Dunkeld
Dunkeld,
in Perthshire, Scotland, is situated on the left bank of the
River Tay, North of Perth. The river is crossed by a bridge
of seven arches which was designed by Thomas Telford in 1805
and opened in 1808. The town lies in the midst of luxuriant
trees, and the noble sweep of the Tay, the effectively situated
bridge, the grounds of Dunkeld House, ( now a hotel ) and
the protecting mountains combine to give it a romantic appearance.
A fountain erected in Market Square to the memory of the 6th
duke of Atholl (d 1864) occupies the site of the old cross.
As
early as 729, some authorities fix the date a hundred and
fifty years before the Culdees possessed a monastery at Dunkeld,
which was converted into a cathedral by David I. in 1127.
This structure stood until the Reformation, when it was unroofed
and suffered to fall into ruin. The building consists of the
nave (120 ft. long, 6o ft. wide, 40 ft. high), aisles (12
ft. wide), choir, chapter-house and tower. The nave is the
most beautiful portion. The Pointed arches rest upon pillars,
possibly Norman, and above them, below the Decorated clerestory
windows, is a series of semicircular arches with flamboyant
tracery, a remarkable feature. The choir, founded by Bishop
William Sinclair, has been repaired, and serves as the parish
church, a blue marble slab in the floor marking the bishops
grave. The chapter-house, adjoining the choir, was built by
Bishop Thomas Lauder (1395-1481) in 1469, and the vault beneath
is the burial-place of the Atholl Murrays. Lauder also began
the tower, completed in 1501. In the porch of the church is
the most interesting of the extant old tombs, namely, the
recumbent effigy of Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch
(1343-1405; the inscription refers his death to 1394, but
this is said to be an error).
The
most famous of the Bishops was Gavin Douglas (1474152 2),
translator of the Aeneid. One of the most heroic exploits
in the annals of warfare is associated with the cathedral.
Shortly after the battle of Killiecrankie (1689), the Cameronian
regiment, enrolled in the same year (afterwards the 26th Foot),
was despatched to hold Dunkeld prior to another invasion of
the Highlands. It was under the command of Colonel William
Cleland (b. I66I), a poet of some merit. On the 26th of August
a force of 5000 Highlanders suddenly appearing, Cleland posted
his men in the church and behind the wall of the earl of Atholls
mansion. Still flushed with their victory under Dundee, and
animated by bitterest hatred of their Whiggamore foes, the
Highlanders assaulted the position of the Covenanters, who
were 1200 strong, with the most desperate valour. Sustained
by their enthusiasm, however, the recruits displayed equal
courage, and, at the end of four hours stubborn fighting,
their defence was still intact. Fearing lest victory, even
if won, might be purchased too dearly, the Highianders gradually
withdrew. While leading a sortie Cleland was shot dead, and
was buried in the churchyard.
Adjoining
the cathedral is old Dunkeld House, once a seat of the duke
of Atholl, the grounds of which are estimated to contain 50
miles of walks. On the lawn near the cathedral stand two of
the earliest larches grown in Great Britain, having been introduced
from Tirol by the 2nd duke in 1738. The 4th duke planted several
square miles of the estate with this tree, of which he had
made a special study.
A
mile south of Dunkeld, on the left bank of the Tay, is the
village of Birnam (pop. 389), where Sir John Everett Millais,
the painter, made his summer residence. It lies at the foot
of Birnam Hill (1324 ft.), once covered with a royal forest
that has been partly replaced by plantations. The oak and
sycamore in front of Birnam House, the famed twin trees of
Birnam, are believed to be more than iooo years old, and to
be the remnant of the wood of Birnam which Shakespeare immortalized
in Macbeth. The Pass of Birnam, where the river narrows, was
the path usually taken by the Highlanders in. their forays.
In the vicinity are the castles of Murthly, one a modern mansion
in the Elizabethan style, erected about 1838 from designs
by James Gillespie Graham (1777-1855), and the other the old
castle, still occupied, which was occasionally used as a hunting-lodge
by the Scottish kings.
At
Little Dunkeld, almost opposite to Dunkeld, the Bran joins
the Tay, after a run of II m. from its source in Loch Freuchie.
It is celebrated for its falls about 2 m. from the mouth.
The upper fall is known as the Rumbling Bridge from the fact
that the stream pours with a rumbling noise through a deep
narrow gorge in which a huge fallen rock has become wedged,
forming a rude bridge or arch. Inver, near the mouth of the
Bran, was the birthplace of the two famous fiddlers, Niel
Gow (1727-1807) and his son Nathaniel (1766-1831).
