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The drained site of Loch Ore—Its ancient island castle— Ancient Roman
station—Interest attaching to Loch Ore in connection with Sir Walter
Scott—Approach to Blairadam—Its classic associations—Benarty Hill and
Paranwell—Ballingry church—First view of Loch Leven— Village and barony of
Cleish—History of its ancient lords, the Colvilles of Ochiltree—Ruined
castle of Dow hill —Gairney Bridge and its associations—The first Secession
Synod—Michael Bruce,
Continuing our journey to
Kinross by the Great North Road from Cowdenbeath, Lumphmnans Colliery, on
the estate of the Earl of Zetland, appears between us and Lochgelly village.
About a mile and a half north-north-west from Lochgelly station is the
drained site of Loch Ore, formerly a considerable sheet of water, and having
an island near its eastern end, on which stood a castle, anciently a seat of
the Wardlaws of Torrie who in former days owned the barony of Lochore. The
ruins still exist, and in Sir Robert Sibbald's time the words " Roberlus
Wardlaw " were still to be seen inscribed above the main entrance. This
family acquired it by the marriage of Sir Andrew Wardlaw with the heiress of
the house of Yallance of Lochore, and the estate (known also as that of
Inchgall) was retained by them till the reign of Charles I., when it passed
from them, apparently about the same time that they quitted possession of
Torrie.
The castle of Lochore must
formerly have been very picturesquely situated on its islet, at a little
distance from the shore, but completely surrounded by the waters of the
loch. It is said to have been built by Duncan Lochore in the time of Malcolm
Canmore, and is certainly very old, and of rather rude and cyclopean
construction, but has become almost a wreck, having been rent into four
portions. The walls are ten feet thick, and there is no appearance of any
chimney, except on the first floor on the north side. There are only two
storeys remaining, and on the upper one, on the west side, there is a window
with lintels, the only opening of the kind that is now to be seen in the
building. In the same wall, but separated from it by a rent, and what has
probably been a doorway, are the pier and spring of a Gothic arch, which may
have led to a central chapel on the first floor, like that in the Tower of
London. The ruins are enclosed by a circular wall six feet thick, on the
inner side of which, throughout almost the whole extent, has been a series
of houses and offices, of which the foundations still remain. At the
north-east extremity of the outer wall is the fragment of a semicircular
flanking tower, and the islet, now appearing like a knoll in the meadow -
ground, is planted with trees.
Loch Ore was drained in the
beginning of the present century, and was anciently known as Inchgall Loch.
On the south side of it is a ridge called the Clune, where the remains of
two British camps are distinctly visible. At the north-west extremity is
Chapel Farm, on the site of the ancient chapel of Inchgall, and close by was
the celebrated Roman camp—the Victoria of Ptolemy—referred to by Sibbald and
Sandy Gordon, but wbch has now unfortunately been almost entirely
demolished, though faint traces are still perceptible.
Sir Robert Sibbald informs us
that in his day the estate of Lochore belonged to Malcolm of Balbedie, who
had erected a fine new house, with gardens and enclosures, on an eminence
above the loch. Its site is occupied by a more recent mansion, which stands
finely amid some good old timber, and is now divided into two dwellings,
occupied respectively by the manager and superintendent of the Lochore
Mining Company, who are now the owners of the estate. The property possesses
some interest from having till recently belonged to Lady Scott (nee Miss
Jobson of Lochore), the daughter in-law of the great Sir Walter, who, irj
his visits to the neighbouring proprietor of Blairadam, used frequently to
visit the grounds of Lochore, and is said to have directed the laying out of
the plantations by which the estate is diversified. There if a fine old
avenue lead;ng eastwards from Lochore House, and opening on the public road
a little to the south-west of Ballingry church.
The country continues bleak
and wild as we proceed on our journey to Kinross; but we are now entering a
more attractive region at Benarty, the great verdant hill with the broad
summit, on the north side of which lies Loch Leven. Benarty House occupies a
pleasant situation on the southern slope, and on the top are the remains of
a British camp. The wide plateau here used to be the scene of an annual
gathering of the shepherds of Fife and adjoining counties, who bivouacked in
the open air for several days, and spent the time in a variety of athletic
sports, amid great feasting and merriment. The hill rises to the height of
1167 feet, and its lower slopes are picturesquely clothed with wood, whilst
the Great North Road winds round its west flank, in the valley between the
hill and the grounds of Blairadam. A little to our left, on a rising ground,
is the village of Oakfield, on the old road leading north from the
Crossgates and Cowdenbeath by the Kirk of Beath and Cant's Dam. From
Oakfield a road leads east across a ridge for about four miles, by Gask and
Ros-cobie to Redcraigs, where it joins the road running north from
Dunfermline to the Rumbling Bridge and Glen Devon.
