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Town of Kinross and its environs—Kinross House—Loch Leven and its
history—The Castle Island and its memorials of Queen Mary— The Isle of St
Serf and its priory,
Between Gairney Bridge and
Kinross there is little to interest the traveller beyond the general view of
the tow n, and of Loch Leven with its islands. The former occupies a slight
rising ground near the north-western extremity of the loch, and consists
mainly of one long street, traversing the town from south to north, with a
number of cross lanes. It contains some good houses at the northern
extremity, but can neither be said to be well built nor very attractive in
general appearance. Besides smaller inns, it contains two good
hotels—Kirk-land's and the Green Hotel, within a short distance of each
other. The latter, situated at the north entrance of the town, and
comprising a great part of what in the coaching days was one of the
best-appointed inns in Scotland, is specially to be commended. It is largely
patronised during the season by anglers.
Kinross has a population of
i960, and was constituted a burgh of barony by Regent Morton in the reign of
James VI. The municipal and county buildings with their clock tower (a
modern erection) stand in the centre of the town, and opposite to them is
the town cross (also a modern structure), around the upper part of which is
suspended the jougs, or iron collar, which was used n ancient times as an
implement of pillory and punishment for enclosing the necks of malefactors.
Kinross was formerly celebrated for its manufacture of cutlery, but this
branch of industry has long since completely disappeared, and beyond a
factory at Bridge End and a little weaving, no special trade or industry is
maintained in the town, which depends mainly on supplying the adjoining
district with necessaries. It is also largely supported by the visitors who
resort here both as anglers and pilgrims to the loch and castle. The whole
of Loch Leven and its islands, with a considerable adjacent territory,
including Burleigh Castle and Kinross House, belongs to Sir Graham
Montgomery of Stanhope, Bart., as the lineal representative of Sir William
Bruce of Kinross, who purchased the estate from the Earl of Morton in the
latter half of the seventeenth century. The right of fishing in the loch is
rented by the Loch Leven Angling Association, who maintain a supply of boats
which may be hired by visitors. The season commences in the month of April,
and trout-fishing may be enjoyed at the charge of 2s. 6d. an hour, and 2s.
6d. for the day to one of the two boatmen—the Association paying the other.
The charge for perch-fishing is is. per hour, including boat, and for
visiting the island and castle 5s. In the height of the season there is
often a great demand for boats, though twenty are kept for hire.
Kinross-shire comprehended
originally only the parishes of Kinross, Orwell, and Portmoak, and these
were disjoined from Fife and formed into a separate county in 1426. Two
hundred and sixty years afterwards, ;n 1685, an Act of the Scottish
Parliament disjoined from Fife and Perth the parish of Cleish, and portions
of those of Fossoway and Arngask, and attached them to the county of
Kinross, " to support and maintain the state and rank of a district shire,
as it is and anciently has been." After Clackmannanshire, it is the smallest
county in Scotland, and the two are incorporated into one sheriffdom.
The monuments of Kinross are
of little account, with the exception of the splendid mansion of Kinross
House, situated to the east of the town on a long projection of land
extending into the loch, and which has at its extremity the remains of the
old parish church, with its burial-ground. The house was erected in 1685, by
the celebrated architect Sir William Bruce, who had a few years previously
purchased the Kinross estate from the Earl of Morton. He was cousin of
Alexander, second Earl of Kincardine, and is said to have originally
designed the building for the residence of James II., when Duke of York, in
the event of the Exclusion Bill being carried to prevent his ascending the
throne. The house is of the Renaissance style of architecture, which came
greatly into vogue in Britain during the seventeenth century, and of which
Inigo Jones was one of the ablest exponents. Sir William Bruce seems to have
studied in the same school, and produced, besides Kinross House, Holyrood
House, as restored after the conflagration in 1650, and the mansions of
Moncreiff and Hope-toun. Presbyterian scandal, as given currency to by
Kirkton in his History, has not hesitated to ascribe Sir William's success
in money-making to the circumstance of his holding the appointment of Clerk
of the Bills, and thus receiving a large portion of the fines levied from
the recusant Covenanters. Thus, t asserts, was the estate of Kinross
purchased and the foundation of its splendid mansion laid.
