Kirkmichael Perthshire Scotland

Kirkmichael, Perthshire, Scotland, is located in the valley of Strathardle. Oliver Cromwell stationed his army here in 1653, a battle subsequently took place in the grounds of the church, while in 1715, clans sympathetic to the Jacobite cause gathered before marching south. Tour Kirkmichael, Perthshire, Scotland, on an Ancestry Tour of Scotland. Best Scottish Tours, Best Scottish Food, Best Scottish Hotels, Small Group Tours of Scotland. Rent a Cottage in Scotland. Kirkmichael in 1846. Kirkmichael, a parish, in the county of Perth, 14 miles (N. W. by N.) from Blairgowrie; containing 1412 inhabitants, of whom 104 are in the village. This parish, the site of which is elevated, and the climate cold, is situated on the great military road from Perth to Fort-George, and is in form nearly a parallelogram, measuring seventeen miles in length, from north to south, and from six to seven miles in breadth. It comprehends the greater part of Strathardle, which is about ten miles long, and between one and two broad; the whole of Glenshee, measuring seven miles in length and nearly a mile in breadth; and a district at the lower extremity of the latter, on the west side of the river called Black Water, nearly semicircular in form, and two miles in diameter. The whole comprises 51,178 acres, of which 4419 are cultivated, 1460 undivided common, 683 wood, and the remainder in a natural state. At the head of Glenshee is a hill called Beinn-Ghulbhuinn, celebrated as the scene of a hunt in which Diarmid, one of the Fingalian heroes, lost his life; and his grave is still shown here, with the den of the wild boar that was the object of the chase. Another hill is Mount Blair, separating this parish from Glenisla; and the chief lochs are Sheshernich and Loch-nanean which are situated among the hills, and afford good trout-angling. Strathardle is watered by the Ardle. Near that river the soil is thin and dry, on a sandy bed, and yields in general light crops; on the higher grounds, as well as in Glenshee and the district of the Black-water, it is wet and spongy, and requires a dry and warm season for the maturity of the crops. In the lower parts the most improved system of husbandry is followed; and lime has been extensively and successfully applied to the land recovered from waste, amounting, within a few years, to 400 acres. The huts on most of the farms have been replaced by neat and comfortable houses, and the interests of agriculture much promoted by the construction of good roads. The rateable annual value of Kirkmichael is now £7993. The parish contains the mansion-houses of Ashintully and Woodhill, and the small village of Kirkmichael. The inhabitants are all engaged in husbandry: some years ago a few were employed at a distillery. An important addition has been made to the facilities of communication by the erection of a handsome bridge of two arches, in 1840, over the Ardle, at a cost of £500, raised by subscription. A cattle-fair is held on the Thursday before the October Falkirk tryst, and another on the Thursday before the May Amulrie fair: the farmers usually dispose of their ordinary marketable produce at Blairgowrie. The parish is in the presbytery of Dunkeld and synod of Perth and Stirling, and in the patronage of Mr. Farquharson, of Invercauld: the minister's stipend is £158, of which two-thirds are received from the exchequer, with a manse, and a glebe of six and a half acres, valued at £10 per annum. The members of the Free Church have two places of worship. There are two parochial schools, affording instruction in the usual branches: the master of the one situated in the village has a salary of £34, with a house, enlarged in 1821, and about £20 fees; the other master, in Glenshee, receives a salary of £15, with £12 fees. The poor in Glenshee enjoy the benefit of a bequest of £200; and there are two other bequests, one amounting to £17 yearly for educating poor children in the parish of the name of Stewart, and the other of £20 per annum for bursaries in any of the Scotch universities, for natives of the parish, or, in case of failure, for those of the neighbouring parish of Moulin. On a large moor is a cairn, once ninety yards in circumference and twenty-five feet high; and at some distance is a Druidical rocking-stone, besides numerous concentric circles.