About half a mile north from
Oakfield is the village of Kelty, where there is a large colliery, and
three-quarters of a mile farther on is the village of Mary-burgh, from which
the original title of the Blairadam estate, as acquired by the ancestor of
the present proprietor, is derived. Midway between Kelty and Mary-burgh is
the hamlet of Bridge End, where the Kelty Burn from Blairadam grounds
crosses the road. Returning again to the Great North Road, we pass on our
left Blairadam Lodge, at the distance of 2 miles from Crossgates, and 4½
from Kinross. The mansion of Blairadam (Sir Charles Elphinstone Adam),
pleasantly situated amid the trees in its park, appears on the rising ground
to our left. About a mile and a quarter due south from it, and within the
Blairadam grounds, are the Keiry Craigs, which Sir Walter Scott has rendered
classical as the halting-place of John Auchtermuchty, the Kinross carrier,
in 'The Abbot.'
Blairadam has many
interesting reminiscences. In the early pari of last century the estate,
then known as that of Blair or Blair-Crambeth, was purchased by William
Adam, architect and king's mason, who erected here a mansion and village, to
which he gave the name of Maryburgh ; and by the last appellation the
property was known both during his time and that of his son and successor.
He died in 1748, having previously done much to adorn the property in the
way of plantations, which Pennant comments on in his Tour as almost the only
appearance of woods that presented itself to him between Queensferry and
Kinross. Two of his sons were the celebrated architects, James and Robert
Adam, from whom the Adelphi Buildings in London received their designation.
A daughter married John Clerk of Eldin, an accomplished draughtsman, as his
collection of views of numerous places in Scotland amply testifies, and
father of the well-known Lord Eldin of Court of Session celebrity. The
grandson of the founder of the family was the Right Honourable William Adam,
Chief Comnrssioner of the Jury Court in Scotland, and though an ardent Whig,
the bosom friend of Sir Walter Scott. The latter was for many years in the
custom of paying a visit n summer to Blairadam, as ;t was now designed—the
Chief Commissioner having changed its title to this from Maryburgh. Many
other eminent persons have been entertained here, and among these, the
renowned dramatist and parliamentary leader, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who
on one occasion, when contemplating from Blairadam House, Loch Leven and the
adjacent scenery, gave utterance, it is said, to the following impromptu :—
"How pleasant, away from the
turmoil of party,
To sit at this window and look at Benarty !"
On the right-hand side of the
way, near Blairadam smithy, a road branches off by the north side of Benarty,
and leads to Ballingry church, at a distance of about two and a half miles.
It is worth traversing, for more reasons than one. After proceeding along it
about half a mile, the traveller arrives at the hamlet of Paranwell, a place
which derives its name from a copious spring of excellent water in the
neighbourhood. It seems to be a contraction for "Padan-Aram well," and a
similar patr.archal appellation has been bestowed on the hill on the east
side of Benarty House, which is called " Harran " or "Haran Hill." In a
field on the north side of the road at Paranwell stands an arch, erected by
a proprietor of Blairadam across a ravine through which anciently the road
passed from St Johnston or Perth, through Kelty by the Kirk of Beath to
Queensferry. The defile was formerly much deeper than it is now, and was
planted on each side with trees. It is exceedingly likely that Queen Mary
took this route in escaping from Loch Leven Castle; and we are informed by
Lindsay of Pitscottie that she and Lord Darn-ley in 1564 passed this way in
going south from Perth, and were nearly -'ntercepted by the Earl of Rothes
and , certain confederates, who, it is alleged, were dissatisfied with the
marriage, then in prospect, of this celebrated pair, and " thought to have
taine my Lord Darnely from the queine." The latter had been warned of the
design, and she and Darnley had passed Paranwell on their way to Queensferry
ere the conspirators made their appearance. Such is the story, as referred
to in an inscription on the arch, which states that it was placed there by
Willum Adam in 1838. About a hundred yards farther on is an old ruined house
with another inscription on it—evidently of the same date as that on the
arch—"This house in the reign of James V. belonged to Squire Meldrum of
Cleish and Binns, celebrated in a poem of Sir David Lindsay of the Mount."
