Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

METHVEN
library (1790), curling and bowling clubs, and a jute and
linen factory. In 1433 a collegiate church, for a provost
and five prebendaries, was founded at Methven by Walter
Stewart, Earl of Athole, who four years later was tor-
tured to death at Edinburgh for the murder of his
nephew, James I. An estant aisle, now the burying-
place of the Smythes of Methven, is thought to have
been added in the early part of the succeeding century,
by Margaret, queen-dowager of James IV. , as one of its
stones is sculptured with the royal lion of Scotland, sur-
mounted by a crown. The present parish church is a
plain building of 1783, enlarged in 1825, and containing
1000 sittings. In the churchyard is the tomb of General
Sir Thomas Graham, Lord Ltnedooh (1730-1843), the
hero of Barossa, who was born at Balgowan. There are
also Free and U.P. churches. Pop. of village (1861)
960, (1871) 867, (1881) 751.
The parisli, containing also the villages of Almond-
bank and SoKOGGiEHiLL, is bounded N by Monzie
(detached), NE by Moneydie and Kedgorton, SE by
Tibbermore, S by Tibbermore, Gask, and Madderty,
and W by Fowlis-Wester. Its utmost length, from E
by N to W by S, is 6 J miles ; its breadth varies between
1 mile and 3| miles ; and its area is 12,983f acres, of
which 724 are water, and 2823i belong to the Tully-
beagles or detached section (4J x 1| miles), which, lying
6 miles N of Methven village and 3 W of Bankfoot, is
bounded NW by Little Dunkeld, and on all other sides
by Auchtergaven. The Almond winds 3| miles east-
ward along all the northern boundary, next 1 J mile east-
south-eastward across a north-eastern wing (the Lyne-
doch propertj'), and lastly 2| miles south-eastward along
the Redgorton border. Its rapid course between bold,
rocky banks, here bare, there wooded, offers many
beautiful views. Pow Water rises in two head-streams
which unite at the SW corner of the main body, and
pass away towards the Earn ; whilst another stream,
rising near the sources of the Pow, meanders 4J miles
eastward through the interior past Slethven village, and
then goes 3 miles east-north-eastward along the southern
boundary to the Almond. Methven Loch (1 J x | furl. )
lies to the W of Almondbank village. The surface of the
main body of the parish is agreeably diversified with hol-
lows and wooded slopes, sinking in the extreme E to close
on 100 feet above sea-level, and rising thence west-north-
westward to 431 feet near Drumcairn, 483 near Wester
Carsehill, and 653 near Monabuie. The hilly detached
district, which by Ordie and Garry Burns is drained to
the river Tay, has likewise a west-north-westward ascent,
from 290 feet above sea-level to 1263 at Craig Gibbon
and 1399 at Creag Liath. Trap and Old Red sand-
stone are the predominant rocks. A greenstone variety
of the trap, well suited for road metal, and a iiue-
grained pale grey variety of the sandstone, adapted for
building, have both been quarried. The soil of the
lower grounds, for the most part argillaceous, is
elsewhere either loam or gravel ; that on some of the
high grounds of the main body, and on those of the
detached district, is moorish. About four-fifths of the
entire area are regularly or occasionally in tillage ; nearly
one-sixth is under wood ; and the rest is either pastoral
or waste. Of many fine old trees the ' Pepperwell Oak '
in front of Methven Castle is the finest, its height being
82 feet, and its girth 23 at 1 foot from the ground.
Prior to 1323, the lands of Methven belonged to the
Mowbrays, whose ancestor, Roger Mowbray, a Norman,
accompanied William the Conqueror to England. ' A
branch of this family,' says the Old Statistical Account,
'afterwards established itself in Scotland, and became
very flourishing. To Sir Roger Mowbray belonged the
baronies of Kelly, Eekford, Dalmeny, and Methven, lying
in the shires of Forfar, Roxburgh, Linlithgow, and Perth;
but, for adhering to the Baliol and English interest, his
lands were confiscated by Robert I., who bestowed Eek-
ford, Kelly, and Methven on his son-in-law, Walter, the
eighth hereditary lord-high-steward of Scotland, whose
son succeeded to the crown in 1371, as Robert II., in
right of his mother, Marjory Bruce, daughter of Robert
I. The lordship of Methven was granted by him to
30
MEYRICK
Walter Stewart, Earl of Athole, his second son, by
Euphemia Ross, his second wife ; and after his forfeiture
(1437), remained in the Crown a considerable time. It
became part of the dowry lands usually appropriated for
the maintenance of the queen-dowager of Scotland, to-
gether with the lordship and castle of Stirling, and the
lands of Balquhidder, etc., all of which were settled on
Margaret, queen-dowager of James IV., who, in the year
1525, having divorced her second husband, Archibald,
Earl of Angus, married Henry Stewart, second son of
Andrew Lord Evandale, afterward Ochiltree, a descend-
ant of Robert, Duke of Albany, son of King Robert II.
