stone pillars for the gates about Taymouth.

In 1799, the work of demolishing Balloch or Taymouth Castle as it had come to be called early in the century, was begun, and on the 30th March, 1801, the foundation stone of the central block of the new castle was laid, and six years after, the building was completed from plans by Elliot. New stables were also erected at Newhall, the old ones being immediately to the east of the castle; and the gardens were removed to Kingharrie, opposite the Isle of Loch Tay, the site of the old garden belonging to the priory. In 1813 the present public road from Kenmore Bridge to Dalerb was constructed, the former road having skirted the shore of the Loch. The same year, the archway in the gardens was built, and the new carriage drive to Taymouth from the east end of Kenmore Square was commenced, and on its completion, the old drives were closed. The castle underwent several improvements, notably the addition of the Chinese Rooms in 1826, by Atkinson, the architect of Scone Palace, and in 1838 the west wing was commenced from plans by David Bryce, and finished in time to be occupied by Her Majesty Queen Victoria when on her memorable visit to Breadalbane in 1842. In 1827 the gateway at Kenmore was built after the design of the one in the gardens.

[The building stone of which Taymouth Castle is constructed is chlorite-slate, from a quarry on Bolfracks Hill. The Baron of Bolfracks refused to accept any payment for the material, and Lord Breadalbane afterwards presented him with a handsome piece of plate.]

At the southern end of Tom-na-croich, near the cross roads, a village called Kilmory is said to have stood long before any houses were built on the peninsula at Kenmore, but not a vestige of it remains. A small burn which falls into the loch close by is called Allt-na-ceardach, which points to the fact of a smithy having been there at one time; and not far off what may have been the graveyard of the district was disturbed during the construction of the present drive from Kenmore to Taymouth, when several stone coffins containing bones were unearthed.

Towards the end of the sixteenth century, Kenmore, up till then little better than a ferry station, became a place of some importance. Hew Hay and his spouse obtained from Sir Colin Campbell, in 1572, a tack of the ten-shilling land of Wester Skiag, the five-shilling land of Kenmore, and the fourty-penny land of the Coble Croft, with the keeping of a hostelry. Sir Colin had then in view the object of planting a church at Kenmore, as being a more central place than Inchadney, for in the above tack he reserved the right of resuming ground for that purpose. In 1579 a church was erected at Kenmore,

‘In a MS. collection of Breadalbane traditions noted down in the second decade of this century, in the possession of Mr. Archibald McDougall, Milton, Ardtalnaig, the following reference is made to the use of this place for interment. “Some difference having happened between the Earls of Athole and Argyle, the tenants and dependents of the Earl of Argyle came and took the creach of Athole, whereupon the Atholians gathered and went and took that of Argyle, and the one continued to take that of the other for three different times, after which the men of both countries met in the hills of Acharn in Taymouth district and fought, in which engagement the Argyle men gained the victory. Those slain were carried down on sledges and buried in a knoll in Kenmore Park, through which a road was made last year, when some of their sculls and other bones were found in graves laid and covered with flags, ” the formal petition of the parishioners, but four years prior to that, services had been held there, and the stance of the markets transferred from Inchadney, as shown by the following entry in the Chronicle of Fothergill:—“The year of God MVC sexte xv yeris on the Nyn Virgines day the prasyn and margat was haldin and begun at the Kenmore at the end of Lochthay, and ther was no margat nor fayr haldin at Inchadin quhar it was wont tilbe haldin. All doin be Collyn Campbell of Glenurquhay.” Since then the markets have continued to be held at Kenmore.

Of these, possibly, Feille nam ban naomh is the oldest. This name takes us back to a period certainly 400 years ago when the Isle of Loch Tay was occupied by nuns. Indeed tradition has it, that to their industry was due the establishing of the markets held at Inchadney, to which they came out of seclusion but once a year to sell their goods for behoof of the sisterhood. In connection with this market, and the one held in March, a time-honoured ceremony, abolished about 1840, was wont to be held. We refer to the fencing of these by the market guard, accounts of which we have from those who witnessed the proceedings. The lands on Loch Tayside were formerly divided into officiaries, for the most part according to the different estates. In each of these officiaries was a resident ground officer, chosen from among the tenants, who had to bring with him a certain number of stout young men, who constituted the guard. The old public school, which stood on Kenmore brae, formed the last guard-house. There the halberts of the rank and file were stored. At twelve o’clock noon, on the day of the fair, the market guard was mustered in front of the guard house by the Taymouth ground officer. A halbert was delivered to each man, and with the Breadalbane piper in front, the company started on its march of the boundaries of the fair. On their return to the guard-house the men delivered up their halberts, and the ordinary business of the fair, meanwhile at a standstill, was allowed to proceed. Although denuded of its insignia of office, the guard was still responsible for the peace of the fair, and any one raising a disturbance was committed to durance vile in the guard-house, to await the sentence of the Baron Bailie Court next day. The Taymouth ground officer received from the Earl of Breadalbane a yearly allowance of two merks, which was expended in regaling his company in Kenmore Inn. A ceremony similar in character to the above took place, we believe, at the Killin markets. The old halberts have been lost sight of, but one, now in the writer’s possession, was found some four years ago in Loch Tay, when crossing by boat betwixt the Island and Taymouth gardens.

The records of the Kirk Session of Kenmore are extant from 1636, and shew that the church at Inchadney was, from that time, at all events, little used for public worship. It was only occasionally that service was held there, and that not unfrequently on account of the storminess of the weather and the swollen state of the river which prevented the minister crossing over by boat. Kenmore church did not escape the spoiliating hand of Montrose, whose soldiers broke the lock and carried off the kirk basin, as reported at a session meeting, on 12th January, 1645, when the smith was desired to make a new lock, and on which occasion three pounds were given out of the poor box to several who had suffered at that time. In 1653, when Alexander Menzies, of Comrie, craved liberty to set up a seat within the church, we find reference to the seats of other heritors in the parish. There were “ 2 dasks appertaining to the Lairds of Glenurchy on the north side bewest the Partition wall, one side appertaining to the Laird of Laurs on the north side, close to the partition wall forsd, a seat set up by Mr. William Menzies as Heretor of Wester Shian betwixt the Laird of Laurs seat & the Pulpit, an Dask appertaining to the Laird of Strowan Robertson on the south side of the Kirk bewest the Pulpit, an dask to be set up by the sd Alexr Menzies of Comries as above mentioned (6 feet in length on the north side of the Kirk Contiguo wt the Laird of Glenurchie’s seat upon the west hand).” No mention is made of Campbell, laird of Easter Shian, who probably did not claim a seat, as the chapel of Shian, which was on his lands, was then standing, and used for public worship. In 1648 twenty shillings were expended for slates for the church."

It may be of interest to state here, that at the market held on 28th June, 1815, a residenter, who has not long since passed away, remembered hearing the news that Waterloo had been fought and won, The tidings thus had taken ten days to reach the district,

We have no record of when interments were first made at Kenmore, but so late as 1654 a burial took place within the church at the instance of one of the heritors, which being contrary to the Act of Assembly of 1588, gave rise to comment on the part of the minister and elders. During improvements some years ago, when workmen were digging for sand within the building, several bones were turned up. In 1746 the right of interment at Kenmore was stopped by Lord Glenorchy who issued the following order :—“ It is appointed to the end decency and order may be observed in burying the dead in the Parish of Kenmore, that the Kirk Beddal for the time being shall make all the graves within the Church yeard of Inchaidane, and that he shall have a halfe marks Scots for each Grave Making whether for old or young, and that none Presume to break Ground upon their Perril but as aforsaid, and that the Beddal be timeously advertised so as to have the grave readymade before the Burial hour. By same order it is likewise appointed that no person whatever be Buried in the Kirkgreen of Kenmore after this Date. It is also recommended to all who make use of the Mort cloath and Bell to follow the sam Regulations as at Killine, viz.: Ringing the Bell making the grave and attendance with the Mort cloath a shilling sterling to the Beddal and a shilling to the poor. When the Mort cloath is carried out of the Country the Beddal who must attend is to have two Shillings Sterling, and the Poor three Shillings sterling, given at Taymouth, May the Twenty-sixth Jajvii and forty-six, sic. scrbr. Glenorchy.” About 1763 the present church was erected on the site of the former edifice, and when the graveyard at Inchadney was closed the one at Kenmore was re-opened. The first then to be interred is said to have been a Mrs. Mary Morison, who died on 14th November, 1763, and whose tombstone appears to be the oldest in the churchyard, excepting those which were removed from Inchadney. The date, 1782, above the church clock, records the year the latter was placed in the tower. There was, however, a clock at the church before that time.

A school was established at Kenmore in 1651, an allowance being fixed for the schoolmaster of five shillings yearly from each merkland within the parish, which extended to 240 merk 3s. 6d. land. In 1696 the schoolmaster’s salary was made a fixed one of 100 merks, and was again altered in 1700 to half a merk, payable out of each merkland, which brought up his allowance to 120 merks. The school occupied the site of the low building attached to the Estate office. In 1802, the building at the south end of Kenmore bridge, now used as an orphanage, became the parochial school and schoolmaster’s house. It had originally been built as a boathouse, but was latterly used as a wright’s house and shop. Robert Armstrong was then schoolmaster. He held the appointment for nearly forty years and died in 1828, when he was succeeded by his son, William, who continued in office till 1873. Another son was Robert Archibald, well known as the compiler of a Gaelic dictionary. t

Towards the middle of last century the square of Kenmore was laid out, and houses erected along the north and south sides by the third Earl. The bridge over the Tay, begun in 1772, was completed in 1774. It consists of five arches, two of which are dry. Into the east parapet, above the keystone of the centre arch and facing the roadway, is built a stone slab, on which is cut the following legend:—

This Building Erected A.D., 1774;
His Majesty Gave in Aid of it out of the Annexed Estates 1000 Str.
Viator Tuto Transeas Sis Memor Regii Benfeficii.

Prior to the erection of the bridge a ferry boat plied across the river here, and a little lower down, a ford, called Crosg Mhic Couill, or McDougalPs crossing, gave additional means of passage.

[Between Kenmore and Aberfeldy there were five ferry boats, these being at Kenmore, Inchadney, Point of Lyon, House of Stix, and Bolfracks ; and before 1733, when Tay Bridge was built, there was a sixth boat at Aberfeldy. At each of those ferry stations, except Stix, there was an ale house. A number of fords were also used. These were :—Crosg Mhic Couill, beside the Lady’s Mount, near Kenmore ; the ford of Inchadney ; the ford of Lyon, a little to the north of the junction of that river with the Tay ; the ford of the old port, at the junction, the road to which, from the south, branched off the highway at the bridge over Croftmoraig burn, and, on the north side, the road led through the haugh of Appin past Carse farm steading, and joined the main road at Dalvainie gate below the village of Dull; the ford of Craneivie, near the east end of Tomintiogle Island, and close to the House of Stix ; Athanacarry, at the west end of Tegarmuchd Island ; Athanagroolaig, to the east of the gravel bank at Tegarmuchd Island ; Athanafoillan, to the west of Dalrawer ; Athanabhuirn, opposite Dalrawer ; Athanasiorghoil, below the croft park of Tullichuil (there was no proper access to this ford from the south); Rinvallie ford, near the west end of Bolfracks haugh, and Inver ford a little to the east of the last.]

