THE RHYND AND ELCH O A PAR I SH H I STORY ALL AL D ME B ING B . JA S , MI NISTER OF RHYND EDINBURGH ! DAVID DOUGLAS 1 9 0 5 All rights reserved C O N T E N T S CR AP. 1. INTRODUCTION u. Tun PAmsn IN ANCIENT Tums m ELcno . NUNNDD! I v. An na mu! Rm u An oN v. TH E OLD CHURCH AND rm! NW v1 . Em no Cu m vn . Tm! J0 0 0 STAKE m v . LANDS AND H um m us 1x . Tm! Kmx or Ram L I S T OF ILLU S T RAT ION S PAGE R HYND CHURCH S TONE WITH COAT - OF-AB MS S ITE OF ELCHO N UNKERY ’ MR PETRIE PORTRAIT . S COMMUNION CUP TH E PUL PIT ox B S F OLD B , A ON, AND LAC ON CHURCH TOK ENS E LCHO CASTLE E E LC CAS N . N HO TLE, COR ER TH E JOUG STANE S UNDIAL R HYND CH URCH FROM THE NORTH P R E F A C E TH E author desires to acknowledge the help f he has received rom many sources , and speci ’ f a Records the ally rom Dr . John Stu rt s of P riory of the I sle of May (Society of Anti uaries of the t q Scotland) , where ancien charters f referring to Rhynd are given in ull . He is also indebted to The P resbytery of P er th by Rev . John Wilson to Messrs . Mac ’ Gibbon and Ross s Castellated and D omestic Architecture o Scotla nd and Memoirs of f , to of r Kinm ont h the Keirs Weste Rhynd and , t f w a a priva e publication rom hich the uthoress , a w Miss Campbell , kindly llo ed him to make a some extracts . He t kes this opportunity of . a H thanking her and also Dr R msay . Traquair of the Royal Scottish Museum of Science ’ and ff t Moncriefi of r Art , Sheri Scot Lana k, . f r J. o and Rev Irwin Brown Rotte dam , others who have given much valuable information a s and ssi tance . 9th a e 1 905. TH E RH YND AND ELCH O INTRODUCTION TH I S little book is written to give the past f o . l history Rhynd Parish A parish so smal , of f a mere nook country, about our miles by and two , wedged in betwixt the rivers Tay E a arn at their junction , and sp rsely inhabited , can hardly claim a place in history without f Yet a suggest ion o ridicule. every local his tory has a value of its own as a portion f u of a i o . the l rger h story the co ntry Besides , in old days, much more than at present , when f of n s the li e the nation ce tre in the large towns , each Spot of Scottish ground felt the touch of aff . great events and was ected by them As , on mountains and rocks we see the marks of old upheavals and weathering, so , in old of parish records , we find the imprint the storms that traversed Scotland in Church A 2 THE RHYND AND ELCHO t and of and S ate, we see how the inhabitants even the most secluded places were oft en to their sorrow passionately involved in these h of s tempests . A local istory must neces ity be f a and s r gmentary interrupted , but the glimpse we are able t o get of the men and women of pas t generations as they lived on this one spot are vivid enough to give pleasure and awaken sympathy . Humble and forgotten as ' it r a e they are , is on their lives that ou s h v b and n een built up, we owe more tha we think to those men of the past who till ed and the soil built and planted, and struggled for f God a o reedom and served long years g , H im as we strive to serve now. ’ as is The Rhynd , it commonly called, is f of within our miles Perth . The bells of the of old city church St. John can be heard at Rhynd coming sweetly up from the low- lying wn and ow of is to , the t er Rhynd Church f of r visible rom the upper part Pe th. Rhynd a s ll is a genuinely rur l pari h no vi age , no inn S f , no hops, only armhouses with cottages as a attached to each , and centre, church and Sc manse , school and hoolhouse, smithy and ’ i e a fe w jo ner Shed, with scattered cottages , INTRODUCTION 3 and along the river the bothies of the salmon r fishe s . m is The na e variously spelt Rhynd, Rynd, Rhind . is a , Rind The last the usual pronunci t In as al . 1 75 5 ion, the first is the usu spelling 4 9 8 in 1 8 5 1 338 the population was , it was , and as 1 8 3 t at l t census , numbers that ell the common tale of depopulation in country d istricts . r in r t In The pa ish excels natu al beau y . the ' centre the east end of Moncriefie Hill Slopes s e and Ea te ply to the Tay rn , commanding e of of Kinnoull nchanting views both rivers, Hill of Ochils a e of , the , and over the C rs of is Gowrie . The broad estuary the Tay s een sweeping away in a wide curve unde r t he f n s b far Fi e hills, and agai vi i le in the distance where it is Spanned by the Tay Bridge . Points of special int erest are marked by the ru of E E ins lcho Castle and lcho Nunnery , the Old Church and Graveyard and the present Church. THE PARISH IN ANCIENT TIMES AS t d is n might be expec e , nothing know about a. Rhynd in prehistoric times, though place so near to the Pictish strongholds of Clat chard rdl Crag , Abernethy , and Forteviot can ha y fail to have been often visited by the ancient was Caledonians . It probably they who gave the name of The Rhynds to the rich meadows which in their day must have pro je ct ed as grassy promontories into the wide s of E mar hes at the confluence the Tay and arn , for the name belongs especially to that locality , and is perpetuated in the names of the farms of Easter and Wester Rhynd . The name was extended to the whole parish owing to th e f S church having ormerly been ituated there . E That situation, where Tay and arn meet , has been found in modern times highly incon ve nie nt a n as reg rds the church , which has bee THE PARISH IN ANCIENT TIMES 5 removed to another site . Anciently , however , w the contrary as the case . Proximity to the river brought the church and its servants i a of r of with n easy re ch Pe th , and also the s of e great ecclesiastical establi hments Scon , f . o of . Lindores , Balmerino and St Andrews Dunfermline also was within easy distance by road . In local history the Slenderest clue m ay lead k s one a long way bac , and by the mo t curious windings . Such a clue is found in a time-worn st one built into the gable of the ruined church in the grave of n i yard Rhy d . It s not orI mal for in its g place , what is now called the old church w as put up aft er the Reformation . The Latin inscription on this stone under a sculptured - - — coat of arms two crossleted crosses over a — crescent records how it was placed in memory of Brother Thomas de (the name is un ' f eflaced as ortunately much , but may be Thom de of of Lundin , who signs one the Isle May ul charters as a witness , and whose name wo d a - o of a ex ctly fill the space) , Sub Pri r the Isl nd 6 THE RHYND AND ELCHO ‘ ’ of f St . o a . Adrian May, in p ce requiescat F w t we ollo ing up his indication , find that in olden times the history of the Kirk of Rhynd is o of of b und up with that the Monastery St . i of of was e Adr an May, which it an appanag . a f if St . Adri n himsel is an interesting Slightly hazy figure coming out of the misty west as il missionary to the st l heathen east . Some time in the end of the ninth century he arrived f i had of in Fi e , wh ch he fixed on as his field ll f di o e . AS labour, with a sma company scipl s was of he the habit these Celtic missionaries, t o the ok up his abode on an island, choosing of Isle May, than which no more desolate spot w f r s could ell be ound , nor one where the p ayer of f f a holy man could be sa er rom interruption . r . a Neve theless , St Adrian and his comp ny f t . were not long le unmolested Danger came , not from the mainland where their blessed w f se a.