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The loch and its surrounding scenery—Levenmouth and the sluices—Scotlandwell
and the Bishop Hill—Portmeak church and village of Kinnesswood—Michael Bruce
and his poetry—Hamlets of Easter and Wester Balgedie— The old church of
Orwell,
A pleasant and interesting
excursion may be made from Kinross round Loch Leven, and if the traveller is
a tolerable pedestrian, he may easily accomplish it on foot, as the circuit
does not exceed fifteen miles. If he prefers to drive or be driven, there
are always good horses and carriages to be procured at the Green Hotel. He
may either take the north side of the loch first, or return two miles on the
road that he has already traversed in coming from Queensferry, and then turn
eastwards along the southern shore. This is the course which we shall now
follow.
Nearly opposite to Gairney
Bridge farm, about a mile to the north of Blairadam station, a road strikes
off the Great North Road to the right, and leads along the north base of
Benarty by the farms of West and East Brackleigh to Levenmouth, Auchmoor
Bridge, and Leslie. The marks of the great landslip which look place here
more than half a century ago, are still very visible on the slope of Benarty.
The road borders, though at first not very closely, Loch Leven, of which the
traveller by this route gets a fine view, and has facing him the Bishop
Hill, the south-western extremity of which above Scotlandwell is covered
with wood. The river Leven at the present day issues from the loch at a
different point from what it used to do when it escaped by its natural
channel. This ancient bed ot the stream is now partly covered by a
plantation of trees, known as the Levenmouth Plantat:<m, and the river quits
the loch at the sluices by a canal which has been cut from thence, almost in
a straight line to Auchmoor Bridge, a distance of about three miles and a
half. The sluice-house is a favourite place for picnics, though all the
accommodation that is granted is admission to the grounds, and shelter from
the weather should the latter prove inclement. No refreshments of any kmd
can be obtained, but the situation is rather a pleasant one for enjoyment
alfresco. The buildings and apparatus here for regulating the outflow from
the loch have all been erected : once the commencement of the drainage
operations subsequent to 1826.
Having arrived within about
two miles of Auchmoor Bridge and completely skirted the north base of
Benarty, the traveller, if he wishes to make the circuit of Loch Leven, will
turn to the left in the direction of the Bishop Hill and the village of
Scotlandwell, which are situated at a distance of about 1 ^ mile due north
from this point. He will cross the New Gullet Bridge, which spans the new
Leven river or canal about a mile from the sluice-house, and a quarter of a
mile farther on he will reach the Old Gullet Bridge, near Lochend farm. A
little beyond this, on the left hand, at Redhouse, a road leads to the old
burying-ground and site of the monastery of Portmoak, which seems to have
been connected with and formed essentially a part of the monastic
establishment on the island of St Serf. It is situated close to the old
shore of the loch, and about a mile south-west from Scotlandwell, to reach
which directly from this, it is necessary to cross the boggy tract known as
Portmoak Moss.
Following the road north from
New Gullet Bridge, the traveller after a mile's walk finds himself at
Scotland-well, a simple, rather ancient, and tumble-down looking village,
situated exactly at the south extremity of the Bishop Hill, and overhung by
Kilmagad wood. He will find here a small unpretending public-house (Thomas
Ritchie's), where he can obtain a modest luncheon of bread and cheese and
beer at a very moderate charge. Stepping a few yards to the west of the inn,
he will come to the famous spring or well, which, along with one or two
others in this neighbourhood, gave the locality of old the name of Fontes
Scotia or Scotlandwells. There is now, however, only one large fountain,
which is sheltered by an elegant roof or canopy erected by Mr Bruce of Arnot,
a neighbouring proprietor. Beneath this, in the centre, is a large square
basin of stone, open at the top, and having a depth of three or four feet.
The water, which wells up in great volume through the sand beneath, is both
excellent to drink and as clear as crystal. Fortunately there are no villas
near at hand to pollute indirectly with their drainage this pellucid
fountain, which, it is satisfactory to understand, is as pure as it looks,
and has no reason to dread the result of any scientific analysis.