The name Mains of Kenmore, as applied to the present home-farm, is a misnomer, as the lands of Kenmore lie wholly on the south side of the Tay. This farm is part of the ten-merk land of the Port and Isle, and until the name was changed was known as Mains or Port of Loch Tay. For long it was held in connection with the Inn at Kenmore. The large field to the east, called Dalmartaig, latterly formed the cow pasture of the villagers, until 1787, when it was embraced in the Taymouth policies, and Wester Portbane became the common grazing.

Opposite Taymouth gardens and within a stone-throw of the shore, is the picturesquely wooded Isle of Loch Tay, with its ancient ruins. It is circular in form, and round its sides the water reaches a considerable depth, except on the north, where it is comparatively shallow, and where a causeway is supposed to have connected it with the shore. It is wooded with fine old sycamore trees, whose spreading boughs overtop the crumbling walls of what is known as the Priory of the Isle of Loch Tay. The island is little over an acre in extent.

Early in the twelfth century, Queen Sybilla, consort of Alexander I., King of Scotland, and natural daughter of Henry I. of England, sojourned in this quarter, and taking ill, died in the isle, on the 12th of June, 1122, and here her remains were buried. Alexander, who succeeded his brother in 1107, although surnamed “ Fearce,” was known as “a very gud and valiant prince/’ and during his reign of seventeen years, he built the Abbeys of Scone and St. Colmesinch.

By charter signed at Stirling, he granted the island to the Monks of Scone, and here he founded the Priory of Loch Tay. The charter was to the following effect:—“Alexander by the grace of God, King of the Scots, to the Bishops and Earls, and to all faithful of the whole of Scotland, health. I make it known to you that, for the honour of God and S. Mary, and all the saints, I have given for myself, and for the soul of Queen Sybilla, the Island of Loch Tay, in perpetual possession, with all the rights pertaining to the same island, to Holy Trinity of Scoon, and to the Brotherhood serving God there by Monastic Rule, so that a church of God be built there for me, and for the soul of the Queen there deceased, and that this I grant to them for the present, until I shall have given them some other augmentation, so that that place may be renowned for its service to God. Herbert, Chancellor, witness at Strivling.”

Alexander died at Stirling, without succession, two years after his queen, and was buried at Dunfermline.

For over three hundred years the island remained a religious establishment. The neighbouring lands had been attached to it, as well as salmon fishing in Loch Tay, the latter of which appears to have been enjoyed throughout the whole year, the tradition being that such a right had been granted to the possessors by Alexander I. This right seems to have been exercised until comparatively recent times, and salmon from Loch Tay were exposed for sale unchallenged when fishings elsewhere were closed

According to local tradition, the Priory was, on the withdrawal of the monks, occupied by nuns, who, breaking their vows of celibacy, were summarily expelled from the island, which was not again tenanted by a religious body.

Sir Colin Campbell, first laird of Glenorchy, according to the Black Book of Taymouth, “conquessit the heretable tytill of the Ten Markland of the Port and lie of Loch Tay,” and built a “ Barmekyn wall” on the island, sometime during the middle of the fifteenth century. The former entry, however, does not appear to be accurate, as in 1480, Sir Duncan, the second laird held the lands of Port on a short tack, and it was not till 1492 that he got a charter of these and neighbouring lands. He built the “Great Hall, Chapell and Chalmeris of the Isle of Loch Tay,” and it was during his time we find “the Island of Loch Thay was burned through the negligence of servants on Palm Sunday, being the last day of March, A.D., 1509.” This disaster may have befallen the Priory, and so led to the building of the “Great Hall,” in which case the existing ruins on the island may form very little, if any, part of the old priory.

Margaret Stewart, daughter of the Earl of Athole, and Dame of Glenorchy, died in the island, on the 26th July, 1524, and was buried at Finlarig chapel.

Sir John, fifth laird of Glenorchy also “decessit in the lie of Loch Tay, the 5 of Julii, Anno, 1550,” and was interred at Finlarig. His son, Sir Colin, built the Castle of Balloch, which henceforth formed the chief residence of the family at the east end of Loch Tay.

Towards the close of 1644, the Marquis of Montrose, during his surprise march from Athole into Argyll, stopped here to besiege the island. He encamped in the orchard’close by,*his tent being pitched under a pear tree, which flourished until some twelve years ago, when it was blown down during a severe gale. Such of its timber as was serviceable was afterwards made into a large oblong table for the Reading Room, erected in the village of Kenmore by the Countess of Breadalbane; and, inlaid in the centre of the table, is a silver plate bearing, beneath cross swords with the mottoes, “ Follow' me ” and “ Ne oubleyz,” the following appropriate inscription :—

This table is made of the pear tree, under which the great Montrose encamped when besieging Sir Robert Campbell of Glenorchy in the Isle of Loch Tay.
A.D., 1644.
It is presented to the Kenmore Reading Room by Montrose’s descendant, Alma Breadalbane,
A.D., 1884.
as a token of the peace and love which now unites Graham and Campbell so long divided by war and hatred.

Montrose’s artillery did considerable damage to the building on the island, and it is questionable if it ever after was occupied by the Campbells. Some of the walls, although partially restored within recent years, shew where the breaches had been made.

In 1654, some of General Monk’s soldiers quartered on the island, and to them is given the credit of introducing tobacco into the district. It is interesting to note, perhaps in substantiation of this tradition, that several tobacco pipes of a quaint shape were recently discovered on the island, when the ground was being levelled for the formation of walks.

During the ’45, although Finlarig Castle, uninhabitable as it must have been at the time, was placed in the hands of the Royalists, the Isle of Loch Tay did not receive a garrison. Perhaps the proximity of Castle Menzies, where a detachment of the Duke of Cumberland’s army was stationed under Colonel Leighton, was considered a sufficient check upon any insurgent spirit in the quarter.

The ruins, which are roofless, lie on the north side of the island, and consist of two contiguous buildings running east and west, of a total length of 142 feet. The walls of the eastmost portion, which may be termed the main building, are 81 feet long by 31 feet broad outside. About 16 feet from the east gable there is a transverse wall, to the west of which was a spacious apartment about 55 feet in length, which most likely formed the banqueting hall. The foundations of a wall which are to be seen running almost the whole length in the centre of this apartment, would have given support to the great expanse of flooring, and, with transverse walls both right and left, would have formed extensive cellarage for the establishment. The western portion, which is scarcely in a line with the main building, owing to the curve which the island takes, is smaller in breadth by about 7 feet. It has two divisional walls. The westmost compartment, judging from the breadth of the chimney, may have been the kitchen. The gables, as they stand, are about 45 feet in height, and the walls about 3J feet in thickness. There are several loop holes in the walls. Those on the north side have been built up to half the thickness of the walls, and as the unbuilt portion is on the outside, the stopping-up was made from the interior, a precaution in all probability taken when Montrose’s artillery was directed at the structure.

To the south of the castle lay the courtyard, oblong in form, extending to about 850 square yards, and enclosed on the west, south, and east, by a stone wall, portions of which are yet to be seen. At the north-west corner, where there appears to have been an entrance, a square building protruded beyond the line of wall.

There are three windows in the eastmost gable, each measuring about 12 by 20 inches, and from the situation of these the building seems to have been a four-storied one. The windows, small as they are, were secured by stanchions. Portions of the slates—half an inch in thickness—which covered the roof, are to be seen scattered around the island.

The orchard, which belonged to the island, now embraced in Taymouth gardens, was latterly known as the orchard of Kingharry, a name signifying the end of the garden. Of the fruit trees which grew in it, only one is now standing, a pear tree, which is perhaps the largest of its kind in the country. It is about 45 feet in height, and, at 5 feet from the ground, the trunk measures 9 feet in girth. It still bears some fruit. Four huge sycamore trees, in a line, are said to mark the western boundary of the orchard. The girth of the northmost one, at 5 feet from the ground, is 13 feet 6 inches. There is a cavity at the top of the trunk of sufficient depth to conceal a man. The tree next to it is still larger, being 15 feet in circumference. The other two are also of great size.

In the course of recent trenching operations in Taymouth gardens a portion of an old sundial, with inscription, was unearthed, as well as a carved stone bearing the date, 1637.

We find reference to an ale-house being at Kingharry in the last century, and a ferry boat is said to have plied between it and Portbane on the south side of Loch Tay. In the vicinity were several small crofts, each of which had a distinctive name. One was known as Dalerb, the only name now preserved,

The arms of the Glenorchy Campbells are—Quarterly : first and fourth Gyronny of eight, sable and or, Campbell; second, argent, a lymphad, sable, with sail furled, flags flying and oars in action, Lorn; third, or, a fess chequy, azure and argent, Stewart. A lymphad or galley forms a charge on the escutcheon of several other families connected with the west coast. In the ninth Parliament of James I., held at Perth, 6th March, 1429, it was enacted, “All Barronnes and Lords havend lands and Lordshippes near the sea in the West, and on the North parts, and namelie for-anent the lies, that they have Galayes, that is to say, ilk four markes worth of lande ane aire. And that this till understande of them that are not feft before of Galayes. For they that are feft before sail keepe and uphalde the Galayes, that they are feft of before, and halden to susteine he their aulde infeftment. And that the saids Galayes be maid and reparrelled be Maij cum a twelfe-moneth, under the paine of ane marke to be raised to the Kingis use of ilk air. And the landes and Lord' schippes, quhat ever they be, strikand endlang the coastsyde, and inward in the land, sex mile sail contribute to the reparation and the sustentation of the saids Galayes.”

On the retiral of the Parochial schoolmaster in 1873, his income was then ascertained to be a fixed salary of £50 a year, £2 in lieu of a garden, and the school fees, which for the past three years had averaged £44 8s., from 118 scholars.

FEARNAN

THE thirty-merk land of Fearnan extends from the west march of the Port of Loch Tay to Allt Paderleigh, on the west. It also includes the lands of Kinghallin, formerly known as Kinnyhallens of Fearnan, lying on the north side of Drummond Hill. The eastern march of Fearnan, however, it may be said, was not properly defined, there being a stretch of debatable ground with the lands of Port Loch Tay, running from the loch side to the top of Drummond Hill.

The lands of Fearnan were for long the property of the Robertsons of Strowan. In 1451, Robert Robertson, the then laird of Strowan, received from James II. a charter erecting his whole lands into a free Barony, in reward for the assistance rendered by him in the capture of the murderers of James I. The lands of Fearnan were included in the grant.

Alexander Robertson, of Strowan, born in 1668, known both as a soldier and a poet, was attainted for his attachment to the Jacobite cause, and his estates were forfeited and annexed to the Crown, by sentence of Parliament, in 1690. He fled to France, to the court of the exiled King James, but a remission in his favour being granted, he returned to Scotland. Nothing daunted, he was out in the Rebellion of ’15, with 800 of his clan, and at Sheriffmuir was taken prisoner, but escaped. He was prevented taking active part in the ’45, through the infirmities of old age, but his clan again took the field on the Jacobite side. His death took place at Carie, in Rannoch, on the 18th April, 1749, when the direct male line of the house became extinct.

