MONIVAIRD, or MONZIEVAIRD-AND-STROWAN, a parish,
in the county of Perth, 3 miles (N. W.) from
Crieff; containing 853 inhabitants. The word Monivaird
is a corruption of the Gaelic term Moivard, or
Monvard, signifying " the hill of the bards ". Strowan is
corrupted from Rowen, Rowan, or Ronan, a saint who
flourished about the middle of the seventh century, who
was eminent for learning, and is said to have been in
possession of the estate now called Strowan; he also
gave name to a spring and a lake here, and to a festival
held in the place. The two parishes are supposed to
have been united about 200 years; but the church of
each was kept distinct, and retained for public worship,
till the year 1804, when a new church was built in a
central part for the use of the whole jxiijulation. The
church of St. Servanus, or Serf, at Monivaird, is thought
to have been given by the Earl of Strathearn, at the beginning
of the thirteenth century, to tlie monastery of
Inchaffrey. In 1511, in the reign of James IV., the
sacred edifice was- the scene of a bloody strife between
the clans of the Murrays and the Drummonds, the
former of whom, being out-numbered and in great
danger, had fled thither and concealed themselves. But
their hiding-place being discovered by an accidental circumstance,
and all the men refusing to surrender, the
Drummonds set fire to the building, which was soon
burnt to the ground; and the victims, amounting, according
to the account of Sir Walter Scott in his Legend
of Montrose, to eight score men, with their wives and
children, were consumed by the flames. The Master of
Drummond, William, son of John first Lord Drummond,
was immediately afterwards apprehended by order of
the king, and conveyed to Stirling, where, with several
of his followers, he was shortly executed. Upon digging
the foundations for the mausoleum of the Murray family,
in 1809, on the site of the old thatched church, some
charred wood and a large quantity of human bones confusedly
heaped together were found, supposed to have
been the result of the conflagration in 151 1.
An old castle situated on the north of the loch of
Monivaird is said to have belonged to Red Cumyn, the
rival of Bruce: it is called Castle- Cuggy, is exceedingly
strong, and was inhabited during the time of
Cromwell by Sir William Murray, the first baronet of
Ochtcrtyre. The residence of the Malises or Grahams,
Earls of Strathearn, was also in the parish of Monivaird,
the castle occupying the summit of Tom-a-chastel. It
was burnt down, according to tradition, while inhabited
by some ladies of note, who perished in the flames. One
of them is conjectured to have been Joanna, daughter of
Malise, Earl of Strathearn, and of the Princess of the
Orkneys, and wife of the Earl de Warenne; who, in consequence
of her treasonable practices against King
Robert I., had been condemned to perpetual imprisonment
in the keep of this castle by the Black parliament
held at Scone in 1320. No events of historical importance
have occurred in connexion with the parish in
recent times. In the autumn of 1839, the locality was
visited by some severe shocks of earthquake, passing
along from the north-west to the south-east, and which
were partially felt as far as Inverness, the banks of Loch
Awe, Dunbar, and Berwick. Shocks had been occasionally
felt for the previous fifty years; but these last
were far more serious, and so much alarmed the inhabitants
of the district, by shaking the houses from top to
bottom, for several miles round, that most of the people
residing at the adjacent village of Comrie spent the
whole night in the streets, or in the churches, which were
opened for prayer. Similar shocks have occurred since,
but much more slightly. During the winter of 1S43-4,
when the loch of Monivaird was frozen over with very
thick ice, there was an earthquake that rent the ice on
the loch in three parallel lines running from east to
west: it occurred on a Sunday, when the people were at
church, and some pieces of plaster fell from the roof of
the building; but the alarm was only momentary.
The PARISH is situated in the district of Strathearn,
and is about nine miles long from north to south, and six
miles broad. It approaches in form to an oval iigure;
but two tracts stretch into the contiguous parish of
Comrie (and are annexed to it ecclesiastically): one of
these is on the south-west, in the direction of Glenartney,
and the other up Glenlednock, towards the north or
north-west. The number of acres comprised in the whole
is between 21,000 and 22,000; about 3000 acres are
cultivated, 2000 occupied by wood, and the remainder
in pasture. The surface is hilly and mountainous, but
well watered and richly wooded, and partakes to a considerable
extent of the milder and more picturesque
features of Lowland, combined with the bolder and more
romantic scenery of Highland, districts. A ridge of the
Grampians runs along the northern boundary from east
to west; and though bare and craggy at the summit,
yet in its slope to the beautiful vale of Earn it is clothed
with large plantations of forest-trees, which form a
striking and interesting feature in the scenery. The
highest elevation in this chain is Benchonzie, or " the
mossy mountain ", so called from an area of about forty
acres on its top being covered with a light- coloured
moss i it rises about 2922 feet above the level of the sea.
At the south-eastern extremity of the parish is Turleum,
a hill about 1400 feet high, connected with the lower
parts of the northern ridge by a series of conical hills
partly clothed with copse, and crowned with lofty firs.
This line of hills crosses the valley of the Earn, and
consists of the eminences of Laggan, Drummachargan,
and Tom-a-chastel. On the last of these, most romantically
situated, is the monument erected to the memory
of General Sir David Baird, the hero of Seringapatam;
it is an obelisk of fine Aberdeen granite, eighty-two feet
high, and an exact resemblance of Cleopatra's Needle.
