Balquhidder

Balquhidder
Ruins of Balquhidder Church.
Balquhidder  Balquhidder shown within the Stirling council area
Council area	Stirling
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
EU Parliament	Scotland
List of places: UK • Scotland •

Rob Roy's Grave.Postcard c.1910-1920

Balquhidder ( listen ; Scottish Gaelic: Baile-a-Chuil-Tir the land lying behind the country) is a small village in the Stirling council area of Scotland. It is overlooked by the dramatic mountain terrain of the Braes of Balquhidder, at the head of Loch Voil. Balquhidder Glen is also popular for fishing, nature watching and walking. The village's railway station is no longer open.

The MacLarens acquired the district as early as the 9th century and occupied it for several hundred years until forced to share the area by the MacGregors, a neighbouring clan, who had repeatedly raided their lands, and, in 1558 slew the chief and many of his followers.^{[citation needed]}The Parish is also an ancient seat to branches of the Stewart and Fergusson Clans. Balquhidder was the scene of some of the exploits of Rob Roy, who died there in 1734. The local kirkyard is his final resting place, his grave marked with the appropriately defiant motto 'MacGregor Despite Them'. He lies with the remains of his wife and two sons, the graves marked by three flat stones. One of these is contemporary, but the remaining two are re-used medieval grave monuments.^{[citation needed]}

St. Angus

St Angus came to Balquhidder Glen in the 8th or 9th century and recognised what the Celts called a "thin place" where the boundary between Earth and Heaven was close. He knelt and blessed the glen at the spot where the house "Beannach Aonghais" (Gaelic 'blessing of Angus') now stands and built a stone oratory at Kirkton, where he spent the rest of his life. Angus was the first to bring Christianity to Balquhidder. Behind the present kirk is Tom nan Angeae, the hill of fire, where until the 19th century hearth fires were renewed at Beltane and Samhain to encourage ancient gods to bring warmth to the land. Angus was buried at the foot of this hill and a flagstone laid over him which stands today in the present church. This stone, formerly in the floor of the medieval church, has a crudely incised figure of a priest holding a chalice. The carving is probably late medieval in date.^{[citation needed]}

There are some foundations of the east end of the small medieval parish church of Balquhidder around the grave of Rob Roy and his family (which seem deliberately to have been buried at the site of its altar). A few metres to the west are the roofless ruins of this building's 17th century seccessor. The present church, built on a new site to the north of the ancient graveyard, is of 19th century date. As well as the slab attributed to St. Angus, the ancient, primitive font, probably of early medieval origin, is preserved in this building. There is a display on the history of Balquhidder in the church, which is open to the public during the summer, when there is also a programme of evening concerts in the building.

Glen Buckie, now a quiet backwater on the south side of Balquhidder Glen was the scene of one of the last acts of the 1745 rising. Dr Archibald "Archie" Cameron of Locheil had returned to Scotland in the early 1750s hoping to raise support for a possible last-ditch coup against George II.^{[citation needed]} He was captured in the glen, and was later hanged in London, the last Jacobite to be executed for treason.^{[citation needed]}

The Reverend Robert Kirk, who translated parts of the Gaelic Bible and wrote The Secret Commonwealth, also lived here for several years from 1664.

Notable people associated with Balquhidder

• Sir James Black, winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine; his family traced their origins to a dominie from the village
• James Cameron, the Canadian film director, traces his family origins to the village
• David Carnegie, who funded the construction of Sankta Birgittas kapell in Gothenburg, modelled on the Kirk in Balquhidder, where the Carnegies had a home
• Sandy Lyle, golfer
• William Stewart of Baldorran (c1440-c1500), founder of the Balquhidder Stewart clan.
• Robert Roy MacGregor, Scottish patriot, buried in Balquhidder Church yard.

References

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Balquhidder". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Balquhidder Kirk
• http://fotografico.ning.com/photo/scoziamg0693-1?context=album&albumId=3410616%3AAlbum%3A40824
• http://fotografico.ning.com/photo/scoziamg0693-1/next?context=album&albumId=3410616%3AAlbum%3A40824
• Balquhidder at www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk Retrieved December 2011