The Campbells of Glenorchy held tacks of the teinds of Fearnan for a considerable time. Sir Colin Campbell was tacksman in 1629. The lands were divided into the following possessions:—The five-merk land of Kinnyhallen, the five-merk land of Stronfearnan and Margcroy, the three-merk land of Croftnallin, the five-merk land of Boreland, the two-merk land of Corriecherrow, the three-merk land of Schanlarach, or Balnairn, the two-merk land of Ballemenach, the three-merk land of Tomintyvoir, and the two-merk land of Lagfern. These lands were, in 1767, disposed by Act of Parliament to John, third Earl of Breadalbane, by the Commissioners of the annexed estates in excambion for part of the lands of Pitkellony.

The old village of Stronfearnan, demolished many years ago, encircled the present burying ground, which is known as Cladh-na-Sroine, and wherein lie the remains of many of the names of Macgregor and Robertson. At the commencement of this century over a score of families occupied the lands to the

*The following characteristic letter from this laird to the Rev. John Hamilton, minister of Kenmore, is found in the Kirk Session Records of that parish. The Fearnan tenants had entered a complaint that the space in the church alloted to them was taken up by others, and that they were compelled to stand during divine service. Mr. Hamilton, it may be mentioned, was a strict Hanoverian. The letter is dated 2nd December, 1730.

Sir,
Since my tenants, I do not know by what Inspiration, are willing to hear a person of your persuasion, I hope you will not see them dispossessed. Their seats in the Kirk are well known, pray Let them sit easy and have Elbow room, Least a dispossession may Cause a Rupture amongst you, not for the Honour and Interest of that Unity, wc ought to be visited in the People of God. You, who are a kind of Exorcist, cast out the Spirit of oppression, hatred, and malice, from amongst us, That every Man may possess his Paternal Inheritance from The Throne In Westminster Abbay to the Cobler’s sate in the Kirk of Kenmore. In doing this you will be Rever’d by Sr,
Your most hmble servt.,
ALEXR. ROBERTSON, of Strowan.

West of the burn at Taynloan, and of these ten were Macgregors. Several of the same name also held crofts at Stronfearnan. There were formerly an ale-house at Taynloan, a meal mill at Croftnallin, and a smithy at Balnearn ; and a ferry boat plied from Stronfearnan to the south side of Loch Tay. Before the western end of Drummond Hill was planted, the land sloping from the road to the Loch at Letterellan was under cultivation, and was called Croit-na-cullich, while further up the hill was Margcroy.

There was an old church at Fearnan, with which the name of St. Ciaran is associated. The site of it—on the farm of Boreland —may yet be discerned by the difference in colour of the land after it has been newly tilled. The font which belonged to the church is still preserved.

At Lagfearn, there is a rough stone slab, about 3 feet in height, bearing on the side a rudely cut cross. Here, according to tradition, markets were at one time held.

Before the servitude of thirlage was done away with, almost every separate property had its own mill, to which the tenants were thirled. There were fourteen such mills on Loch Tayside. Besides the usual multures, the tenants had to pay to the miller, sequels or small dues, called Bannock, Lock, or Knaveship, and they also had to perform certain services, such as bringing home the mill-stones, and cleaning and repairing the water courses. The lands thirled were called the Sucken, and the multures derived from these were termed the Insucken or In-town multures, in contradistinction to the Out-town multures payable by those outside the thirled lands who had their corn ground at the mill. In Breadalbane, before the rents were commuted to money, the miller usually paid to the proprietor a certain number of bolls of “gude and sufficient meill, betwixt Yule and Candlemes zierlie,” with the addition, perhaps, of a dozen capons, and a well-fed “two zeir auld Boar at Pasche.” Mills were considered such valuable property, that in 1587 an Act was passed during the eleventh Parliament of James VI., whereby, among others, “breakers of milnes sail be called theirfore before the Justice or his deputes, at Justiceaires or particular diettes, and punished therefore to the death, as thieves.”

LAWERS

THE forty-merk land of Lawers was one of the earliest possessions of the Glenorchy Campbells on Loch Tayside. It was bestowed upon Sir Colin, the first laird, in 1473, by James III. for his zeal in pursuing and bringing to justice the murderers of his unfortunate grandsire, James I. The property had, prior to that, been in the possession of Thomas Chalmers, one of those implicated in the deed.

Sir Colin gave the lands of Lawers, together with the three-merk land of Correquhirk, to his son John, by his fourth wife, Margaret, daughter of Luke Stirling of Keir. The eight-merk land of Shian in Glenquaich was also bestowed on John by his eldest brother, Sir Duncan, who succeeded as second laird of Glenorchy. Sir Duncan, however, retained the superiority of Shian for a time. The Campbells of Lawers afterwards came into other lands, among them being Carwhin and Easter Ardeonaig on Loch Tayside.

Among the “Landis-lords and Baillies in the Hielands and lies,” in the roll of 1587, we find the laird of Lawers, who was at that time Sir John Campbell. He married Beatrice, daughter of Sir Colin, sixth laird of Glenorchy, by his first wife Margaret Stewart. His second son, Colin, was the founder of the house of Aberuchill, now represented by the Campbells of Kilbryde.

In 1633, when an act for the further suppression of the Macgregors was passed, Sir John Campbell, the then laird of Lawers, was appointed one of the justices for dealing with the “lawless limmers” of that clan. In that year, having previously married the grand-daughter of Hugh Campbell, Sheriff of Ayr, and first Baron Loudon, he was created Earl of Loudon by Charles I., and his younger brother succeeded to the estate of Lawers.

Many of the clan Campbell were killed at Inverlochy, and at the battle of Auldearn in May, 1645, Colonel Campbell of Lawers, who commanded the foot soldiers on the right wing, fell fighting against the Loyalists, while his brother, Archibald, was taken prisoner. In 1650, when Montrose was summoned before the Parliament in Edinburgh, to hear his death-warrant, the Earl of Loudon, who was then Chancellor, no doubt embittered by the knowledge of the injuries done to his own kith and kin by the great Marquis, shewed the greatest enmity towards him, and enumerated one by one his transgressions in a long and vituperative harangue.

In 1678, the laird of Lawers was appointed one of the Commissioners for the county of Perth for the supply of a new and “voluntar offer to His Majesty of eighteen hundred thousand pounds Scots.”

In 1686, Sir James Campbell disposed to the first Earl of Breadalbane the superiorities of the paternal lands in Glenquaich, which included the four-and-a-half-merk land of Turrerich, the four-merk land of Kinloch, the twenty-shilling land of Tirchardy, and the four-merk land of Garrows. Along with them was also disposed the croft in Easter Shian called the Officer’s croft, together with the Laird’s meadow, which had been in 'the occupation of an Andrew Macjock in the commencement of the seventeenth century, and which is known to the present day as Croftmacjock—the forty-shilling land of Easter Shian, by which it is surrounded, having been sold in 1637 by the then laird of Lawers, with consent of his son Mungo, to John Campbell of Edramuckie.

The Campbells of Lawers appear to have severed their connection with Loch Tayside about 1693, when they finally settled at Fordie in Strathearn, an estate long held by them, and which was designated Lawers after their old patrimony.

The residence of the Lawers family on Loch Tayside was situated close to the water’s edge, and a little to the west of the mouth of the burn of Lawers. It was unique in being a double-storied thatched building, but is now roofless and in ruins. The family also had a town house—or “ludging” as it was termed—in Perth, adjacent to the tenement possessed by the lairds of Glenorchy. The last occupant of the house at Lawers was a lady, called in Gaelic, “Baintighearna Lauthair,” and local tradition asserts she was a Stewart by birth, of the Appin branch. She is said to have possessed a wonderful gift of prophecy, and several stories are told in the district of the fulfilment of her predictions.

In 1480, the lands of Lawers were described as comprehending “Lawarmoir, Lawarmanach, Glenlawar Estir and Glenlawar Westir.” Later on the lands were divided as follows:—Easter, Middle and Wester Cloanlawer, Cragganruar, Shenlarich, Mar-ragintrowan, Drumglas, Lurgbuie, Duallin, Lawernacroy, Machuim, Milton or Parks of Lawers, Cuiltrannich, Drimnaferoch, Tomb and Croftintygan. The upper crofts of Cuiltrannich are at present the highest cultivated lands on Loch Tayside. The meal mill of Lawers stands in Cuiltrannich, the school in Drimnaferoch, and Tynacroit or Crofthouse in Tomb. A lint mill was formerly wrought here. In 1669, a church was erected close by the lochside and near to the house of Lawers. The minister of Kenmore provided service here from time to time for a considerable period, but latterly a pastor was placed who had also under his charge the church of Ardeonaig. Sometime prior to 1833, the west loft of the church fell, and the building was abandoned. The present church was then built, and at the time of the Disruption was handed over to the Free Church body. The graveyard of the district—Cladh Machuim —lies on the east side of Lawers burn, on the farm of Machuim. One or two interments are said to have taken place outside the old church, but there are no gravestones to be seen there.

The most, if not all, of the lint mills in Breadalbane, were erected by Hugh Cameron, who was born at Lawers in 1705. He is said to have constructed nearly a hundred mills in different parts of the country, and to have introduced spinning wheels into Breadalbane. He died at the extraordinary age of 112 years.

The ministers of Kenmore appear, as a rule, to have personally conducted the services at Lawers ; but we find that in 1714, the Rev. Alexander Comrie, then parish minister, installed the Rev. Robert Stewart as his vicar there, with power to hold sessions, baptize and marry. He was to keep a register of all he did, and send a scroll to Kenmore, so as not to wrong the clerk, the beadle, and the box (Kenmore Kirk Session Records). Mr. Stewart was for sometime minister of Killin. He was twice married, and died in 1729, leaving by his first wife four sons, James, laird of Killiechassie, Duncan, laird of Blackhall, Alexander, laird of Cloichfoldich, and Robert, laird of Derculich. During the time he was at Lawers, “ he neither kept register or scrolls, and monopolised all the dues payable to the Clerk, Bedal, and Box.” (Scott’s Fasti Ecelesice Scoticance.)

In the middle of last century, the north side of Loch Tay was provided with three public schools, exactly the same number as at present. One was situated at Tomachrocher in Morenish, another on the inarch between Lurgbuie and Drumglas in Lawers, and the third at Boreland in Fearnan. From a report on the state of religion in the Highlands made at the instigation of the General Assembly in 1760, we find the number of scholars attending Lawers school during the winter time was between fifty and sixty, while at Killin there were only thirty-four. The teachers at these two places, in addition to a small sum paid to them out of the Royal Bounty, each received from the Earl of Breadalbane a salary of a hundred merks a year, and were provided with a free house, garden, and fuel.

CRANNICH

TO the west of the lands of Lawers is the district of Crannich, now in the parish of Kenmore, but formerly in a detached part of Weem. It comprises the possessions of Balnasuim, Balnahanaid, Cragganester, Craggantoll, and Easter and Wester Tombreck. The eastern boundary runs up the hillside in a north-westerly direction to the summit of Ben Lawers, the western boundary following the Tombreck burn for the greater part of the way. The boundaries gradually narrow towards the watershed, where the lands of Roro, also formerly in Weem (now in Fortingal Parish), and extending up the northern slope of Ben Lawers, march with those of Crannich.

Anciently a thanedom or thanage, Crannich was, along with the lands of Auchmore and Kenknock, granted to Robert de Meygnes, ancestor of the family of Menzies of Weem, by the Earl of Athole, whose title was forfeited in 1327. The “Tosach-doreship ” of the thanedom went along with the lands, and the Menzies family held both for nearly three centuries.