There is an old
burying-ground at the south-east extremity of the village, where are also
one of the famous springs, and the site of the old hospital of Scotlandwell.
This was founded by William Malvoisin, Bishop of St Andrews, and the monks
who occupied it were bound by their original constitution to set apart a
third of their revenues for redeeming Christian slaves from the infidels.
How far they acted up to their obligations I cannot say, but to judge from
the following stanza, introduced into one of the " Gude and godly ballates,"
among other derogatory remarks on the Romish clergy, the establishment here
docs not seem to have been in the highest repute :—
"Of Scotlandwell the Friars of
Faill
The limmery long has lasted;
The monks o' Melrose made gude kail
On Fridays when they fasted."
The parish church of Moonzie
near Cupar, and that of Carnock near Dunfermline, belonged to Scotlandwell,
and the " parson " of this place, not long after the Reformation had to be
called to account for the shameful state of disrepair in which he allowed
Carnock church to continue. In an enclosure within the old burymg-ground are
the tombs of Alison Turpie, wife of the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, and four of
their children, as also of his mother, Margaret Halero, of an old Orcadian
family, wife of the Rev. Henry Erskine of Chirnside.
Before being translated to
Stirling, Ebenezer Erskine was minister of the parish of Fortmoak, to which,
as already mentioned, the greater part of the country on the east side of
I.och Leven belongs. A story is told that in announcing to his parishioners
his approaching departure from them to another sphere of labour, he spoke of
his having received a call from the Lord to go to Stirling. An irreverent "
auld wife" in the congregation, meeting her minister shortly afterwards,
when he repeated in effect what he had already stated from the pulpit, made
the following observation : "Troth, sir, an He had called you to
Auchtertool, you wad ne'er hae let on that you heard Him !" Yet in fairness
it should be always remembered that Ebenezer Erskine showed by his
subsequent conduct that he was ever ready to sacrifice worldly emolument
when duty and principle seemed to call on him to do so.
There is no village which
bears the name of Portmoak, but the church of that parish stands on a rising
ground a little to the north of Scotlandwell, and is passed in going to the
village of Kinnesswood. In its churchyard the poet Michael Bruce is buried.
About a mile to the
north-west of Scotlandwell, and high up on an acclivity of the Bishop Hill,
overlooking Loch Leven, is the village of Kinnesswood popularly pronounced
Kinnaskit, which possesses some interest as the place where Michael Bruce
lived and died. This amiable and lamented youth has for ever associated with
his name his native county of Kinross; the little village of Kinnesswood,
where he was born; and Loch Leven, which forms the subject of his longest
though certainly by no means his best poem. His father was a weaver, and a
pious God-fearing Presbyterian of the old Scottish type—a characteristic
which was also eminently conspicuous in his mother. As a boy, Michael used
to "herd" on the Lomond hills, and he was always noted as a delicate "auld
farrant" child. Having early exhibited an inclination for study, he resolved
to devote himself to the ministry of the Secession Church, which had then
but recently been called into existence under the leadership of the Erskines.