The road from Paranwell to
Ballingry (pronounced Bingry) church, passes through the woodland on the
north slope of Benarty, and commands from its terracelike elevation of
nearly 500 feet a fine view of the country over Loch Ore to the ridge of
Lochgelly. The lodge of Benarty House (Thomas Constable, Esq.) is on the
right hand side of the road, about one and a quarter mile east from
Paranwell, and Ballingry church is reached in other three-quarters of a
mile. The latter is a plain modern building, but the adjoining manse looks
very comfortable. A little farther eastward is the hamlet of Shank, where
there is a small inn or public-house and a smithy. From this the road
continues to Auchmoor Bridge and Leslie, and another highway leads due south
from Shank to Lochgelly station, at a distance of about three miles.
Shortly after pass.ng
Blairadam Lodge, a beautiful prospect is presented of Loch Leven, expanding
itself like a vast mirror, with its girdle of hills on the east and south,
those on the former side being the West Lomonds, which comprise from north
to south Bishop Hill, rising to the height of 1470, Munduff to 1491, and
Greenhead Hill to 1000 feet. They are composed of beds ot sandstone, with a
surmounting cap of basalt. At their feet, on the slope between them and the
loch, nestle the villages of Wester and Easter Balgedie, Kinnesswood, and
Scotlandwell; whilst at a place called Levenmouth, at the south-east
extremity of the loch, the river Leven debouches itself through the valley
between Kinneston Craigs and Benarty. From thence it pursues its course down
to the Firth of Forth by the town of Leslie, supplying the wants of numerous
manufactories on its way, and discharging itself into the sea at Leven. On
the south side of the loch rises Benarty, with the finely wooded gorge on
its west flank, through which the Great North Road passes ; whilst branching
off here from the latter to the right a road skirts the southern shore of
Loch Leven by the base of Benarty, and is joined at Auchmoor Bridge by the
road leading from Kinross round the head of the loch through Kinnesswood and
Scotlandwell. I shall presently have occasion to delineate in detail Loch
Leven and its banks.
At the third milestone from
Kinross, on the Great North Road, the latter is joined by the highway which
leads from Saline and the western extremity of Fife to Kinross through the
broad strath or valley between the Cleish hills and the Oehils. If we
proceed along this for about a mile and a half, we reach the village of
Cleish, with its church and manse, and three-quarters of a mile farther west
we come to Cleish Castle or the Place of Cleish (Harry Young, Esq.), an
ancient mansion, formerly one of the principal seats of the Lords Colville
of Ochiltree, and which, after long existing as a stately ruin, was about
forty years ago restored and made habitable. Behind it is some fine old
timber, including till lately a specially magnificent silver fir, one of the
finest of the kind to be found in Scotland. It rose altogether to the height
of about 120 feet, but after presenting a circumference of 15 feet to an
elevation of 22 feet from the ground, it branched off into several enormous
boughs, each of which would of itself have constituted a large tree. One of
these had a circumference of 10 feet. It was blown down some years ago, and
fell with a tremendous crash, causing to the inmates of Cleish Castle a
shock resembling that of an earthquake. The great limb was disposed of for
£30. One of its companions, also a mighty tree, still stands, and so does a
grand yew-hedge, one of the glories of the old castle.
The barony of Cleish came
into the possession of the Colvilles of Ochiltree in the early part of the
sixteenth century, and was made over in 1537 by Sir James Col-ville of
Easter Wemyss to his natural son Robert. The same Sir James had exchanged in
1530 his ancestral estate of Ochiltree in Ayrshire for that of East Wemyss
in Fife, along with the territory of Lochoreshire in the same county. Robert
Colville, thus made Laird of Cleish, became a zealous Reformer, and was
killed at the siege of Leith in 1560. A strange story is recorded regarding
him in the ' Coronis,' or Supplement to Row's ' History of the Church of
Scotland,' by the latter's son, William Row of Ceres. At least we are
informed by an annotator on Row's MSS. that the hero of the adventure
ascribed to "Enquire Meldrum" was really Robert Colville of Cleish, who has
thus been confounded with a William Meldrum of Cleish and Binns, who lived
in the reigns of James IV. and V., and whose extraordinary adventures form
the subject of Sir I)a\id Lindsay's poem of "Squire Meldrum." We have
already heard something of this worthy in connection with an old house on
his estate of Binns, near Paranwell, which is now incorporated with the
Blairadam property.