Sir Duncan Campbell, second laird of Glenorchy, obtained “takis of the tuelf-mark land of Cranduich.” Sir Colin, the sixth laird, gave to his second son, Colin, by his second wife, Katherine, daughter of William, Lord Ruthven, the tack of these lands, along with the eight-merk land of Kingarth, and the twelve -merk land of Ardbeich. In 1602, Crannich was purchased from the then laird of Weem, by Sir Duncan Campbell, the seventh laird, together with the lands of Morenish, Auchmore, and Kenknock, for which he paid down eight and twenty thousand merks. Sir Duncan also succeeded to the whole rights and privileges of the Tosachdoreship, an office he was well qualified to fill.

The meal mill of the property stood at Balnahanaid on the west side of Allt-a-Choire Chireinich. At the south-east corner of Balnasuim, close to the lochside, was Cladh Phobuil, the burying ground of the district, but neglected in the last century, almost every trace of the sacred spot has been obliterated. There was an older place of burial, in front of Balnahanaid farm-house. Stone coffins have been unearthed there. For a number of years there was a school in Crannich. It was one of three established in the end of last century by the Rev. Archibald Campbell, minister of Weem, in outlying portions of that parish, belonging to Lord Breadalbane, the others being at Roro in Glenlyon, and Duncrosk in Glenlochay. The teachers of these were granted an annuity of over £5 each by Mr. Campbell, which lapsed when the schools were discontinued.

CARWHIN

TO the west of Crannich is the twelve-merk land of Carwhin. This property at one time belonged to Robertsons, probably a branch of the great family de Atholia ; and we find in the Chronicle of Fothergill obituary notices of some of these lairds:—

“1483, February, 4.—Death of Donald Robertson of Keir-quhin.”

“1529, September, 29.—Death of Donald Robertson of Kerquhwin, at that place on the day of St. Michael, the Archangel, and he was buried in the nave of the church at Inchaden.”

“I553—Death of Katherine Neyn Dowyll Vc Ayn, spouse of the Baron of Kyrquhwin, and afterwards spouse of Alexander Maxton of Cwlthequhay, who died at Cultequhay on the last day of April, 1553.”

“1559.—Malcolm, Baron of Keyrquhon, died at Balloch, on the 10th day of March, in the year of the Lord,

1559, and he was buried at Inchaden.”

In a Report by Sub-commissioners of the Presbytery of Dunkeld, of the valued rent, stock, and teind of the several lands in the parish, drawn up in 1630, Sir James Campbell of Lawers is entered as laird of Carwhin. His family possessed the superiority of the property and of the shealing of Rhialdt, since 1526, when it had been conveyed by Haldane of Gleneagles to

James Campbell, the then laird of Lawers. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, Carwhin came into the possession of another branch of the Glenorchy line, the Campbells of Mochaster, afterwards styled of Carwhin, and in whose family the territorial title was continued long after they quitted possession of the lands, although Carwhin was in the hands of the Earl of Breadalbane so early as the second decade of last century. The superiority, however, if reserved, would have carried such a right. Colin Campbell, of Mochaster, was the second surviving son of Sir Robert Campbell, third Baronet, and ninth laird of Glenorchy. He married in 1641, Margaret, third daughter of Sir Alexander Menzies of Weem. She died at Carwhin in 1681, and was buried at Finlarig. He died in 1688, leaving two sons, Colin of Carwhin, a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh, and Robert, who held Boreland in Glenlochay by wadset. The latter had a son Colin, styled of Carwhin, who in 1746, fought at Falkirk on the Government side, having in the company of which he was captain, Duncan Ban McIntyre, the Glenorchy bard. He became factor on Lord Glenorchy’s lands in Nether Lorn, and resided at Ardmaddy. In 1758 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Archibald Campbell of Stonefield, by whom he had, Jane, born 1st December, 1758, died 23rd March, 1769; Elizabeth, born 28th July, 1760, died 5th October, 1774; John, born 30th March, 1762, succeeded as fourth Earl of Breadalbane in 1782; and Colin, born 12th December, 1763. Colin, senior, died in his house at Westminster, on 30th March, 1772. His widow died in April, 1813. Colin, the younger, entered the army, and became a captain in the 99th Regiment of Foot. Shortly after his brother succeeded to the earldom, he got from him a grant of the lands of Edinample, Glenogle and Glenbeich. These lands had been purchased by the third Earl in 1779 from James Goodlatt Campbell of Auchlyne. Captain Colin Campbell died, unmarried, at Edinample Castle, on 27th June, 1792. The fourth Earl, who became Marquis of Breadalbane, married Mary Turner Gavin of Langton, by whom he had three of a family, two daughters and a son. The latter succeeded to the titles and estates on the death of his father in 1834. He married Eliza, daughter of George Baillie of Jerviswood, but had no issue, and at his death in 1862, the male line of the Carwhin family became extinct.

The lands of Carwhin were formerly divided into three portions, namely, Carie, Easter Carwhin, and Wester Carwhin, each being a four-merk land. Easter Carwhin included Carwhin proper, Croftvellich and Blairmore; and Wester Carwhin comprehended Tomour, Margphuil, Margdow, and Margnaha. The small isle in Loch Tay, Eilean na Breaban (Ordnance Survey), Brabant or Brippan, belongs to Carwhin.

Within the past hundred years or so, the place-names in Easter Carwhin have undergone a change. Carwhin as the name of an individual holding has been dropped, and in its place Blairmore has been substituted, while the name of the latter holding has been changed to Balnreich. The public road ran past old Blairmore, where there was an ale-house. The meal mill of the property stood on Carwhin proper. The House of Carwhin, unpretentious as the dwelling must have been, is understood to have occupied the bite of the present farm-house of Blairmore, at the eastern end of which there are foundations of a building locally known as Seomar dubh — the black chamber. Close by is Lag-a-mhoit — the court hollow—above which is a precipitous rock, called Craig-na-croich, evidently once a place of execution—an adjunct not unfrequently to be met with near the former abodes of Highland lairds. A spot is pointed out in Blairmore wood, which was formerly the graveyard of the district.

KILTYRIE

MARCHING with the lands of Carwhin, on the west, is the four-merk land of Kiltyrie. It is now in one holding, but was formerly divided into two portions of equal extent, Easter and Wester, and these were again subdivided into several possessions. The feus of the Crown lands on Loch Tayside were acquired by Sir Colin Campbell, fifth laird of Glenorchy, who died in 1583.

MORENISH

IMMEDIATELY to the west of Kiltyrie is the thirty-merk land of Morenish. This property appears to have been held by the old Earls of Fife at an early period, and is said to have been granted by Duncan, the twelfth Earl, to an ancestor of the family of Menzies of that Ilk, towards the middle of the fourteenth century. From the Rent alia Doming Regis for 1480—the oldest Crown rental extant—it is evident, however, that the Menzieses did not then hold the whole of Morenish, for we find in that year the Crown Commissioners letting “ Monornych ” to three tenants on a lease of three years, to date from the expiry of their current lease, which had two years to run. The total rent derived from these was ten merks :—Donald M‘Gillane, £2 13s. 4d., Duncan M‘Carbre, £2 13s. 4d., and Mulikyn M‘Gillane, £1 6s. 8d. Of the remaining twenty-merk land no mention is made in the rental, so that we may conclude that was what the Menzieses then possessed. There was a sasine of “ Morinch ” in favour of John Menzies in 1465, but we have no guide as to the exact land embraced in it. In the Chronicle of Fothergill two deaths at Morenish are recorded :—
“1503, September 10, death of Gregor, son of Duncanbeg,at Morinch;”
“1522, death of Patrick, Duncanbeg, son in Morinche, in the month of October.”
According to the Black Book of Taymouth, it would appear that the Menzies family eventually acquired the whole of Morenish, for we are told that Sir Duncan Campbell, seventh laird of Glenorchy, “conquessit the twentie-pund land of Morinche’ in 1602, from the then laird of Weem.

After the Campbells of Glenorchy came into Morenish, Edramucky was feued' out to one of their own name, whose family continued in possession down to the last century. The feu-right was apparently re-purchased, as they latterly held the subjects in wadset. In 1630, James Campbell was feuar of Edramucky. In 1637, John Campbell, designated of Edramucky (although a James appears again in 1643), anc* his son, Patrick, purchased, from Sir James Campbell, of Lawers, and his son, Mungo, the forty-shilling land of Easter Shian, under the reservation of the holding called Croftmacjock. Towards the end of that century, Duncan of Edramucky, and his son, Colin, got wadsets of Rynachulig and Blarliaragan, and Easter Ardchyle was acquired in a similar manner, by James, another son of Duncan. They also held Easter Kenknock, first in feu and afterwards in wadset. Colin, born 1692, had a son, Duncan, vwho married Anna Campbell, daughter of the Rev. Patrick Campbell, minister of Kenmore, and who continued in Edramucky and Easter Kenknock; and it was this Duncan who is believed to have murdered Sir James Campbell, of Lawers, at Greenock, on 22nd April, 1723. They had been drinking together the previous evening, and parted apparently in good friendship, intending to meet again on the morrow to cross over to Dumbarton, and proceed homeward. In the morning Lawers was discovered dead in bed with two bullet wounds in his head. Edramucky was nowhere to be found, and as it was ascertained that he had, a day or two before, purchased ammunition for a pistol, suspicion at once rested on him, and a warrant was issued for his apprehension. If he was ever captured, there is no account of him standing his trial. His family remained at Edramucky till about 1736, when Mrs. Campbell—or Lady Edramucky as she was called—removed to a holding in Easter Stix, which, prior to her entry had been tenanted by Duncan Campbell, brother of John Campbell, laird of Duneaves. Easter Stix then belonged to Menzies, of Culdares.

Morenish was divided into the following lands :—Edramucky, Rynachulig, Blarliaragan, Tomachrocher, Ballemore MacGrigor, and Ardmoyle, each being five-merk land. The last named was sub-divided into Marginluig and Margintuim of Ardmoyle, each one-merk land, and Ardmoyle proper, three-merk land. Blarliaragan and part of Tomachrocher are now known as the Morenish Crofts, and the lands to the west of these are comprised in one holding—the farm of Morenish—so that the old names of these places are almost obsolete. A walled enclosure at the southern end of Ardmoyle, close to the lochside, keeps sacred the district’s dead. It is called in Gaelic, Cladh Dabhi, and is also known as having, upon Monday morning, the 22nd April last, barbarously murdered James Campbell, of Lawers, while in bed and fast asleep at Greenock ; and whereas there is a warrant obtained from the Right Honourable the Lord Justice-Clerk, direct to all the Sheriffs, Stewarts of Stewartries, Baillies of Regalities, and their respective Deputes, Justices of the Peace, Magistrates of Burghs, Macers of the Court of Justiciary, all Constables and Messengers-at-Arms within Scotland, for searching, seizing, apprehending, detaining, and imprisoning the Person of the said Duncan Campbel, ay and while he be brought to Trial fore the foresaid crime, upon the Application of the Honourable Colonel James Campbel, of the Royal North-British Dragoons ; and for the further encouraging the apprehending of the Person of the said Duncan Campbel, the said Colonel James Campbel offers and promises a Premium of One Hundred Guineas, to be paid by him to any Person or Persons that shall apprehend the Person of the said Duncan Campbel, and imprison him within any sure Tolbooth, so as he may be brought to Justice for the foresaid Crime.