Margaret was the eldest daughter of Henry VII. of
England, in whose right James VI. of Scotland, her
great-grandson, succeeded to that crown on the death of
Queen Elizabeth. She procured for her third husband a-
peerage from her son, James V., under the title of Lord
Methven, anno 1528 ; and, on this occasion, the barony
of Methven was dissolved from the Crown, and erected
into a lordship, in favour of Henry Stewart and his
heirs male, on the Queen's resigning her jointure of the
lordship of Stirling. By Lord Methven she had a
daughter, who died in infancy, before herself. The
queen died at the castle of Methven in 1540, and was
buried at Perth, beside the body of James I. Lord
Methven afterwards married Janet Stewart, daughter of
the Earl of Athole, by whom he had a son, Henry, who
married Jean, daughter of Patrick, Lord Ruthven, and
was killed at Broughton by a cannon-ball from th&
castle of Edinburgh, in 1572, leaving a son, Henry,
who died without issue, when the lands reverted to
the Crown. This third Lord Methven is mentioned
on the authority of Stewart's Genealogical Accownt
of the House of Stewart. In 1584 the lordship of Meth-
ven and Balquhidder was conferred on Ludowick, Duke
of Lennox, in whose Olustrious family it continued tiU.
it was purchased from the last Duke, in 1664, by Patrick
Smythe of Braco.' His great-grandson, David (1746-
1806), assumed the title of Lord Methven on his eleva-
tion to the bench ; and his son, William (b. 1803 ; sue.
1847), holds 5128 acres in the shire, valued at £6470
per annum. His seat, Methven Castle, on a bold acclivi-
tous rising-ground, 1| mile E of Methven village, is a
stately baronial pile of 1680, with extensive modern
additions. Not far from the manse, on 19 June 1306, was
fought the Battle of Methven, in which a small band,
under Robert Bruce, was surprised and scattered by
Pembroke, the English regent. Baloowan, Lynedooh,
and Dronach Haugh — the last with the grave of ' Bessie-
Bell and Mary Gray' — are noticed separately. Five
proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and up-
wards, 3 of between £100 and £500, 3 of from £50 to
£100, and 15 of from £20 to £50. Giving off its
detached section to Logiealmond quoad sacra parish,
but taking in part of Monzie, this parish is in the pres-
bytery of Perth, and the synod of Perth and Stirling -^
the living is worth £361. Almondbank public, Methven
public, and Methven female industrial schools, with,
respective accommodation for 152, 134, and 119 children,
had (1883) an average attendance of 72, 61, and 56, and
grants of £69, 4s., £59, 16s., and £41, 16s. Valuation.
(1860) £12,165, 5s. 2d., (1884) £13,335, 2s. Pop.
of civil parish (1801) 2073, (1831) 2714, (1861) 2347,
(1871) 2115, (1881) 1910 ; of ecclesiastical parish (1881)
Wil.—Ord. Sur., shs. 48, 47, 1868-69.
Mey, a hamlet in Canisbay parish, Caithness, on th&
coast road from Thurso to Huna and Wick, 13 miles
E by N of Thurso, and 23 NNW of Wick, under which
it has a post office. Mey Head, a small promontory
on the coast, terminating 2 miles SW of Stroma island,
was the site of the ancient chapel of Mey ; and, in
consequence of that chapel having been dedicated to St
John, is sometimes called St John's Point. The Men of
Mey are jagged rocky islets, in a dangerous sweep of sea,
immediately off Mey Head, and lie submerged at full
and half tide. The shallow Loch of Mey (4 x 2g furl. ;
43 feet) lies on the mutual border of Dunnet and
Canisbay parishes. —Or A Sur., shs. 116, 117, 1878-84.
Meyriok. See Merkick.