William Row tells the story
with a good deal of lively humour. It would seem that Robert Colville's
reforming zeal was not shared by his wife, who, being a devoted adherent of
the ancient faith, and at this time in an "interesting condition," had
despatched a messenger to the chapel of Our Lady of Loretto at Musselburgh,
with a handsome gift to the shrine as a propitiation in expectancy of the
coming event. Her husband resolved the last miracle at Loretto to follow the
envoy and see what came of his mission. As it happened, there was then a
great excitement at the chapel of Loretto (also called St Allaret's chapel),
in prospect of a great miracle which the priests had stated would take place
there on the following day, when a man who had been blind from his birth,
and been known to the public as a blind beggar, would receive his sight
through the intercession of the saint. T'ic ceremony took place as
announced, on a scaffold erected for the occasion; and the man, apparently
stone blind, opened his eyes, and was cured of his malady in presence of an
immense multitude. Colville was convinced there was some trick in the
matter, and, to satisfy himself, he accosted afterwards the subject of the
interposition, and induced him to proceed to Edinburgh, where, on arriving
with St Allaret's protege at his lodgings, the Laird of Cleish locked the
door, and, under threat of immediate death, extorted from the terrified
wight the confession that the whole affair was an imposture. He had been, it
seems, in the service of the nuns of the Sciennes convent, near Edinburgh,
as a shepherd, and had a faculty of turning up at pleasure the whites of his
eyes so as to counterfeit blindness. The sisters communicated this
circumstance to some ecclesiastical friends of theirs, who thought they
might turn it to account in support of the Church's influence with the
populace. They accordingly kept him perdu for a long period, and then sent
him out to the roadside to beg as a blind man. When he had acted for some
time in this capacity, they then advertised the performance of the miracle,
and brought him out to " play his pavie " on the scaffold at Musselburgh.
The story goes on to say that
Colville promised to befriend the man and take him into his service, but
insisted that he should first make a retractation and exposure of the cheat
at the market-cross of Edinburgh, immediately after doing which they would
take horse and escape into Fife. This was agreed to; and master and man,
after the latter had made his declaration to the lieges, succeeded in making
good their flight, crossed the Forth at Queensferry, and arrived safely at
Cleish. What Mrs Colville thought of the matter we are not informed; but
shortly afterwards, the arrival at Cleish of John Row, the historian's
father, who had just returned from Rome on a mission to the Pope, called
forth a narrative of the transaction from Colville's servant. It is said
that the Roman Catholic emissary was so struck with the story as to be
shaken in his belief in the ancient faith, which he shortly afterwards
renounced to become an earnest Protestant, and ultimately to die minister of
Perth.
Robert Colville was succeeded
in the Cleish estate by his son, also named Robert, who in 1569 obtained a
grant of the hereditary bailiary of Culross, which had previously, under the
abbots of that monastery, been exercised by the Earls of Argyll. He was
succeeded by his son, Robert Colville, who died in 1634, and was followed by
a son also named Robert—making thus four Robert Colvilles of Cleish in
uninterrupted succession. Notwithstanding their severance from the ancient
family estate of Ochiltree, this branch of the Colvilles seems always to
have taken from it the ir principal designation. The fourth Robeit Colville
of Cleish was knighted by Charles I., and raised to the peerage by Charles
II. in 1651, with the title of Lord Colville of Ochiltree.
Besides Robert Colville, the
first Sir James Colvi'le of Easter Wemyss had another illegitimate son,
named J ames, who in 1560, along with other properties, received from
William Colville, commendator of Culross, a grant of the lands of Crombie,
then belonging to Culross Abbey, and now included in the parish of Torryburn
in Fife. These wrere afterwards inherited or acquired by his collateral
descendants, the Colvilles of Cleish, whom we afterwards find possessors of
both estates, and residing alternately at the respective mansions on each.1
After the death of the third and last Lord Colville of Ochiltree in 1723,
the Cleish estate seems to have been sold, and the castle allowed to go to
ruin.