Kinross House is approached
through an imposing gateway, from which a broad and verdant lawn extends up
to the former, with stately rows of trees on each side, but there is—now at
least—no proper carriage-way. Though in perfect order and repair, it is
unfurnished," and has not been occupied for many years, but is well worthy
of a visit as a fine and interesting specimen of a Scottish palatial mansion
in the seventeenth century. The entrance-hall and adjoining rooms are all of
a sumptuous order, but the grand apartment in the house is the ball-room or
large drawing-room up-stairs, which has a length of 54½ feet, by a breadth
of 24. The old house previously existing, and which had been for several
generations the residence of the Earls of Morton, was situated on the north
side of the present garden, and was pulled down about the year 1723. Some
traces of .ts foundations are still visible. In contrast apparently to the
old castle in Loch Leven, it used to be known as the New House of Kinross.
Sir Robert Sibbald, in his '
History of Fife and Kinross,' waxes extremely eloquent on the subject of
Kinross House, then but recently erected, and characterises it as a mansion
"which, for situation, contrivance, prospects, avenues, courts,
gravel-walks, and terraces, and all hortulane ornaments, parks, and
planting, is surpassed by few in this country." He commends also highly Sir
William's ingenuity in draining the ground, and thereby converting a morass
into good land, which became thus the site of handsome policies and
orchards. But it may well be questioned whether it was judicious to set down
a mansion in so level and moist a situation, where, in rainy weather, the
basement storey must always necessarily be damp, and even the approach to
the house is often wet and uncomfortable.
Loch Leven is 360 feet above
the level of the sea, and throughout the parish of Kinross the elevation
above the loch nowhere exceeds roo feet. A popular saying connects its
appellation with the number eleven, inasmuch as it was alleged to have a
circuit of eleven miles, to contain eleven islands, be tenanted by eleven
kinds of fish, and be surrounded by the estates of eleven lairds. All this,
however, is an absurdity. The title " Leven " occurs frequently in local
nomenclature in Scotland, denoting the grey or possibly the smooth water
Ciath-am-huinn or omh-amhuinn, either of which terms, when contracted, is
pronounced very like " Leven." As regards extent, it used to have a circuit
of 15 miles, but the draining operations of 1830, by which nearly 1400 acres
were reclaimed from the loch, chiefly on its eastern side, reduced this
amount to 12 miles. The depth at medium height varies from 19 to 14 feet.
The surface used to comprise 4638 imperial acres, which the drainage has
reduced by nearly a third, leaving the amount at a little over 3000.
The east and southern shores
of the loch are, as already mentioned, bordered by hills, whilst the west,
and in a lesser degree the north, are level and monotonous. It contains only
two islands of any size—the Castle Island at its north-west, and St Serf's
Island at its south-east extremity. Its waters have long been famous for
their pink-fleshed trout, a characteristic said to be derived from a
fresh-water mussel on which they feed. A similar quality belongs to the
trout of Lough Neagh in Ireland.
The Castle Island is about
half a mile from the shore, and nearly in a line due east from Kinross House
and the old churchyard. The water at tins point is very shallow, and in dry
seasons it is almost possible to wade to the island from the mainland.
Traces of an ancient causeway are also to be met with, and there seems
little doubt that in primeval times the Castle Island formed the site of a
crannog or lake-dwelling. In the neighbourhood are two or three small
islets, which, having in recent times been planted with wood, add
considerably to the beauty of the scenery. Those on the north-west and
south-west side are denominated respectively "Lily's Bower " and "Roy's
Folly," whilst on the south side is " Reed Bower." There was another islet
here called "Paddock Bower," but since the lowering of the water-level of
the loch, this has become a peninsula on the mainland. Beyond, and not far
from the north shore, are Green Island and Scart Island (both very small).
The last-named derives its appellation from the scarfs or cormorants which
frequent Loch Leven, and commit some havoc among the trout. I do not know
whether Scart Island is the same that Sir Robert Sibbald mentions as being
near to the Castle Island, and bearing the name of "Bittern's Bower." There
is no island now in Loch Leven which is so called, and the bittern itself is
a bird that occurs but rarely in this neighbourhood.