He attended the necessary sessions at Edinburgh University, and there made
the acquaintance of the celebrated John Logan, then a student for the
ministry of the Church of Scotland. There is no evidence, however, to show
that there was any great intimacy between him and Bruce, who, when his
college career was completed, set himself to gain a living by acting as
schoolmaster at Gairney Bridge. From that he removed to be teacher at Forest
Mill, a lonely little hamlet in Clackmannanshire, on the road from Dollar to
Kincardine. In fording the Devon on horseback on his way thither, he fell
into the water; and the wetting which he thus sustained seems to have
developed the consumptive tendency by which his constitution was already
marked. The malady was further aggravated by the damp and uncomfortable
schoolhouse in which he had to exercise his functions as teacher, and ere
many months had passed away, he was compelled to quit Forest Mill and return
to Kinnesswood, where he died in 1767, before he had completed his
twenty-first year. After his death, Logan called on his father, and obtained
from the old man the MSS. of his son's poems, Michael having already
achieved a local reputation as a bard, though not! ing from his pen had yet
appeared :n print. Logan published a few of the poems along with some of his
own, but included in the latter the celebrated " Ode to the Cuckoo," which
in itself was sufficient to make the poetical reputation of any author. The
matter s somewhat too intricate to be discussed here, but there can be
little doubt, both from the evidence of Brace's letters and that furnished
by contemporaneous testimony, that a base and unworthy fraud was committed
by Logan in appropriating the authorship of the ode. His delinquencies,
however, in relation to Bruce, did not end here. Among the latter's
effusions there were several which were known among his friends and
relatives as " Gospel Sonnets," but were really for the most part
paraphrases from Scripture, and included the beautiful and pathetic hymn, "
The hour of my departure's come." These were all appropriated by Logan, and
contributed as his to the collection of metrical translations from the
Bible, published by authority of the General Assembly of the Church of
Scotland, and appointed to be used in public worship. Many of the best of
these, with which Logan was long credited, were really the productions of
Michael Bruce, the poet of Kinnesswood. On the appearance of the volume of
poems in 1770, Bruce's father paid a visit to Logan in Edinburgh, to learn
what had become of the " Gospel Sonnets," of which he had so distinct a
recollection as the emanations of his son. He had some difficulty in
obtaining an interview, and when he did, could procure no satisfaction,
Logan failing, moreover, to produce the volume of Bruce's MSS. which he had
received, and alleging that it had been destroyed by mistake, through the
servant of the house having used it in the singeing of fowls. Logan long
enjoyed his chief reputation as a poet on the strength of this unrighteous
spoliation, and it is only comparatively recently that the rights of Michael
Bruce have been vindicated.
Kinnesswood is five miles
from Kinross, and one of those sleepy " dead alive " places which seem to
abound on the eastern side of Loch Leven, but is not devoid of a certain
quaint picturesqueness. It consists of one main street, with a long
straggling wynd running up from it at right angles towards the hillside. A
little way up this wynd, with its gable facing the entrance, is a two-storeyed
thatched house, of humble appearance, an inscription on which states that
here Michael Bruce was born in 1746, and here he died in 1767. The village
was long famous for the manufacture of vellum and parchment, an industry
which is said to have been originally practised by the monks of St Serf, and
continued from their time in the parish of Portmoak. It used to be almost
the only place in Scotland where this trade was carried on, and from this
quarter the Register Office in Edinburgh received its supplies of the
commodity in question, at least since the reign of Charles II. A family of
the name of Birrell was latterly chiefly connected with the manufacture \
and one of them—John Birrell—exercised his vocation in the days of Michael
Bruce, and wrote a biography of the poet.
The hamlet of Easter Balgedio
is half a mile northwest of Kinnesswood, and that of Wester Balgedie is
another half-mile north-west of the former. They both partake very much of
the characteristics of Kinnesswood and Scotlandwell, but arc smaller in
size. The northeast corncr of Loch Leven has now been reached, and after
walking for a mile or two along the north bank (there being, however, a
broad tract of low ground between the road and the water), the traveller
arrives at Lothrie's Bridge. A footpath leads down from this to the old
church and churchyard of Orwell, close to the shore of the loch. This was in
ancient times merely a chapel of ease or dependency of the Abbey Church of
Dunfermline, having been bestowed as such on the latter by Robert the Bruce.
When it was raised to the dignity of a parish church is not known, and the
building itself has long been a ruin, the present church of Orwell being
situated at Milnathort.
Near Lothrie's Bridge the
road bifurcates, one branch leading on the left to Kinross and the other on
the right to Milnathort, past Burleigh Castle, to be afterwards described.
By taking the former, which crosses the North Queich at Burgher Bridge and
passes near the mansion of Lethangie, the traveller will, after a pleasant
walk of nearly two miles, reach Kinross, and thus complete the circuit of
Lochleven. |
