Glen Tarken and her townships 3. Morell Township.

This township is the last that we visit on this trip to this particular Glen at this time and one could consider this to be the main attraction of the day.

Morell Township. C: Author

Walking down to the site from Jerusalem, the site looms into view.  As you approach the site you will walk through a walled fence area that also has the remains on both sides of the wall, both higher and lower to your position on the path. Again, take time to view these sites. As you get closer to the main site, there is a large deer fence that seperates the village from your current position, but a gated styal affords you access to the site.  The deer fence is there for a reason as there are plenty of forestry work and logging taking place at present.

Whilst I was there, I was rewarded with a visit from several deer who made their way through the village. I am never sure as to whether the fence is there to keep them in or out! Upon entering the site, I implore you to stop and take in the views all around you which, on the day that I visited, were breathtaking.

Morell Township: C: Author

Morell Township. C: Author

Morell Township. C: Author

This is a large township that can be traced easily over the area. The buildings, their divisions and layout can easily be identified and distinguished. There are outlines of a large walled sheepfold at the rear right of the site and the remains of a well area to the northeast of the site. Alot of the buidling are almost gone now but it is worth taking time to absorb the site and consider the conditions such an elevated and sloped site must have had on the community living here. The hardships faced to just survive each day.

At the end of your time at the site, you have two options for return. Retracing your steps back along the path to Wester Glen Tarken and the A85 is probably the best. You can walk straight down the hill in front of you, it is steep,but there is a path/track that you will pick up. Here you can also rejoin the disused railway route and turning left picking up the logging road back to the A85. Although this is the shortest route, I would not advise it as the logging work being carried out can be a dangerous area to enter.

The Silent Clearances - Tom Devine

The Lowland Clearances 'Fuadaich nan Galltachd'

This presentation is provided by Dunedin Public Libraries and presents Professor Thomas Devine OBE (University of Edinburgh), as he discusses the scale and impact of the 'Silent Clearances', and how they resonate in Scottish settlement today.

Modern research has challenged that assumption by demonstrating the extent of removals elsewhere in Scotland. This lecture demonstrated the scale of dispossession of people in one Lowland region and explained how it transformed the way of life in the southwest forever, suggesting why the Highland Clearances are remembered yet the Lowland Clearances are forgotten.

Although not a direct transcript, a report of a Lecture by Tom Devine titled 'The Lowland Clearances and The Transformation of SouthWest Scoltand' does provide further background to the video and can be accessed here

New Book: The Lowland Clearances

The Lowland Clearances  

Scotland’s Silent Revolution 1760–1830

Peter Aitchison and Andrew Cassell

Although this site has concentrated to date on the Highland Clearances, there is another parallel that can be studied through the clearances that took place in the South and Lowland areas of Scotland. The information helps to provide a wider context of study for the social, political and cultural impact surrounding the clearances

The publisher states: This revolution of 'improvement' helped shape the landscape we accept today as the Scottish countryside. But it also swept aside a traditional way of life, causing immense upheaval and trauma for rural dwellers, many of whom moved to the new towns and cities or emigrated. 

The Lowland Clearances also set in train the trend of depopulation which continues to affect Scotland to this day; the number of people who left the Lowlands during the agricultural revolution far exceeded the number exiled from the Highlands. And yet, compared to the Highlands, very little has been written or published about the Lowland Clearances. This book aims to redress that imbalance. It does not deny the clearances in the Highlands and Islands but reflects pioneering historical research which establishes them as part of a wider process of clearance which affected the whole of Scotland. 

The book is due for release on the 5th of April, 2012 and a link to Amazon is provided here

Glen Tarken and her townships 2. Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Cottage. Copyright Author

Returning to our posts on the Glentarken area. We leave behind the township of Wester Glentarken and following the path up and around the back of the village. We climb up and follow the path round until we come to a bridge on our right that stretches across the burn. It is worth stopping here for a moment to enjoy the falls below and also note the remains of further buildings, behind us to the left, that make up the wider Glentarken community.