The castle of Loch Leven,
though nothing definite regarding its origin can be ascertained, is said to
have been founded by Congal, son of Dongart, king of the Picts; and, at all
events, it seems occasionally in early times to have been a royal residence.
Among our Scottish monarchs, Alexander III. is said to have occupied it, and
specially on one occasion, after his return from England, where he had been
visiting his father-in-law, Henry III., at Wark Castle. In 1301 we hear of
Edward I.'s forces besieging the place, and the siege being raised by Sir
John Comyn. Thirty-four years later, in the reign of David II., when Edward
III. had despatched an expedition to reinstate Baliol, the son of the former
pretender to the Crown, Loch Leven Castle, then held by Sir Alan Vypont in
the interest of King David, was invested by the English army under the
command of Sir John Strivelyn. An attempt was made by the latter to submerge
the island by damming up the river Leven at its exit from the loch, but was
frustrated by the enterprise of the Scottish garrison, who, in a sudden and
unexpected expedition made during the night to Levenmouth, succeeded in
making breaches in the rampart. The water burst through with such violence
as to carry everything before it, flooded the English camp, and drove the
soldiers to flight in helpless confusion. Baggage and spoils of every kind
were left behind, and carried off in triumph by the Scottish army, which
thus received an important reinforcement towards resisting the siege. This-,
too, they had not to sustain long, as a successful sally made by them on the
English detachment at Kinross shortly afterwards freed them from the
blockade.
In [429, Archibald, Earl of
Douglas, was committed by James I. a State prisoner to Loch Leven Castle,
which also, nearly sixty years later, received as a captive Patrick Graham,
the Archbishop of St Andrews, who, by a sentence of deposition and
imprisonment pronounced in 1484 by Pope Sixtus IV. and the College of
Cardinals, had been committed first to a cell in Inchcolm, thence to
Dunfermline Abbey, and finally to Loch Leven. Here he died, and his remains
were interred in the hallowed ground of the island of St Serf.
Whilst the Castle Island
continued an appanage of the Crown, there seems generally to have been
resident in it a governor appointed by the sovereign, and known by the title
of the captain of Loch Leven. When or how it first came into the hands of
the Douglases is not very clear, but in 1540 we find a charter of novodamus
granted by James V. in favour of Robert Douglas of Loch Leven and his son
William, of the lands and barony of Kinross., and of the castle in the loch,
along with other lands, of which those of Dalqueich, in the county of
Kinross, are said to have been in the possession of the said Robert from
time immemorial, though the writs and evidents of ownership had been lost.
It was this Robert Douglas who married Lady Margaret Erskine, daughter of
the Earl of Mar, who had previously borne to James V. a son, afterwards the
celebrated Regent Moray, who was thus brother uterine of William Douglas of
Loch Leven, the custodian of Queen Mary.
The main interest in the
castle of Loch Leven centres, of course, in its having been the place of
detention for a twelvemonth of the unfortunate Queen of Scots, who was
conveyed here from Edinburgh in 1567, after her surrender to Moray's army at
Carberry Hill. She managed to effect her escape from captivity on the
evening of Sunday the 2d of May 1568, mainly by the aid of George Douglas,
brother of the laird, whom, it is said, her charms had captivated. A young
lad, known as the Little Douglas, doubtless a relation or dependant of the
family, and who figures in ' The Abbot 'in the character of Roland Graeme,
managed to steal the keys of the castle whilst the family were at supper,
and, with the assistance of George Douglas, conveyed the Queen to a boat
which was lying in readiness under the castle walls. She embarked in this,
and was safely ferried across to the mainland, where she was met by Lord
George Seton and other followers. Then mourning on horseback, she fled
across the country with them to St Margaret's Hope, and there crossing the
Forth to the opposite shore, proceeded to Lord Seton's castle of Niddry,
near Winch-burgh, in West Lothian. Here she jested for two hours, and then
continued her journey to Hamilton, where she found the army that had
assembled on her behalf. A few days more decided her fate at the battle of
Langside, which was followed by her flight to the Solway and embarkation for
England.