N.B.—The said Duncan Campbel, of Edramuckie, is a tall thin man, stoops or is loot shoulder’d, small pock pitted, with a pearl or blindness in the right Eye, betwixt 30 and 40 Years of Age. When he made his escape from Greenock, he had a suit of gray Duroy Cloaths, plain mounted, a big red Coat, with a thin light Wig, rolled up with a Ribban.

The Macdiarmid burying ground, from the fact that a large number of those interred there bore that name. There are two septs of the clan Macdiarmid on Loch Tayside—one called Rioghal or Royal, and the other Dubhbhusach or blackmouthed. Only members of the former, we believe, claim a right of burial at Cladh Dabhi. At one time there was a charity school at Tomachrocher. A lint mill was erected at Blarliaragan in 1790, near to the meal mill of the property. The latter is still in use.

At Edramucky there stood a castle. It was situated to the south of the present farm building, close to the burn of Edramucky, and within 200 yards of the loch. It has long since been razed to the ground, but its foundations can be distinctly traced at the present day. Of its history we have been unable to find any account. Some of the trees (mostly elm and sycamore) which adorned the policies and lined the avenues leading to the castle, are yet standing, and tend to show the good taste of the former inhabitants, as well as the importance of the place. A few plum trees are also to be seen flourishing. On the Ordnance Survey Map, the site of the castle is placed on the peninsula formed by the Edramucky and Morenish burns, while Rynachulig is represented as being on the west side of the latter burn— inaccuracies difficult to account for.

TIRATHUR

THE eight-merk land of Tirarthur, which adjoins Morenish on the west, lies betwixt Allt Tirarthur and Allt na Baile. The old divisions of this property were:— Margness and Margchraggan, two-merk land; Balnadalloch, two-merk land; Ballemeanoch, two-merk land; and Milton of Tirarthur, two-merk land.

FINLARIG

TO the west of Tirarthur is the ten-merk land of Finlarig, which has been in the hands of the Glenorchy Campbells for nearly four hundred years. It is bounded on the west by the lands of Craig.

Sir John Drummond, of Stobhall, ancestor of the Earls of Perth, which family acquired other estates in the neighbourhood, held Finlarig at the beginning of the fifteenth century. He was Justiciar of Scotland, and died in 1428. His son, Sir Walter, succeeded him in his possessions. We find sasines of Finlarig and other lands in favour of Sir Malcolm Drummond in 1443, and of Sir John Drummond, his eldest son, in 1464. This Sir John was created Lord Drummond in 1487, by James III. He built Drummond Castle, which became the seat of the family. Sir Duncan Campbell, second laird of Glenorchy, got a charter of the lands of Finlarig, dated 22nd April, 1503. The Drummonds had erected a castle in their time, and it was a desirable stronghold to have. Finlarig henceforth became one of the principal seats of the Campbells, and here they struck terror into the minds of their enemies, and with their heading-stone and gallows tree, administered the last penalty of their law. Several of the persecuted Clan Gregor, among them Duncan Ladassoch and his sons, Gregor and Malcolm Roy, were executed here. Sir Duncan Campbell, who succeeded as seventh laird, in 1583, distinguished himself in many ways. He built seven castles, and one of them was at Finlarig, on the site of the former structure. It cost him £10,000. In the building he did not neglect to provide dungeons for delinquents, and close by the castle a pit was made, with a heading-block, having a cavity for the reception of the head. Only those of gentle birth suffered death by decapitation. On a neighbouring tree, still flourishing, the common people were hung. It is an oak tree, one of two standing to the north-east of the castle. The branch from which the culprits were suspended was cut down some years ago, and shewed a deep groove caused by the friction of the rope. It is not to be wondered at, that gruesome stories are told in the countryside concerning the doings at Finlarig in the “ good old days,” but in the course of so many generations, through the inventive imagination of the narrators, these have come to be almost as far remote from the truth as the times.
[Note: - The Black Book of Taymouth states that these executions took place at Balloch / Taymouth, not at Finlarig. Ed,]

The ruins of the Castle of Finlarig stand on a prominence to the east of a larger one called Dunlochay, and to all appearance had at one time been partly surrounded by a moat. The building is rectangular in shape, having a square tower on the south-west. The main portion runs east and west, and is 55 feet long by 31 feet broad, but the extreme length of the building is 62 feet. On the east, south, and west sides, the walls, now covered with ivy, are standing in fair preservation, and show that the castle was of four storeys. The whole is roofless, and no portion of the woodwork has been preserved. The walls vary in thickness from 3 to 6 feet, which latter is the measurement at the window of one of the dungeons. The kitchen was at the east end of the main building. The fireplace, where the spring of the arch commences, is almost 14 feet in width. At each side are ingle-nook recesses. At the north-east corner of the building there had been a spiral stair, and also one on the west side. Next the kitchen is a small apartment, from which a narrow stair had led to the second storey, where the banqueting-hall had been. The only entrance to the castle left intact is on the south, and above the doorway there is a stone bearing the Royal Arms, and —the initials of James VI. and his Queen. Portions of carved stones have from time to time been turned up around the castle, including rude representations of Sir Duncan Campbell, the founder, and his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry, Lord Sinclair. There is a tradition in the district that the lime used in the erection of the castle, was brought from somewhere near the Ochill Hills, the immense deposits on Loch Tayside being then unknown. The gardens lay betwixt the castle and Dunlochay, and the pleasure grounds extended to the river Lochay. There are many fine trees at Finlarig, including chestnut, oak, sycamore, and elm, some of them of huge dimensions. The avenue of the last, called, from its straightness, the Cathedral Aisle, is particularly fine. There is a holly tree of great size beside the castle, believed to be several hundred years old.

It was at Finlarig, in the middle of the seventeenth century, that the festivities in connection with the marriage of James Menzies, afterwards of Culdares, to a daughter of Sir Robert Campbell, were being celebrated, when the wedding guests heard of the approach of a party of the Keppoch Macdonalds, headed by Angus Macdonald, the chief of the clan. The latter were returning home after a harrying expedition to the South, and having crossed the Dochart at Ballechroisk, with the cattle they had captured, were proceeding northward along the slope of Stronclachan. One story has it, that they refused to pay the usual tax exacted from such a band when passing through the lands of another chief, but the probability is that they had rendered themselves obnoxious to the Campbells by their repeated inroads on Breadalbane.

At all events, the wedding party sallied forth from Finlarig accompanied by Menzies, who, having served under Gustavus Adolphus, was skilled in fighting tactics. He endeavoured to prevail upon them to take a circuitous route, and come down on the Macdonalds from the top of Stronclachan, but the Campbells, fresh from the festive board, crossed the Lochay and rushed hot-headed up the hill, and encountered the Macdonalds above Margowan. The conflict was fierce and bloody. Of the Macdonalds, the Chief and Mclan of Glencoe both fell, the head of the former being literally severed from his body by Menzies with one blow; while the Campbells had to bewail the loss of eighteen cadets of the house. The second in command of the Macdonalds fled, and lay in hiding for some time at the Black Shealing of Corrycharmaig, ill of his wounds, where he was tended by the wife of one of the tenants of that holding, a Lochaber woman. Her hushand, becoming suspicious of her movements, followed her one day, and, coming on the place of concealment, hastily despatched the Macdonald, who was unable to defend himself. Some years ago the hilt of a sword was turned up at Margowan, doubtlesss a relic of the fatal day.

During troublous times Finlarig Castle was on more than one occasion occupied as a military garrison. Its position made it a coign of vantage, holding, as it did, the pass at that end of Loch Tay, betwixt north and south. In 1689, after the Highlanders were repulsed at Dunkeld by the Cameronians, General Mackay made it one of his military posts, and during the ’45, it was occupied for the last time by the Royal troops, among others, by the Argyllshire Militia, a detachment of which, in the course of their sojourn there, burned the house of Corrycheroch, on the north side of the Forest of Benmore.

The Forest of Benmore had, up to 1744, when it was disposed in feu to John Stewart, been in the hands of James Drummond, Duke of Perth, who took such a leading part in the Rebellion as an adherent of Prince Charlie. He commanded on the left of the front line at Culloden, and after the battle suffered the loss of seven men, who were all shot by Macnab, the tenant of Innishewan farm, who had watched their movements from a hidden place.

Close by the ruins of the castle, on the east side, is the Chapel of Finlarig, the mausoleum of the Breadalbane family. The present edifice was built in 1828 by the first Marquis of Breadalbane on the site of the former and possibly original building, called the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin, which Sir Colin, the third laird of Glenorchy, who died in 1523, built to be “ane burial for himself and his posteritie.” The Black Knight of Rhodes, the founder of the family, is buried at Kilmartin, and Kilmun is the resting place of Sir Duncan, the second laird, who was buried there with the Earl of Argyll, because both were slain at Flodden. In addition to numbers of cadets of the family, of the houses of Lawers, Glenlyon, and Carwhin, fourteen chiefs are buried at Finlarig—four Knights, four Baronets, four Earls, and two Marquises. Above the entrance to the mausoleum, there is a stone bearing in relief the Glenorchy coat-of-arms, and “ D. C. 1588,” probably taken from the castle.

The lands of Finlarig were formerly divided into three portions, namely, the Upper Town, in which was the mill on Allt na Baile; the Lower Town or Mains of Finlarig; and Ballecruine. There is a portion of the haugh, bordering on the Lochay, and near the junction of that river with the Dochart, which is still called Islandran. On it there is an eminence or plateau several feet above the surrounding ground, which appears to have been encircled by a moat, now almost filled up. We believe that this “ island ” originally formed part of the Kinnell estate, and that it was here the Macnabs of that Ilk had their stronghold for ages escaped, but died on board ship while on his way to France. The third Earl of Breadalbane acquired Benmore in 1754 from John Stewart. The Perth Estates and superiorities were forfeited ; but in 1784 they were restored to the representative of the family, whose descendant, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, is superior of Benmore. The feu-duty payable is £5 11s. 10d. per annum. until the time of the Commonwealth, when we are told their castle of “Eilan Rowan” was burned to the ground. The Chronicle of Fothergill records the death of “ Finlay McNab of Bowayne at Illarayin, and he was buried at Killin, 13 April, 1525.” lslandran has been long under cultivation, and on it there is no vestige of a building to be seen, but there is a number of stones, apparently hewn, on the bank of the Lochay close by, which have been carried thither when the land was tilled, and these are in all probability, the only remains of the ancient fortalice. The small island in Loch Tay, near the east march of Finlarig is called Eilean Puttychan.

Although the lands of Finlarig are wholly in Killin parish, the minister of Kenmore derives stipend from them, as is also the case from Botuarnibeg in Glenlochay, and Sleoch in Macnab Lands.

EASTER KENKNOCK

IN the west side of the river Lochay is the two-merk land of Easter Kenknock, formerly in a detached portion of the parish of Weem, and now in Killin Parish. It extends to 196 acres, and belonged to the Menzieses of Weem, before the Glenorchy Campbells purchased it. The Campbells of Edramucky held it for some time in feu and afterwards in wadset.