Copyright: Crown

Carrying on, across the bridge follow the path up until you arrive at the remains of a building situated next to the renovated croft house. Here you have arrived at Jerusalem.

There is some confusion as to the naming and placing of the townships of Glentarken, Morell and Jerusalem. This area is annotated as 'Easter Glentarken' as depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Perthshire 1867, sheet xciii). We can identify the area on the map as comprising of three roofed, two partially roofed buildings and two enclosures. Later OS maps show this area as Jerusalem and the Easter Glentarken as slightly higher up the Glen. (As shown here). A later posting will add more information about
Easter Glentarken.

Jerusalem cottage. Copyright: Author

Very little is known as to why this particular township area is known as Jerusalem but there is a lot of information relating to two saint fillans, and the close relationship to the area of St. Fillan at Loch Earn. One of Irish and one of Scottish Origin .The St. Fillan whose feast is kept on 20 June had churches dedicated to his honour at Ballyheyland, County Laois, Ireland and here at Loch Earn, Perthshire. References to the feast of St. Fillan being on 19 January occasionally appear and agreement upon which is correct has not been reached.

Remains close to Jerusalem. C: Author

There is evidence to show that the Saint, and his followers, held a house in the area. Further information regaring this heritage can be read here from an article written in 1895. (Courtesy Archaeological Data Service, University of York).

What ever the story, and what ever the reason, I find this a really interesting area and one of such beauty. Throughout my visit , I was occasionally joined by deer running across the area, and of course amazing views. Don't rush your visit to this area, but immerse yourself in the history and emotion of the villages.

News and Events

I have added a new link, on the left, that will aim to list events taking place in the following months that relate to the clearances. The list will also provide links to further information of each event. Hopefully, I won't miss anything and maybe meet some of you at these events.

The Strath of kildonan clearances remembered 2013

2013, will mark the 200th anniversary of the instigation of the large scale removal of the native population in the Strath of Kildonan by the landowners and the establishment of large sheep and arable farms. This point in Highlands history will be remembered with many visitors coming to the area to mark this event inhistory in their own varied ways and for many visitors, who have ancestors who were involved in the Clearances, it will be like returning home. Timespan and the local community will be ready to celebrate the culture of the area, both past and present, i.e. linking the stories of the past with our lives today.

 

Strath of Kildonan. C: Timespan

One such activity is the development of the Strath of Kildonan Clearances Trail, an exciting and interesting project that will utilise the latest digital technologies, as well as more traditional methods of dissemination.  This project will produce an online guide to the clearances of the Strath which will be supported through the different media available including the development of an app!

To find out all the latest news you can visit the museum and the project blog at their website

Further information on the clearances in this area, and more information on the Museum without walls project can be found here at this BBC article.

Glen Tarken and her townships 1 . Wester Glentarken, Loch Earn.

Loch Earn from Easter Glentarken. C: Author

As I sit here writing this post watching the snow fall heavily onto the paths and garden outside, it is hard to think that this photo, and my visit to this area was only last Friday, when I was blessed with a crisp white morning that gave way to brilliant sunshine and a degree of early year warmth that made the visit to the townships of Glen Tarken a joy.

This is my first visit to the area to record the townships and  and as I now study the OS maps and research further the information on the area, I think you will find this area as interesting as I.



The shores of Loch Earn, and this particular region, provides an area comprising of more than one settlement in close proximity to each other. There are the remains of the settlements that are known as Easter and Wester Glentarken, the township of Morell and an interesting site known as Jerusalem, which I hope to add verse to in a later posting.

Wester Glentarken. Copyright: NLS/Crown

We approach Wester Glentarken from the roadside on the A85. We move swiftly through a farm path and very quickly the township comes into view, being a mere 10 minutes walk from our starting point. 

