Scottish Towns - Bridge of Earn

Bridge of Earn

Bridge of Earn has never quite made up its mind whether it is a Highland village on the verge of the Lowlands, or a Lowland village on the verge of the Highlands. Nestling as it does on the historic highway between the ancient (Perth) and the present (Edinburgh) capitals of Scotland, its people combine some of the best characteristics of both Highlander and Lowlander - a natural courtesy of one and the shrewdness, integrity and diligence of the other!

In 1296 King Edward I crossed the river Earn in his pursuit of Sir William Wallace, whose bivouac within the parish may perhaps be commemorated in the farm of Wallacetown. Oliver Cromwell also set camp here in 1651 prior to his march on nearby Perth.

The old Bridge of Earn was used by Millais as his background for "Sir Isumbras at the Ford".
Scotland's stone bridges crossed powerful and often turbulent waters and few were more troublesome than those maintained by the burgh of Perth (including those spanning the mighty river Tay). The late medievil four-arched bridge over the Earn (built about the same time as the Stirling Bridge) suffered at least one major collapse in 1614 when the northern arch fell. By 1766 a fifth arch had been added to help strengthen it and to compensate for the river's shifting course and bank erosion. Eventually the bridge had to be replaced and in 1822 a Rennie-designed bridge was built a little further upstream.
The earlier village of Bridge of Earn was erected in 1769 with a main street leading to the old bridge and the former harbour on the Earn, once visited by steamboats from Perth and Dundee. The newer part of the village was built in 1832.

In 1842 it was publically recorded that there was "no Dissenting chapel in the area", yet by the following year (the year of the Disruption) the elders of the parish had signed a deed of demission of office in the Established Church and formed themselves into a kirk session for a Free Church in Bridge of Earn. A few months later the foundation of the church at Sealsbridge was laid. Eventually, a basis of re-union with the parish church was agreed to, with the union taking place 1930.
The first Scottish communion service to be broadcast and the first to be televised took place in Dunbarney Church in 1950 and 1953 respectively.

The nearby village of Kintillo was originally an old-world clachan, with many people claiming it to be the oldest village in Scotland. It is certainly referred to as far back as 1260.