By ascending the hill behind
Cleish Castle the summit of Dumglow is reached—the highest point (1240 feet)
in the Cleish range. A magnificent prospect is commanded from it of Loch
Leven and the plain of Kinross, as well as of the lower basin of the Forth,
taking in the Bass, North Berwick Law, and the range of Lammermuir. A
similar view, though from a lower elevation, is obtained by the traveller in
journeying from Dunfermline to Kinross by the old road which leads from the
Gask Toll by Lochornie Farm over the heights of Craigencat and Craigencrow
down Nivingston Hill. The localities in this upland region are thus combined
in the popular rhyme—
" Craigencat and Craigencrow,
Dowhill, King Seat, and Dumglow."
Several lochs exist here, the
largest being Loch Glow or the White loch, whilst to the east of it is the
Dow loch, and to the west the Black and the Lurg lochs. Loch Glow used to be
famous for its perch, and was greatly resorted to by anglers from
Dunfermline and the neighbouring country, but the fishing is now strictly
preserved.
At Nivingston House the old
road across the hill joins the highway leading eastwards from Cleish to the
Great North Road. The junction is about half a mile east from Cleish
village, and near this, in a stone dyke opposite the mansion of Nivingston,
used to be a large rock known as the "Lecture Stane," which is said in Roman
Catholic times to have been used for the support of the cofrin during the
reading of the burial service. Several ineffectual attempts had in bygone
days been made to blast it—a circumstance which induced the belief that the
stone was charmed, and for a long time no further endeavour of the kind was
instituted. But about thirty years ago an irreverent contractor for the
repairs of the dyke dispelled all such notions with a strong and effectual
charge of powder, by which this interesting relic was blown to fragments.
Returning to the Great North
Road by Cleish Mill, and passing on our left a highway which leads by a
nearer and more d reel route to Kinross, we see on an eminence to the right
the ruins of the castle of Dowhill, formerly the property of the Lindsays,
who enjoyed baronial rank, and suffered severely during the persecuting
times for their Covenanting proclivities. It is now included in the estate
of Blairadam, and must at one time have been a place of great importance and
size, but has been much diminished in consequence of having served during
the last century as a very convenient quarry. At present it is a square-Jooking
castellated ruin, with a circular tower at the south-west corner, and the
remains of a pepper-box turret on the west side. At the east end is what may
have been a sort of keep, and at the north-east corner, but detached from
the rest of the building, ;s the fragment of a lower. A range of buildings
probably extended from this to the east wall. The remains of the castle
consist of a basement storey, with what looks like a large chimney, which
had been carried up through the centre of the building, and seems to have
served all the floors, as 110 fireplace appears in the outer walls. The
first floor, with its windows and embrasures, remains entire, and there had
probably been above this another storey. The apartments on the basement are
vaulted, and the south wall presents a fine front of dressed stone.
I have before me a print
taken from a drawing by John Clerk of Eldin, and giving a view of Dowhill
Castle from the south-west as it appeared in 1770. There is not much
difference between its aspect then and that at the present day, except that
resting on the south wall, but not extending along the whole front, an
apparently inhabited building is seen, with a delta-shaped roof, through
which two chimneys protrude. The pepper-box turret on the west side, though
ruinous, is much more entire than at present, and the circular tower at the
corner is provided with a roof. There are a good many trees about the
castle, and in the distance appears Loch Leven, with the Castle Island and
the Lomond hills.
The Gairney burn, which flows
eastwards through the Cleish valley into Loch Leven, crosses the Great North
Road at Gairney Bridge, two miles from Kinross. The farm-steading which
bears the same name, and is situated close to the road a little to the south
of the bridge, is famous in the history of the Secession Church, as
occupying the site of the little public-house where the four fathers of the
Secession—Ebenezer Erskine of Stirling, Alexander Moncreiff of Abernethy,
William Wilson of Perth, and James Fisher of Kinclaven—on being deposed in
1733 by the Commission of the General Assembly, held a few weeks
subsequently their first Presbytery or Synod. They received shortly
afterwards the accession of four new members — Ralph Erskine of Dunfermline
(Ebenezer's brother), Thomas Maif of Orwell, Thomas Nairn of Abbotshall, and
James Thomson of Burntisland,—and were thenceforward known as the Associate
Presbytery or Associate Synod. To commemorate the event an obelisk has
lately been erected near the farm on the roadside.
Another interesting
circumstance connected with this locality is that of the amiable and
lamented young poet. Michael Bruce, having here for some time taught a
school. The schoolhouse was also on the site of the present farm-steading. |