KILLIN

TO the south of Easter Kenknock, which is here bounded by Allt Fuileach, are the lands of Killin and Barna-carry, the former of which gave name to the parish. These include the one-merk land of Margowan, the two-and-a-half-merk land of Reinrune and Marginluig, and the two-and-a-half-merk land of Stix and Barnacarry, latterly known as Ballechroisk and Monomore. Reinrune and Marginluig extend from Margowan to Allt Torraidh, and embrace, we believe, what may properly be called Killin, a name now applied to the whole village, although in the Valuation Roll of the County the old names of Ballechroisk and Monomore still appear. The stance of the Killin fairs1 is at Reinrune, beside the parish church. The latter was erected in 1744, and a stone in the north gable bears the following inscription :—

Tho. Clark
THE BUILDER OF THIS Church 1744*

The following is a list of the Killin markets :—

Feille Faolain (St. Fillan’s market), third Tuesday of January.
Feille Seorais (St. George’s market), 5th May.
An Fhaithir bheag (the Little market), 12th May.
Feille bheag na samhna (Hallow little market), Friday before first Wednesday of November.
Feille Martain Chillin (Killin St. Martin’s market), Tuesday before 11th November.

The site of the former church is pointed out a little to the westward, near to Tom-na-croich (the hanging hill), and beside a stone under which the Ossianic hero, Fingal, is said to be buried. Close by there is a mound called Tomnangill, where, from time to time, Courts of the Bailiary of Discher and Toyer were held on delinquents at this end of Loch Tay. An inn has existed where Streethouse stands for a long period, and in 1748, when Heritable Jurisdiction in Scotland was abolished, it became the seat of Justice. In that year a Sheriff Court was instituted, and Duncan Campbell, of Glenure, was appointed first Sheriff-Substitute at Killin. The act for disarming the Highlands and restraining the use of the Highland garb, had undoubtedly much to do with this step. In 1764, J. Campbell, of Lochdochart, became Sheriff, and continued till 1770, when the office was discontinued. The prison of Killin was also at Streethouse, and during recent improvements there, one of the dungeons was discovered, and converted into a cellar.

The manse and glebe of Killin lie at the foot of Stronclachan, facing the river Lochay. The old Parochial school and schoolmaster’s house, a substantial building erected in 1797, stands by itself on the Ballechroisk crofts. Killin at one time had three mills—a wauk mill, a lint mill, and a corn mill. This last was in addition to Millmore, which belonged to the lairds of Macnab, who also owned, on the north side of the Dochart, several houses, and a small portion of land east of Monomore, besides two crofts marching with Craignavie. In Monomore, where there was a change-house, the croft-lands were divided into four possessions, called Croftnamaish, Croftintobair, Croftcroy, and the Officer’s Croft. We are inclined to believe that the first-named is the holding which was originally called Dewar-na-mais croft, and which had been in the possession of a family of Dewars, the keepers of a relic of St. Fillan or his Church, in the shape of a vessel of some kind. The crofts in Ballechroisk had also distinctive names, mostly betokening the crafts of the possessors.

The lands of Killin had been granted to the Carthusian Monastery or Charterhouse, which was founded at Perth in 1429, by James I. and his Queen, being the first of the order in Scotland. Besides Killin, the Carthusians owned other lands in Glendochart, and also a part of Ardtalnaig. In 1488, we find the Prior granting to Donald McCause (McTavish) a croft of land in Killin, “with the houses and garden, and pasturage of four cows and two horses, with power to bake, brew, and sell flesh, and to buy and sell within the Lordship of Glendochart, according to the assize of the country, paying yearly to the Parish Church of Killin, three pounds of wax in honour of the blessed Virgin and St. Fillan, and all Saints, and for the increase of St. Fillan’s lights before his image, one pound whereof at the Feast of St. Fillan in summer, and another at the Feast of St. Fillan in winter.” In 1506, a croft was granted by charter, in similar terms, to Finlay Macnab. In 1561, a contract was signed at Islandran, between Sir Colin Campbell, of Glenorchy, and Duncan Campbell, of Lix, and Ewen, son of the latter, wherein Sir Colin bound himself to defend them in possession of the lands they held of the Charterhouse. In 1573, Duncan Campbell, of Lix, infefted Sir Colin in liferent, and his son, Duncan in fee, in the one-merk land of the Clachan of Killin,2 lying at the Port of Islandran.

CRAIGNAVIE

TO the west of Killin is the twenty-shilling land of Craignavie, which, in 1573, Ewen Campbell, of Lix, was infefted in by Sir Colin Campbell, of Glenorchy. In 1643, It belonged to another Ewen or Hew Campbell, but it afterwards passed into the hands of the Drummonds, of Perth. James Drummond, Duke of Perth, granted it in feu, 17th August, 1745, to John Macnab of that Ilk. It remained in the possession of the Macnabs till early in this century, when it was sold to Dr. Daniel Dewar. It changed hands two or three times before it was added to the Breadalbane property.

LIX

THE neighbouring estate of Lix, a nine-merk land, lying on the south side of the Dochart, and comprising Wester, Middle, and Easter Lix, was owned by the same lairds, who had Craignavie in 1573 and 1643. Like the latter, it was acquired by the Drummonds, and in 1745, it belonged to Lord John Drummond, the only brother of the Duke of Perth. He fought at Culloden, where he was slightly wounded. He escaped to France, and died there in 1747. Lix—which was forfeited and annexed to the Crown—was afterwards acquired by John, third Earl of Breadalbane, from the Commissioners of the annexed estates, in excambion for certain lands in Strathearn.

MACNAB Lands

TO the east of Lix lies a portion of the old patrimony of the Macnabs, of Macnab.

It is now over seventy years since Archibald Macnab, the last undoubted chief and laird of that Ilk, quitted Glendochart, with a number of his clan, to seek his fortune in another land. His inheritance consisted mostly of his uncle’s debts; and having been offered a considerable tract of country in Canada, on condition of his peopling it within a given period, he was induced to sever his connection with the glen where his ancestors had held sway for so many generations.

His predecessor, Francis Macnab, the well-known laird, had impoverished the estates beyond hope of recovery. A list of his debts made up in 1812, four years previous to his death, shewed his liabilities at nearly thirty-five thousand pounds—an enormous sum considering the times. There was scarcely a farmer on Loch Tayside to whom he was not indebted, and one of his largest creditors was John, fourth Earl of Breadalbane. He died on 25th May, 1816, in his 82nd year.

Archibald Macnab emigrated in 1821, but it was not till seven years later that the remnant of the family patrimony was disposed of by decree of the Court of Session. The estates then consisted of Macnab Lands, Bovain, and Wester Ardnagaul, and were acquired by the Earl of Breadalbane, who entered on possession at Whitsunday, 1828. There were also disposed of at the same time Macnab’s superiorities over Ewer (including Auchessan), Suie, Craignavie and Arrifinlay. The lands of Ewer had previously been sold to Mr. Edward Place, of Loch-dochart, Suie to Mr. Colin Macnab, and Craignavie to Dr. Daniel Dewar, and all were held under Macnab, the first at a blench duty of one penny Scots, and the second and third at one shilling and four shillings respectively per annum. Bovain (including Craitchur), Ewer, and Auchessan, were originally ward lands, but were latterly held blench of the Crown by Macnab for the payment of a pair of gloves.

The Macnabs traditionally claimed descent from an Abbot of Glendochart, the name itself signifying son of the Abbot, but so far as we are aware there is no trace of a monastic establishment there. As early as the time of David I., mention is made of the Macnabs, but nothing much is known of them till about two centuries later, when they joined Macdougall, of Lorn, and fought against Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Dalree in Strathfillan, in 1306, and afterwards at Bannockburn. For this they were deprived of most of their lands, and their homes were swept with fire and sword. A considerable portion of Glendochart is said to have belonged to them, but they were left with little more than the lands of Bovain.

Gilbert Macnab, the founder of the family of that Ilk, got a charter of his lands under the Great Seal in 1336. He was succeeded by his son, Finlay. Patrick, the third laird, was in 1464, confirmed in the “ Ferbaloschip ” of Auchlyne, by the Prior of the Charterhouse at Perth—an office which he and some of his predecessors seem to have enjoyed, and ten years later we find the Prior readily granting him a new charter of the lands of Auchlyne upon the representation that he had lost his old titles. One of the witnesses to this document—which was dated at Perth, ist October, 1474—was a Mr. Patrick Scott, Rector of Ardewnan, i.e., Ardeonaig, on Loch Tayside. Patrick died at Auchlyne in 1488, having the year previous granted to his son, Finlay, his lands in Glendochart, by charter signed at Killin, and witnessed, among others, by Sir Duncan Campbell, of Glenorchy, and Sir John Murray, Prior of Strathfillan. This was afterwards confirmed by James III. at Edinburgh, on 21st March, 1487. Finlay, the fourth laird, also got from James IV. the lands of Ewer and Leiragan in 1503; and from the Prior of the Charterhouse, he got the grant of a croft in Killin. Finlay seems to have been the favourite Christian name of the family, for we find the next three lairds so named. Mariot Campbell, widow of Finlay Macnab, fifth laird, got the liferent of the lands of Ewer and Leiragan, which at her death, in 1526, went to her second son, John, in terms of a charter in his favour. It was during the time of the sixth laird that Sir Colin Campbell, of Glenorchy is said to have “conquessit the superioritie of McNab his haill landis.” He also acquired the properties of Auchlyne—afterwards given to a younger son of the house, from whom descended the Campbells, of Auchlyne—Easter Ardchyle and Downich, as well as Bovain, as appears from a charter by Finlay Macnab, dated 24th November, 1552, and confirmed by Mary Queen of Scots, 27th June, 1553. The seventh laird had twelve sons, at whose hands is laid the almost utter extermination of the Neishes at Loch Earn, an incident commemorated on the coat-of-arms of the house. Their motto, Timor omnis abesto, is said to have originated then. John, the eldest of the sons—“smooth John,” as he was called—succeeded as eighth laird, and married a daughter of Campbell, of Glenlyon. He attached himself to the cause of Charles the Martyr, and in 1645 he joined Montrose, along with his followers, and took part in the Battle of Kilsyth.

He held the Castle of Kincardine against General Lesley, until provisions failing, he endeavoured to escape under cover of night, but had the misfortune to be captured along with one of his men. The rest of the garrison, numbering about 300, got clear away. He was brought to Edinburgh, and there condemned to death, but on the eve of the day of execution, he contrived to escape. He fell fighting at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. During the Commonwealth his lands were pillaged and his Castle of Islandran destroyed by fire. The former were seized by Campbell, of Glenorchy, to recompense himself for the ravages which he represented were made upon his property by Macnab. The lands were, however, restored to the family in 1661, on the supplication of the widow and Alexander, the ninth laird then a youth of fourteen years; and in all probability Bovain was redeemed at that time. Alexander married Elizabeth, sister of Sir Alexander Menzies, Baronet of Weem, by whom he had a son, Robert, the tenth laird.1 Robert married Anne, sister of the first Earl of Breadalbane, and had several children. He was survived by his wife, who died at Lochdochart, 6th September, 1765, and by two sons, John and Archibald. Both served in the Black Watch. John was taken prisoner at Prestonpans, on 21st September, 1745, and was confined in Doune Castle till the Rebellion was over. Most of the clan, however, took the field for Prince Charlie, and fought at Culloden with the Duke of Perth’s men. Archibald became a Lieutenant-General, and died at Edinburgh in 1791. John married Jean, the only sister of Francis Buchanan, of Arnprior, by whom he had Francis, the twelfth laird, and Robert. Mrs. Macnab died at Kinnell, on 20th April, 1789, and at her death the forfeited estate of Arnprior, restored but a short time previously, came into the family. Francis Macnab was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal Breadal-bane Volunteers, and there was one alive till within a few years ago who had a vivid recollection of seeing him riding up and down in front of that regiment, when it was paraded in Kenmore Park, and exhorting the men to fight for their king and country if need be, in Gaelic of anything but a choice description. He was an extraordinary character, and kept up the feudal customs of a Highland chief. He was never married, and was succeeded by Archibald, his nephew, the son of Dr. Robert Macnab in Bovain.

