A Busy People

Loch Tayside, however, would seem to have fared better than most parts of the Highlands. This was in large measure due to the introduction of the flax crop with the resultant spinning and weaving of the yarn. The land around the loch was fertile. Pennant notes in 1769 that “a great deal of thread is manufactured and at the four fairs held in Kenmore about £1,600 of yarns is sold out of Breadalbane to merchants who sell it again in Perth and Glasgow where it is made into cloth”.

The population of the Parish in 1755 was 3,067. This had increased to 3,465 by the close of that century. The trades practised around the loch included 63 weavers, 30 tailors, 36 wrights, 10 smiths, 26 shoemakers, 20 flax dressers, 8 masons, 8 coopers, 4 hosiers and 1 dyer. While the standard of living was far lower than anyone today can imagine, it must have taken a relatively prosperous society to maintain such a number of trades people. Loch Tayside actually gave a lead in the flax manufacturing process. Ewan Cameron, a carpenter, invented a machine which carried the flax through the initial stages of preparation. This machine was taken up by Sir John Sinclair, a man interested in the development of Scottish industry, who was instrumental in getting Cameron to erect lint mills in different parts of the country. James Campbell, the minister who had seen so many changes during his ministry, died in 1780 and was buried in the new churchyard.

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