The valley separating Monivaird on the north from
the district of Strowan on the south, presents the most
rich and diversified scenery, comprehending hill and
dale, wood and water, finely contrasted with the adjacent
mountains of various size and figure; while in the
distance appear the stately heights of Benchonzie, Benvoirlich,
and Benmore. Most of the hills abound in all
kinds of game; and on the celebrated cliffs of Glen-
Turret the eagle annually builds her nest and rears her
young, not uufrequently, in time of scarcity of game,
making great depredations among the flocks by carrying
off young lambs. This glen was formerly famed for
its breed of falcons; and here was procured the pair
presented to George III. at his coronation, by the Duke
of Atholl, in token of the tenure by which he held the
Isle of Man under the crown of England. The largest
loch in the parish is Loch Turret, embosomed in Glen-
Turret, at the foot of Benclnnizie; it is about a mile
long and a quarter of a mile liroad, and well stocked
with trout, pike, and perch. Loch Ouan, in the same
glen, is remarkable for the number of trout taken in it;
and among several small lakes in the lower part of the
parish, prolific in tench, eel, and other kinds of fish, is
Loch Monivaird, covering an extent of about forty acres:
it is situated at the base of a wood, and for many years
yielded large quantities of shell-marl. The river Earn,
issuing from the loch of the same name, in the parish of
Comrie, passes through this ami other parishes, and
after a winding course of about thirty-six miles, falls
into the Tay at Rhynd. It is joined on the east, near
Crieff, by a stream issuing from Loch Turret, and which,
in its precipitous course of about six miles, is marked by
many powerful falls. One of these, called the falls of
Ochtertyre, and situated in the heart of a thickly-wooded
dell, is exceedingly beautiful, the water descending with
tumultuous uproar for thirty feet: opposite to it, in a
romantic spot, a grotto has been cut in the rock by the
proprietor, for the accommodation of visiters; while a
bridge has been thrown over the stream a little below.
The Barvic, another rapid stream, running along the
north-eastern boundary, separates Monivaird from Monzie;
and after an impetuous course of four miles through
a romantic ravine, displaying a number of beautiful cascades,
it falls at last into the Turret.
The SOIL on the lower grounds is light and gravelly,
and on the sides of the rivers, for the most part, alluvial;
producing excellent crops, especially of barley. Barley
and oats are the kinds of grain chiefly raised. Of the
latter, the Flemish are sown on the best soils, and the
Irish on the worst; the Angus-shire sort being preferred
for clayey grounds. Turnips and potatoes, and various
kinds of grasses, also form a considerable portion of the
produce, and alternate with the white crops in the rotation
system of husbandry, which, with the usual modern
improvements, is successfully followed here. The ordinary
sheep are the black-faced, Leicester sheep however
being kept on ornamental grounds; the cattle in the
higher parts are the Highland breed, and in the lower,
crosses with the Teeswater and Ayrshire. Draining has
been carried on to some extent; and within the present
century the inclosures and farm-buildings have received
considerable attention. Much has been effected through
the encouragement afforded by the premiums of the
Strathearn Agricultural Society, instituted in 1809, by
the late Sir P. Murray, Bart. In general the rocks are
covered with moss, turf, and peat, a supply of the last of
which for fuel is obtained from Glen-Turret; barkedoak,
also, is much used for fire-wood, and coal brought
from a distance is burnt in considerable quantities. The
strata in the mountains consist chiefly of clay-slate and
red sandstone; a slate-quarry has been opened, and
several freestone quarries are in operation, one of them
producing a material of excellent quality. The annual
value of real property in the parish is £6000.
Much of the natural wood is thought to have formed
part of the ancient Caledonian forest. In this parish
the trees comi)rise oak, ash, elm, pine, birch, plane, and
laburnum, ornamentally disposed, and displaying in different
directions a profusion of ever-varying and beautifully-
tinted foliage. Within the last thirty or forty years,
large tracts, belts, and clumps of hard and other kinds
of wood have been planted, cs])ecially on the estate of
Ochtertyre, on which stands the mansion of the principal
heritor, Sir Win. Keith Murray, Bart. The Murray
family is the oldest in the parish, having been founded
by Patrick, third son of Sir David Murray, sixth baron
of Tullibardine, ancestor of the Atholl family, who died
in 14*6. Ochtertyre is a modern structure, beautifully
situated on a richly-wooded slope; it commands fine
views, and is ornamented with superior gardens. The
park, which comprehends part of the plain of Monivaird,
was the jilace, according to Chalmers, where Kenneth
IV., King of Scotland, was slain in battle in the year
lOO.'S; and a mountain overlooking the plain is still
called Cairn-cluiiiiachan, or " Kenneth's cairn". In the
parish are also the mansion of Lawers, a tasteful Ionic
building, embosomed in wood; and Strowan and Clathick,
two modern convenient residences. Two turnpike-
roads run between Crieff and Comrie, one passing
on the north side of the Earn, througli Monivaird, and
the other on the south, through Strowan; and there are
several good stone bridges over the rivers. The chief
communication is with Crieff and Comrie, the former
place half a mile distant from the parish boundary on
the east, and the latter somewhat nearer on the western
side. Ecclesiastically the parish is in the presbytery of
Auchterarder, synod of Perth and Stirling, and in the
gift of the Earl of Kinnoull: the minister's stipend is
£261, with a manse, and a glebe of twelve acres valued
at £30 per annum. The church was built in 1804, and
contains 600 sittings. The parochial school affords instruction
in the usual branches; the master has a salary
of £34, with a house, and £15 fees. There is a parochial
library of about 250 volumes, chiefly religious.
Many Roman antiquities have been found in the neighbourhood;
and a cross with the initials J. N. R. J.
(Jesus Nazarenus Rex Jiulaoriwi) is still to be seen near
the mansion-house of Strowan, pointing out the site
where the market of that place was held.