[The following incident in connection with this laird is mentioned in the MS. of Breadalbane traditions, before referred to:—“A robber from the north having brought a creach from Strathearn was met with at the south end of the bridge of Dochart, by the then laird of McNab, who was married to one of the seven daughters of Sir John Campbell, of Glenurchay, and who was grandfather to the late Francis McNab, of McNab, and he having refused the robber and his party access thro’ his land, the robber drew his sword and attacked McNab, who, tho’ very stout, was obliged to retire, whereupon Donul Mandach McNab, then in Sleich of Kinnell, stood in his chiefs place, and obliged the robber to deliver up his sword. The people of that neighbourhood having convened, the robber and his strong party were obliged to give up the creach, which was returned to the owners.]

After remaining in Canada a number of years, Archibald returned to Scotland in 1853, and on 12th August, i860, at the age of 83 years, he died at Lannion, Cotes du Nord, France, where he was buried. He left a widow, who died at Florence in 1868, and one daughter, the sole survivor of a family of eight children.

The six-merk land of Kinauldzie, Kinald, or Kinnell, and the two-merk land of Acharn, are known as Macnab Lands. The former includes, on the south side of the river Dochart, in addition to the land attached to Kinnell House—the old seat of the chiefs—the farm and grazings of Sleoch, and the possessions at Clachaig House and Gray Street. On the north side of the Dochart, the Macnabs had also possessions, comprehending the houses and ground beside the present Post-Office, Millmore, houses and land there, and the “ Miller’s and Baker’s ” crofts, marching with Craignavie, with rights on the commonty of Monomore. The islands in the Dochart, Garbh Innis, and Innis Bhuidhe, also formed part of their lands. In the latter is the old burying-ground of the Macnabs. A walled enclosure keeps sacred the spot where the chiefs and their kinsfolk lie, outside of which the retainers and clansmen were buried.1 There is a belief in the district that Innis Bhuidhe still belongs to the clan, but such is not the case; neither have they even a right of burial there, for the island, with its dead, was sold without any reservation of the kind whatever. Although the whole of the lands lie in the parish of Killin, a small teind duty is exigible from Sleoch to the minister of Kenmore.

Within the two-merk land of Acharn there is a triangular piece of land of about eighty acres in extent which does not form part of Macnab Lands, but which has been merged in the farm of Acharn. This is the separate and distinct property of Croitendeor, or Dewar’s Croft, which, prior to 1755, belonged to a family of that name, who had the hereditary keeping of the crozier of St. Fillan. They also possessed Euich and Craigwokin, near Killin. Sir Colin Campbell, sixth laird of Glenorchy, purchased these lands in 1575, but the Dewars still remained as tenants in Glendochart down to the last century. A fifth part of Acharn hill grazing belonged to Croitendeor. Amidst other lands which belonged to the Macnabs, there were crofts of the Dewars. Within the ten-merk land of Auchlyne, which includes Wester Ardchyle, now called Liangarstan, there was Dewarnafergus croft, and in the twenty-shilling land of Suie was Dewarvernans croft.

‘At the west end of Innis Bhuidhe, to which access is got from the bridge of Dochart, are two pillars of masonry standing apart, parallel to which a structure, having three archways, extends the breadth of the island. Close to the burying-ground, on the west side is an entrenchment, also extending across the island, having the remains of a stone and lime wall on the east side. Within the walled enclosure there are four gravestones, three flat and one upright. On one of the former there is a recumbent figure in armour rudely cut, and beneath this stone many of the chiefs are said to be buried. On the left, another stone has round the margin (t)his bvriel (appertai)nes to fin(l)ay MAKNAB OF BAVAIN. The letters here given within parentheses are not now decipherable. The third is supposed to mark the grave of Elizabeth Menzies, wife of Alexander, ninth laird of Macnab. The upright stone bears the following inscription :—“ Sacred to the memory of Colin Macnab, Esq., late of Suie, who died 6th April, 1832, aged 69 years. This humble tribute of affection is erected by his brother, Allan Macnab, Ardeonaig.” On the back of the stone are his coat-of-arms, helmet, crest, and motto, with the date 1834. On the outside of the west wall is a memorial tablet:—“ In Memory of a man, an honour to his name, Lieut. Allan McNab, 92nd Regt., who, after serving his country in Holland, Portugal, and Spain, at last on the Field of Almeida, gloriously fell; 5 May, 1811. This stone has been erected by his affectionate cousin, Archibald McNab.” Of the stones in the general place of interment only two bear inscriptions.

AUCHMORE

THE ten-merk land of Auchmore lies on the south side (plfs) of Loch Tay, to the east of Macnab Lands. It was acquired by the Glenorchy Campbells first in tack and afterwards in feu from the Menzieses of Weem. The Earls of Athole held it prior to the latter family.

The greater part of the property formed until recently a detached part of the parish of Weem. It is now in Kenmore parish, and is divided from Killin parish by the burn of Auchmore. The small strip of land, which lies between this burn and Macnab Lands, was formerly called Wester Auchmore. At the northern end of Wester Auchmore close to the ford at the junction of the rivers Dochart and Lochay, was Reindow, which gave name to the fishings at this end of Loch Tay.

Auchmore, including Auch and the mill of the property, was wadsetted early in the last century to John Campbell of Achallader, Chamberlain of Breadalbane. The house of Auchmore, which was occupied by him, was at that time a dwelling of meagre dimensions. In 1806, considerable additions were made to it, and it was subsequently occupied by the son of the fourth Earl of Breadalbane. The handsome structure, which occupies the site of the old house, was built by the present Marquis of Breadalbane in 1872. It is in the Italian style of architecture, and was erected at a cost of £70,000.

At Firbush Point there are traces of an intrenchment, the remains of an ancient castramentation, regarding which there is nothing known.

CLOICHRAN

ALLT NA BREACLAICH divides Auchmore on the east from the ten-merk land of Cloichran. Cloichran, which is in Kenmore parish, was formerly divided into three portions, each being three-and-a-third-merk land, namely, Cuilt Cloichran, Middle Cloichran, including Bathachan, and Cambuschurich, including Croftnafiannag. The mill of the property, Muillean dubh, was in Middle Cloichran. Opposite Slochedow wood is Lechk a giel-rewr, a well-known rock in Loch Tay.

ARDEONAIG

TO the east of Cloichran lies the twenty-pound land of Ardeonaig, which, with the exception of a portion of the old commonty of Corryghavie, formed until recently a detached part of the Parish of Killin, to which it was annexed in 1617, having prior to that date constituted an independent parish. It is now in Kenmore parish.

At a very early period the whole of the lands of Ardeonaig was in the possession of the old Earls of Lennox. Duncan, the eighth Earl, had three daughters, the eldest of whom was Isabella, Duchess of Albany, whose husband and two sons were executed at Stirling in 1425. Margaret, the second daughter, married, in 1392, Sir Robert Menteith of Rusky, by whom she had a son, Sir Murdoch. The latter had by his wife, Christian Murray of Tullibardine, three children—a son, Patrick, and two daughters, Agnes and Elizabeth. Patrick died without issue, when the heirship of the lands of Lanarky and Rusky devolved on his two sisters. They also succeeded to the lands of Ardeonaig, on the death of the Duchess of Albany—their grand-aunt—when the Lennox Partition took place.

Napier of Merchiston married Elizabeth, the younger daughter of Sir Murdoch Menteith, and through her acquired the wester half of Ardeonaig, which comprehended the lands of Tullichcan, the middle third of Ardeonaig, and the ten-merk land of the wester half of the haugh, with the fishings in Loch Tay opposite these lands. The Napiers were also proprietors of the barony of Edinbellie, to which Wester Ardeonaig was annexed. In the Roll of the Landlords and Bailies of 1587, the laird of Merchiston is mentioned. He was Sir Archibald Napier, father of the celebrated inventor of logarithms, a portrait of whom hangs in the Barons’ Hall at Taymouth Castle. An ancestor of his married Annabell, daughter of Sir Duncan Campbell, second laird of Glenorchy. From the Napiers the lands are said to have passed into the hands of a family of the name of Macgregor, whose descendants held them until they were acquired by Alexander Campbell, second son of Patrick Campbell of Mur-laganbeg and Edinchip.

This Patrick was a natural son of Sir Duncan Campbell, seventh laird of Glenorchy, who bestowed on him the two-merk land of Murlaganbeg in Glenlochay, which had formerly been in the possession of a John Monteith. Sir Duncan afterwards, in 1620, conveyed to him the eight-merk land of Edinchip in Balquhidder. Patrick held, under his father, the office of forester of Mamlorn. In 1661, he was killed at Ardeonaig in an encounter with a band of Macgregors. His eldest son, by his wife, Grissil Campbell, daughter of the laird of Glenlyon, succeeded to Murlaganbeg and Edinchip. The former property remained in his family till 1744, when it was disposed to Lord Glenorchy. Alexander, second son of Patrick, was the first of the Campbells of Ardeonaig. He, also, married into the Glenlyon family, his wife being a daughter of Captain Robert Campbell of Glencoe notoriety. His eldest son, Colin, about 1720, succeeded as second laird of Ardeonaig. He married Catherine, daughter of Campbell of Duneaves, by whom he had six sons1

‘Colin’s eldest son, John, became a captain in the army. He married Alice, daughter and heiress of Campbell of Kilpunt. She had two sisters of whom Elizabeth, the younger, was twice married, her first husband having and two daughters. He appears to have got into monetary difficulties, and had to dispose of his lands. This was sometime previous to 1734, in which year Wester Ardeonaig came into the Breadalbane family, having been excambed by Patrick Campbell of Barcaldine, the then proprietor, for the lands of Achacha, Achinryer, and others in Argyllshire, up till then in the possession of the Earl of Breadalbane, who retained the superiority of them.

The following is a list of the old names of the different possessions in Wester Ardeonaig :—Wester and Easter Tullichcan, Cromaltan, Blarnadark, Croftshennach, Croftnacabber, Croftna-beallie, Craggan, Dalcroy, Ballinloan, Balinaw, Mains, Margdow, Nether Tombane, Bealloch, Upper Tombane, Braentrian, Leck-eorn, and Newton.

The mansion of the property was called Mains Castle, and stood on the holding of that name. From what remains of it, it does not appear to have been a large structure. We have no account of the founder, but in all probability the last occupant had been Colin Campbell, the second and last laird of his family, after whose time the castle had been allowed to fall into decay, and most of the stones removed and used in the erection of other been Ewen or Hugh Campbell,1 a brother of Colin. John acquired the small estate of Lochend on the Lake of Menteith, to which his son, also named John, succeeded. The latter served for a time in the Royal Marines, and was afterwards appointed Chamberlain on the Nether Lorn estates of the Earl of Breadalbane. Having sold Lochend, he purchased Kinlochlaich in Appin, which was thenceforth called Lochend after his former property. He left a number Of descendants.