The village or clachan, as the orginal collection of dewllings were known as, contains the remains of thirteen rectangular buildings, four kilns (one probably a lime-kiln) and associated enclosures. The buildings vary in size from 31.0m x 5.5m to 7.0m x 4.5m with walls up to 2.0m in height.

There is a barn in the middle of the clachan that has been roofed and used for many different uses to support rural life in the community.  Enquiries carried out by previous  reserchers have revealed that the larger group of buildings included a school for  upto sixty children and that the area was finally depopulated about the turn of the last century.

There are further remains to the left of the pathway slightly further along the path that would have formed the same township area.

Wester Glentarken. C: Author

Wester Glentarken. C: Author

Wester Glentarken. C: Author

Wester Glentarken. C: Author

The next posting in this series will take us up past Wester and towards the village of Easter Glentarken.

Glen Quaich and her Townships ~Croftinafighag.

Copyright: NLS / Crown

 Continuing our walk along the path from Easter Turrerich, we come to a small croft township site that consists of five unroofed buildings, two enclosures and a sheepfold. This site is very close to the now installed power lines. There are the remains of 5 buildings in all and evidence of sheep enclosures to the east of the site into the next field area. The croft is located next to a mature woodland.

This is an interesting site in that it is lower that the others on the route and there is still evidence of the different divisions in the buildings. There is also signs of some good construction techniques.

Croftinafighag. Copyright: Author

 This is a nice area to stop, have a coffee and a spot of lunch before continuing the 2miles to the next location. Whilst having your lunch and contemplating the beauty of the area and the Glen in front of you, you may turn your thoughts to the reasons for the clearances and why people would have had to leave.


Most of the people who lived in these areas of Perthshire worked on the land or were dependant on those who did. They were hard working, they had to be, considering the sometimes rocky, infertile hill ground which they had to cultivate in order to maintain their families. They were God fearing, attended church regularly and probably paid lip service to the laws of the church, but they would have no choice as the Church was their only help in times of need. This bears evidence throughout the period of the clearances in almost all areas of Scotland, with the church and the clergy often working for the villagers but often working with the Land owners. The physical presence of the church often provided a refuse in a lot of cases to families and whole communities after being evicted from their homes. The most famous of these is the clearances of Glencalvie in 1850 and Croick Kirk.(A brilliant account of the relationship between the church and the transformation of the highlands throughout this period can be read in the book, The clergy and the Clearances, obtained here

Easter Turrerich. copyrigh Author

Here it may be worth considering that some left the area not forcebly, as often reported when writing about the period of the clearances, but may have left through choice.

It would be naive to suggest that forced clearances never took place in Highland Perthshire; the Duke of Atholl was the first to clear some of his land to make way for sheep. The clearances at Glen Tilt, in Blair Atholl, were the first recorded evidence of the clearances in Scotland. The lands here, in Glenquaich, were cleared along with some parts of the Parich of Dull by the Earl of Breadalbane around 1830.



Many of these people left their homeland by choice, they were not forced out. Especially after the landowners had amalgamated the small farms or crofts, such as the one you sit in now, there just wasn’t enough to keep young people at home.

Emigration became an option for many with agents advertising for young Scots to go to the colonies where they were needed and work was plentiful. (The last post I published provided evidence of the type of advertising and testimonials used by the Canada Company)

Another reason for a areas becoming desolate was the common custom in Highland Perthshire of sending young boys south to learn the art of animal husbandry and farming, returning later, if at all, to take over the croft or farm in the area. Soth may have been to the Lowlands or into England where farming on larger scale was being carried out. Some may have returned with the Yorkshire farmers who obtained tenancy on the newly created, and enlarged, sheep farms. Others may have found employment in the new mills of Yorkshire and Lancashire where accommodation and employment would have been more lucrative than returning to the harsh realities of Highland life.

(adapt. Liney, K. 2006. 'Researching in Highland Perthshire Part 1' North Perthshire Family History Group.Sept. 2006)