Three places have been
assigned as the scene of Mary's landing on the banks of Loch Leven after her
escape from the castle. One of these is at the spot known as Mary's Knowe,
on the shore of the loch, nearly a mile north from Kinross House. Another is
at the north side of " Paddock Power," nearly 300 yards east from the old
churchyard of Kinross, and almost in a line with the castle tower. Not far
from this a bunch of keys was picked up by a boy in 1805, and supposed to
have been those of the castle, which are stated in one account of Queen
Mary's escape to have been thrown by young Douglas into the loch after
locking the gates to prevent pursuit on the part of the inmates. A smaller
bunch was picked up in the same neighbourhood in 1831, and conjectured to
have belonged to one of Queen Mary's wardrobes.
It is more probable, on the
whole, that the place of Mary's debarkation was at Coldon, at the south-west
extremity of the loch, where she would be less liable to interception than
anywhere n the neighbourhood of Kinross, and have at the same time a nearer
and more convenient course of flight to the Firth of Forth. Most likely she
made her way by the old road leading from Perth, which passed through the
villages of Paranwell and Kelty, and thence by the Kirk of Beath and the
country east of Dunfermline, across Calais Moor to Queensferry.
In the year following Queen
Mary's escape, the Earl of Northumberland was sent a prisoner to Loch Leven
Castle, at the request of Queen Elizabeth, to escape whose vengeance he had
taken refuge in Scotland. He was detained there for three years, and at the
end of that period was removed to England, where he was arraigned and
beheaded on the charge of high treason.
The last notice that we have
of the castle in Scottish history is the confinement here of Robert
Pitcairn, commendator of the Abbey of Dunfermline, and Secretary of State
under the regency of Lennox. He had been concerned in the political escapade
known as the Raid of Ruthven, under which the youthful monarch, James VI.,
had for a time been subjected to a species of durance. For his share in this
adventure, Pitcairn was arrested and conveyed to Loch Leven, where he died
in 1584.
The Castle Island is now,
owing to the subsidence of the waters of the loch, considerably larger than
it was at the time of the imprisonment of the Queen of Scots, when its
extent barely amounted to two acres. The tower or keep rises from it amid
some fine old trees, and attached to it is a 'court, which is surrounded by
a rampart wall, and formerly included a garden, besides an extensive range
of offices. At the south-east corner of the rampart stands a small circular
tower, in which, tradition says, Queen Mary was confined, the principal
donjon or keep being inhabited by the Douglas family, with the Dowager Lady
Margaret Erskine or Douglas, Sir William Douglas's mother, as resident
wielder of authority. Some warrant for the tradition as to the place of
Mary's confinement seems to be afforded in the following passage from a
letter of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton to Sir William Cecil, dated 2d August
1567: "The quene of Scotland is straytlier kept at Loughleven than she was
yet, for now she ys shut up in a tower, and can have non admitted to speake
with her but suche as be shut up with her." It may be fairly inferred, I
think, from this, that Mary had at first been a resident in the castle
itself, and allowed the liberty of walking about the island, and that having
excited the suspicions of her jailers, she had been subjected, with a few
attendants, to close confinement in the tower in question.
This small tower of Loch
Leven is known as the "Glassin Tower," probably from its windows having been
fitted with glass, in contradistinction to the stanchioned openings of the
donjon. It consists altogether of four storeys, comprehending a vaulted
cellar and three superimposed apartments, each of the latter of which has a
diameter of fifteen, with a height of barely ten feet. There are fireplaces
in each chamber, but the upper floors have disappeared. On the basement
storey, above the vault, is a large projecting window or balcony, and on the
first floor there is another large window, but without any projection. It
was probably this apartment that the Queen occupied, and it may have been
from th.s window, which commands a view of Benarty and the southern shore,
that she was let down into a boat, and thus effected her escape. The waters
of the loch must in those days have washed the base of the tower, and with
the inmates of the castle locked in, and prevented from pursuing, it would
not be difficult to be ferried over to Colaon, which lies nearly directly
opposite to this corner of the island. Notwithstanding its pleasant outlook,
and the walk from it along the ramparts, which, however, it is questionable
that Mary was permitted to enjoy, the Glassin Tower must have been anything
but a comfortable abode.