Mrs. Campbell, Boreland farm, Fearnan, who is descended from a younger son of Alexander, first laird of Ardeonaig, has in her possession the charm stone of that family. It is oval in shape, and has a reddish mottled appearance. It was believed to possess a talismanic power of warding off and curing bodily diseases.

“Kenmore, April 22, 1739. This day there was eighteen pence Given into the Box for the use of the Mortcloath To the funerals of Hugh Campbell, brother German to Coline Campbell Late of Ardeonaig, who died at Chestell in Glenlyon, & was Interred at fortingall yesterday, a poor Gentleman.” (Kenmore Kirk Session Records buildings in the vicinity. The garden and orchard lay betwixt the castle and the burn of Ardeonaig. Close by there are some very old elm, ash, and sycamore trees.

The old commonty of Corryghavie above alluded to, lies in the parish of Comrie. It was held in common by the tenants of Wester Ardeonaig and Derry on Lochearnside, but disputes having arisen regarding the pasturage, it was divided between the proprietors of these lands, and the northern portion was added to the hill grazing of Newton.

Agnes, the elder daughter of Sir Murdoch Menteith, was married to Sir John Haldane, of Gleneagles, who by his wife, succeeded to the easter half of the lands of Ardeonaig, with fishings in Loch Tay, and the right of patronage of the church, by turns. About 1612, Sir James Campbell, of Lawers, acquired Easter Ardeonaig, by purchase from James Haldane, and thenceforth the lands were annexed to the barony of Lawers. Towards the end of that century they came into the possession of the first Earl of Breadalbane.

Described as the ten-pound land of Easter Ardeonaig, the property embraces the lands of Succoch, Finglenhaugh, Led-chraggan, and the twenty-shilling land of Carie. These lands have for a number of years back been merged into two farms, but were formerly divided into the following possessions:— Tomour, Succoch, Finglen, Tynaline, Twenty-shilling land, Led-chraggan, and Margnadallich alias Dali, Croftdunard, Margmore, Margbeg, Margnacranag, Licknie, and Aldvine (Allt Mheine) croft. The last five constituted the Twenty-shilling land of Carie. The meal mill of the property in Finglen is still worked.

The old church of Ardeonaig, situated within the burying ground in Twenty-shilling land, was called Cill ma Charmaig. Only the east gable of it is now standing. The stone font which belonged to it is preserved within the graveyard. Considering the antiquity of the place, the latter contains few tombstones, none of which bear dates prior to the middle of last century. For sometime after the Reformation, the parishes of Kenmore, Ardeonaig, Killin, and Strathfillan were under the charge of one minister.

ARDTALNAIG

TO the east of Allt Mheine, the eastern boundary of the lands of Ardeonaig, is the thirty-merk land of Ardtalnaig. This district is held under the Crown.

Ardtalnaig had been at one time a place of considerable importance. On the farm of Milton there is pointed out a spot, where stood, according to tradition, the Castle of Tay. There was, we believe, some vestige of a building to be seen there so recent as the last century, but all trace of it has since been removed. This castle was reputed to have been the hunting-seat of the Scottish kings, several centuries ago, when they came to enjoy the pleasures of the chase in the wilds of Breadalbane. The salmon fishings in Loch Tay also formed an attraction, and it was while fishing there in 646 that Donald IV. was drowned. He could not, however, have occupied the Castle of Tay, for according to the traditionary account, the founding of it is ascribed to Malcolm II., who reigned 1004-34. Close by, there is a cairn said to be almost co-eval with the castle, and underneath which are supposed to rest the remains of a mighty warrior, none other than a brother of Banquo, Thane of Lochaber, who, as the story runs, was wounded in a conflict with McCouill, of Lorn, in the west, and, coming hither, died of his wounds. Above his grave was raised a cairn; which in time became covered with lichen, and from which it received the name of Carnbane, or white cairn, a name that came to be applied to the farm on which it stands. From time to time in course of land improvements several relics have been discovered about the place.

Prior to the appointment of Sir Duncan Campbell, second laird of Glenorchy, to the Bailiary of Discher and Toyer, the Kings’ Bailies held their Courts at Ardtalnaig, and a portion of land there is still known as the Bailie’s land. The last of the Bailies who presided there was a Macintosh of Monzievaird. He is said never to have visited the district without having at least one execution carried out, and “ Cha’n ann a’ h-uile latha bhios mbd aig Mac-an-Toisich”—“It is not every day that Macintosh holds a court ”—became an ominous and proverbial saying in the country-side. The Black Book of Taymouth says that Sir Colin Campbell, first laird of Glenorchy, “ conquessit the takis of the threttie markland of Ardtallonick.” The same authority gives 1480 as the year of Sir Colin’s death, while the Chronicle of Fothergill records his demise as having taken place in 1475. The latter appears to be the correct date. In the Crown Rental for 1480, Sir Duncan Campbell, Sir Colin’s heir and successor, is entered as tenant of certain lands on Loch Tayside, but his name does not appear in connection with Ardtalnaig. Two-thirds of the lands were then in the hands of the Carthusian monks, under whom Sir Colin, however, may have held. The remaining third was let to Donald McCawis (McTavish), son of Duncan McCawis, and his mother, who were granted a lease of three years, to date from the expiry of their existing lease, which had two years to run; but by 1484, they, for some inexplicable reason, had ceased to be tenants, and their lands were occupied by an Irishman, named Patrick Leitch. James Campbell, laird of Lawers, got a tack of the Charterhouse lands of Ardtalnaig with the mill thereof, sometime prior to 1555, and in that year he assigned the tack to Sir Colin Campbell, sixth laird of Glenorchy, who, before his death in 1583, got feus of both the Crown and Charterhouse lands on Loch Tayside, and these have remained in the possession of his descendants ever since.

The church and manse of Ardeonaig, so called, are situated in the lands of Ardtalnaig, in what was formerly known as the boat croft of Tullich, a forty-penny land. The original manse was built shortly after 17 91, and in 1795 the boat croft became the minister’s glebe. The old church, which stood within the graveyard at Ardeonaig, having got into a delapidated condition, the fourth Earl of Breadalbane erected the present church in 1820, the Presbytery of Dunkeld having sanctioned its erection in Kenmore parish. To the east of the church and manse the lands of Ardtalnaig lie in the following order:—Wester Tullich, Tom-nadason, Easter Tullich, Craig, Ten-shilling land, Kindrochit, Achomer, Claggan, Leadour, Tullichglas, Tomflour, Lurg, Revane, Mallie, Cromron, Carnbane, Croftdow (the last five possessions being now known as Milton), Leckbuie, Skiag, Shenlarich, Kep-rannich, and Ardradnaig.

The meal mill of the property was wrought up to about 1832. There was also a lint mill. It was erected in 1788. Various other industries have from time to time been prosecuted at Ardtalnaig and abandoned, notably among these, lead and copper mining, distilling, bobbin-turning and farina-making. Lead was wrought in Leckbuie hill in the last century, and, in the time of the first Marquis of Breadalbane, copper was discovered at Tomnadason, and mines were opened there by the second Marquis, and continued in operation till his death in 1862, when the workings were discontinued, the undertaking having, it is understood, proved unremunerative. Lead mines were also wrought at the top of Meall na Creige, on the march of the Ardtalnaig and the Ardeonaig lands, and something was done in unearthing silver ore in Milton hill. The late Marquis of Breadalbane possessed one or two trinkets, made of gold found at Tomnadason.

The burying ground of Ardtalnaig was laid out early in the last century. The second interment in it was made in 1715.

EDDERGOLL

THE district which extends from Auchroich burn at Callelochan to the east end of Loch Tay, was anciently known as Eddergoll. This name has been long obsolete, and is entirely unknown on Loch Tayside as a local place-name. From the Crown Rental of 1480, we find the district was then divided into Easter end of Eddirgolly, Wester end of Eddirgolly, Killalochane in Eddirgolly, and the Remainder of Eddirgolle. The mill of Eddirgolly is also mentioned. In the Exchequer Rolls for i486, the name appears as Ardgollane, and the Wester end is described as lying infra torrentes, while Killalochane is referred to as being in Nethergolly, and the mill as de Argolly. In the Chronicle of Fothergill’ we find other forms of the word:—“ 1531, August 11, Death of Duncan McConell Gorme at Rayn (Remony?) in Eddirzowell, and he was buried in the church of Inchaden at the north end of the Host Choir.” “ 1556, John Challar Moyr died at Eddergooyllyt, on the 27th of September, and was buried at Inchaden, on the eve of St. Michael the Archangel.”

Eddergoll appears to have been annexed to the Crown at a very early period, and until set in tack and eventually feued out to the lairds of Glenorchy, the lands were held by the different tenants direct of the king.

The following is a list of the Crown tenants in 1480, with the amount of rent in money payable by each:—

The leases of these tenants were of three years’ duration, and appear to have been renewed for a similar period at the end of the first year.

The above divisions of the lands cannot now be localised, but we are inclined to think that Easter end of Eddergoll extended from the east march of Croftnacaber to Allt Mhuicky, and that Wester end of Eddergoll lay betwixt the latter and Acharn burn, while the Remainder of Eddergoll stretched to the east march of Callelochan. In all probability the mill, of which Donald Makgilquhinye was tenant, would have stood near the site of the present mill, by the side of Acharn burn, and on the land which he held, which was in Wester end of Eddergoll, and if we take torrentes to mean the Falls of Acharn, there seems little doubt that Wester Eddergoll was where we conjecture, and that the Remainder of Eddergoll lay to the west of Acharn burn, strange as this may appear. There is no record of any ancient fortalice in the district, but the names, Leod Chastle and Tom Chastle,

1 The following entry in the Chronicle of Fother gill may refer to the above :—“ 1491, March 10, Death of John Duncansone McGregor, at Bellycht; and he was buried in Inchaden on the north side of the great altar.” applied respectively to a field and hillock on the farm of Call-elochan, would imply that some structure had stood there; and the fact of the majority of the tenants being congregated in the Remainder of Eddergoll may point to the supposition of their being so placed, to render prompt aid to the occupier of the castle in time of need.

Coming nearer our own times, we find the district sub-divided, and the holdings bearing the following names :—Callelochan, Achianich, Wester Lurgloman, Easter Lurgloman, Wester Croft-martaig, Easter Croftmartaig, Wester Acharn, Easter Acharn, Wester Balnlaggan, Easter Balnlaggan, Meadow of Lonaguy, Tomgarrow, Revucky, Aleckich, Remony, Croftnamuick, Balmac-naughton (or forty-shilling land), Portbane and Croftnacaber. The last named is bounded on the east by what were formerly the outfields and pasture lands of Kenmore, now under wood. The small artificial island in Loch Tay, opposite Croftnacaber, formed prior to 1720, and enlarged by the second Marquis of Breadalbane, was known as Spry or Spries Island, but appears in the Ordnance Survey as Isle of Spar. There is an eminence on the farm of Remony, called Tom Chorpuidh, where probably feuds were settled long ago, but so far as we are aware, there are no traditions preserved concerning it. The district is very void of antiquities of any note.