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| ...Inchaffray |
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Nearby ... Crieff ... the ancient capital of Strathearn St Fillans ... a tranquil and picturesque village by Loch Earn Fowlis Wester ... one of Perthshire's smallest villages and with a beautiful pre-Reformation church Feedback Credits Maps ... For a wider look at the area, load our Perthshire Map and choose your destination! Links ... Tourist Board Scottish Tourist Board Scottish Towns |
he site of Inchaffray Abbey is just outside the village of Madderty. The name
"Inchaffray" is a corruption of the Gaelic 'Innisabh-reidh',
(Island of the Smooth Water). The rising ground on which the abbey
stood was in fact an island surrounded by a lake famous for its eels.
Maurice, Abbot of Inchaffray was chaplain to King Robert the Bruce and celebrated mass at the Battle of Bannockburn (1314). During the battle, he is said to have walked barefooted and bareheaded down the Scottish lines, crucifix held aloft, exhorting the soldiers to fight bravely for their rights and liberties. He was also custodian of the Arm of St. Fillan - a centuries old relic of one of our many local saints. At Bruce's insistence it was present at the battle to bring good fortune. Whether it was prayers or grisly limb that achieved victory over the English is of academic interest only! To even the score, fate decreed that a future Abbot of Inchaffray - Laurence Oliphant, was to be killed on Flodden Field in 1513. 
y the 15th century the abbey's importance in the Scottish ecclesiastical
world was beginning to wane and, in later centuries, its fabric was quarried
for stone for building local farms and mansions! Another 1.5 miles further
south will bring you to a minor road; turn right here and you will
enjoy a pleasant rural drive to
Crieff.
ashlie is where the legendary Celtic war hero, Fingal, was said to have four
castles. His son Ossian, a famous bard, recounted his father's mighty deeds:
"12 castles had Fionn, in the dark bent glen of stones" (Glen Lyon). The remains of only 5 can be seen today, 4 at Cashlie, close to Loch Lyon at the western point of the Glen. The walls of one of these forts are between 12 and 14 feet thick. Another, at Cambuslaie, is unusual in structure in that within the perimeter are two more circular structures with the centre one a solid block of masonry 13 feet thick. |
| Last Updated June 2001 |
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