PerthshireCrieffStrathearn Local History

Oh what a Parish , what a terrible parish Oh what a Parish is that of Kinkell  They has hangit the minister , drooned  the precentor Dunged doon the steeple and drunken the bell  Virtually forgotten , St Beans, the old Kirk of Kinkell is a peaceful haven in a spectacular  setting overlooking the Earn . If stones could talk ! The Medieval Church of  St Beans and the churchyard  Followers of my Blogs  might recall that I covered  the last execution on the " Kind Gallows " of  Crieff  and that the poor person was none other than the Minister of Kinkell, one |Richard Duncan . Th poor  guy had  been accused and found guilty of the murder of a child . The body had been discovered hidden under the hearth stone . The child was that of  Duncan's maid - servant and  he was  condemned  to hang  at the Crieff Stayt  by the Fourth Earl of  Perth and Steward of Strathearn .  A reprieve  had  been obtained but  by the time the messeng

St Beans Kirk INTRODUCTION  There has   been a   church   on this   site dating in probability   back to the seventh or eighth century . The present building was reconstructed   to the plans of architect J Jeffrey Waddell in 1927 .To his credit , he retained   much of its historical past in the present fabric . There is a reconstruct leper squint in line with the alter . Leprosy was    a common disease in medieval Scotland and indeed King Robert the Bruce   was sufferer . The association of the Moray / Moray-Stirling family of   nearby Abercairney with the Kirk is clear to see . There is a panel bearing the coat of arms of Colonel William Moray - Stirling and above this   a stone inscribed WsM ( Sir William Moray of Abercairney ) dated   1640 .Externally , Waddell added the crow   stepped   gables   and retained   the18th century bird cage bellcote (bell tower ) above the main entrance door. Fowlis Wester is a charming little   village which with the changes in the road  

Episcopacy in Strathearn A History of the Church at Muthill from the earliest times to the present day ( written in 1907 ) An Early Period The beautiful valley of the earn extending from Balquhidder to Newburgh was in olden days one of the distant routes of communication between the extreme west of Scotland and the east . The influence of the first Christian missionaries beginning in the west of Argyllshire soon extended itself to the east by the valleys lying between Loch Lomond and Loch Earn , and the track of  the missionaries can  still be made out  with little difficulty  by the existence of place names and  Church dedications . Of the character  of that Irish Christianity  that thus came into Scotland ,there is little dispute  today .Generally speaking it partook of the character of ordinary Western Christianity , with this exception that whereas in the more highly organised parts of Western Europe it was diocesan , in Ireland and Scotland  it was at