The keep or principal part of
the fortress is a square tower of five storeys, the basement consisting of a
sort of dungeon or vault, which is approached on the east side by a
descending flight of steps. Through an openinng in the roof of this chamber
a modern stone staircase has been carried, leading to the first floor, the
large apart ment on which has probably served as a kitchen. From a corner of
it a turret staircase leads to the second floor and upper apartments of the
castle, the principal entrance to which seems to have been on the north side
by a large arched opening in the wall of the second floor, to which access
must have been gained by a wooden stair or ladder. There is no trace of any
stone staircase, but the opening in the wall in question has all the
appearance of a doorway, and the ladder or drawstair could be raised and
replaced at pleasure. As regards the upper apartments, the flooring has
disappeared. Altogether there is little evidence of good accommodation,
although a tradition is preserved in Kinross of the castle being able to
furnish fifty beds. Most probably this only meant that fifty persons might
there find sleeping-places.
The other important island in
Loch Leven is that of St Serf, which lies more than a mile to the south-east
of the Castle Island, and presents few attractions to the general observer,
exhibiting merely a nearly level expanse of grass, which the drainage of the
loch has increased in extent from 32 to 70 acres. It has, however, a more
curious history than its more renowned congener, having been the seat of an
ancient Culdee priory, said to have been established there by St Serf, who
received the island in gift from Brude, king of the Picts, in the seventh
century. St Serf, who has thus given his name to his place of settlement, is
said to have come originally as a Christian missionary from the East, and
after visiting Rome, to have proceeded to Scotland and received the
hospitality of St Adamnan, St Columba's biographer, on the island of
Inchkeith. He has also been identified with the St Serf of Culross, who
brought up St Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow; but this, as I have
elsewhere endeavoured to show,1 is a mistake, arising from the circumstance
of there having been two St Serfs, who lived at two periods—one in the fifth
and the other in the seventh century—and the incidents connected with the
lives of each having been mixed up together. It is very likely indeed,
however, that both had a connection with Culross, which was certainly the
principal scene of the labours of the elder saint.
The Culdee establishment
founded by St Serf on the island in Loch Leven, subsisted ;n great
reputation till the reign of David I., who set himself strongly against the
maintenance further in Scotland of the ancient clergy regime, and converted
all the monastic establishments throughout the country, whether with or
against their consent, into communities of canons regular. Such was the fate
of the monks of St Serf's Island, who were obliged to remodel their
discipline and affiliate themselves to the canons regular of the priory of
St Andrews. There is little else recorded in history concerning them, unless
it be of a benefaction of the lands of Bolgyn and Kirkness,1 in the vicinity
of Loch Leven, made to them by the famous Macbeth and his wife during their
sovereignty of Scotland, and also the circumstance of Andrew de Wynton,
author of the 'Chronicle' (a metrical history of the world), being in the
early part of the fifteenth century prior of the religious community on St
Serfs Island.
At the Reformation this
community was dispersed, and the property of the island was made over to the
Earls of Morton. Scarcely anything now remains of the ancient buildings
beyond the walls of a small edifice, which, Pill comparatively recently,
served as a place of shelter for the cattle that grazed on the island. The
foundations have, however, been traced and laid open, and the dry hollow
which in former days served the monks as a vivarium, or fish-pool, has also
been rendered manifest. The island lies nearly two miles to the south-east
of the castle, and the traveller can easily obtain the services of a boatman
to transport him thither. He will thus, too, be enabled to gain a much more
complete idea of Loch Leven and its shores than he can obtain by merely
crossing over to the Castle Island.
A great part of the east
shore of Loch Leven belongs to the parish of Portmoak, which, in ancient
phraseology, is denominated Petmook, as signifying the region or district of
St Moak, St Moluoc, or possibly St Machutus, for it seems possible to refer
it to any of these three names. St Serfs Island has been styled the "island
of Petmook"; and on the other hand, the parish of Portmoak used to be
anciently known as that of St Servanus, and is so styled in a minute of
Presbytery in 1659. |
