Crieff

Eight hundred years ago the broad strath of the River Earn was a swathe of bog and swampland formed at the edge of the Grampian mountains in the distant aftermath of the Ice Age. One of the few safe tracks across the 'mosses' climbed a gentle brae to a small township which had grown up around a simple kirk that was referred to in an 1199 charter as being at Cref. The place name itself is a bit of an enigma but it is generally accepted that it comes from the 12th century Gaelic Crubha Cnoc - the settlement on the haunch of the Knock. Since the town clearly sits on the southern slope of the great wooded hill known as the Knock, on the precise physical and cultural boundary between the Highlands and Lowlands, this seems the logical origin of the name. One other suggested derivation is Crioch - the settlement on the frontier: frontier certainly conveys the right image of the rugged Highland line which fringed the territory of the Celtic Earls of Strathearn who held their ancient lands and title by the indulgence of God. Crieff developed as a market town, with Highlanders eager to come south with their produce, especially the small black cattle whose meat and hides were avidly sought for the growing urban populations in Lowland Scotland and the north of England. Gradually the unique location of this frontier town led to the development, not only of new fairs and markets, but of the great Michaelmas cattle sale held each year. The town acted as a gathering point and the surrounding fields and hillsides were black with the 30,000 beasts from at least 2 points of origin - some as far away as Caithness and the Outer Hebrides. In the 200 years which followed, Crieff was no longer an important part of the Scottish rural establishment and this relegation was compounded by the loss of many of the lairds and their followers at the disastrous Battle of Flodden in 1513. There were very few Crieff families who did not have menfolk amongst the flowers o' the forest who failed to return. Let's take a look at Crieff's Recent History © Scottish Towns