Catermillie - Roman Remains or Shadow on the Land?

There is sometimes a temptation to see significance in ancient remains beyond their actual importance.  Hence the mania several hundred years ago to ascribe every bit of upstanding archaeological masonry a 'druidic temple'.  The antiquarian spirit is not quite dead yet and never will be as long as wishful thinking is alive.  I cite as example the story - possibly true - the story of the secret Roman road buried beneath Dundee.  A tale was circulated online anonymously a few years ago that there was a bona fide imperial causeway running beneath the cellars of the Arctic Bar in central Dundee. There was further speculation that it may in fact be medieval, if it exists at all.

   Catermillie  is the name of lands almost exactly on the south-westernmost section of the border between the counties of Perth and Angus, at Invergowrie. Local historians have the entrenched opinion that there was a Roman camp here.  The tradition is described as follows by the author of Historical Sketches of Fowlis Easter (pp. 20-21):

Running south from the centre of the village is a road leading to the Invergowrie Station, on the Scottish Central Railway, and to the village of Kingoodie; at the west end is a check-bar, on road leading north to join the Liff Road, which branches off at Invergowrie farm...The lands on the south and west of the Feus form the farms of Bullion and Mylnefield. They formerly were the property of the same family, and Bullion was then called also Catermillie; but since the division of the property one field on Mylnefield farm bears this name. Its origin is from the circumstance that, on these lands, the Romans at an early period formed a fortified camp for the accommodation of 4000 (quatuor millia) men; hence Cattermillie. The fosse and other vestiges of fortification have been swept away by agricultural improvement, and the memory of it is preserved only in history, and the ground plan of the estate.

   But was there actually a Roman presence - whether fortress or camp - here at all?  The author of the history of the parish of Longforgan confirms that, at the very end of the 19th century, there were no traces visible of the fort or camp.  The first record of the supposed military installation here was by William Maitland in History and Antiquities of Scotland (1757,vol. i. p. 215), who states the remains were clear in his day:

about half a mile benorth the estuary of Tay, is a Roman camp about two hundred yards square, fortified with a high rampart and a spacious ditch; but as the southern side appears to have been fenced with triple ramparts and ditches, these I take to have been the northern fortifications of the praetorium, the other sides being demolished by the plow, the vestigia appear but plainly. However, they are sufficient to show that this fortress was of a parallelogram form, about a quarter of a mile in length, which, from its vicinity to the Firth of Tay, I take to have been one of the camps which occasionally contained both the land and sea forces.

   Maitland was a man of Angus (a native of Brechin) and may have known about the remains from hearing locals speak of them.  The technicalities in Maitland's description have been examined by Gordon Mechan, who posed the pertinent question:  are these really Roman remains?  Difficult to say because agriculture was fast encroaching on the site even when Maitland wrote and any remains above ground had been obliterated by ploughing during the course of the next century.

Roman Remains, but meaning what?

Reading the landscape, the supposed fort at Invergowrie makes sense if it is considered that Invergowrie Bay was once an alluring landing place, rather than the silted up site it has become in modern times.  To the west, on the southern bank of the Tay, Carpow was a major Roman fortress, lynchpin in a series of forts and camps which cut deep into native territory, stretching north-east up Strathmore:  Cardean, Stracathro, and the rest. These forts were constructed during the Several campaign in Scotland, between 208 and 211 AD.  An advance base to support and supply these others would be appropriate here.  Gauld proposes a substantial base here, supporting Carpow and hosting provisions brought by sea from the northern campaign from the supply bases at South Shields.

The Name and its Significance

   Charter evidence gives the name as Kether-malyn, before 1292 and Katermalyn,before 1447.  It is later linked with Bullion:  as 'Bulzeon alias Katermalyn' in 1553, 'Bulzion or Catermille' in 1664, 'Bulzeon or Catermille' in 1694.  But what does the name mean?  Many authors have conjectured that it comes from Latin quator millia and signifies 'Camp of the four thousand'.  According again to Gordon Mechan this antiquarian theory originated with Principal Playfair of Edinburgh University. John Playfair (1748-1819), a mathematician and astronomer,  was in fact a local lad.  His father was minister of Benvie, only a mile or two away (and the most south-western parish in Angus).  His theory on the Roman origin for the name was advertised in James Knox's The Topography of the Basin of the Tay (Edinburgh, 1831, pp. 47-48):

we come to the Roman camp of Cater Milley, situated half a mile north of Invergowrie, and about two miles west from Dundee. This camp is now effaced; but it existed in the middle of the last century...Cater Milley, Principal Playfair conjectures to be Quatuor Millia; referring either to the distance from some other station, or to the number of troops it contained. But there is not any vestige, or tradition of another camp being within four miles of this neighbourhood; and, though the area of this station be somewhat greater than that of Orea, and double of that of the permanent camp at Ardoch, it could not, upon the Polybian system, hold 4000 men. Whatever may be the derivation of Cater Milley, there can be no doubt that this was the station, ad Tavum, near to, or upon the Tay. From a calculation made by General Roy, after comparing the dimensions of the different camps supposed to have been occupied by Agricola, during his last campaign in North Britain, he is of opinion, that the number of troops which the Roman commander sent on board the fleet, on returning from the territories of the Horestii, was about 4000. The calculations appear to be accurate; and, being founded upon data with which the General was familiar, there is reason to believe the soldiers sent on board the fleet might amount to that number; and as it is probable they embarked here, this station may derive the name, from the temporary camp of these troops being pitched on the spot where the permanent camp was afterward placed. The advantages of the situation, though still considerable, were probably much more so in the first and second centuries.

   That aside, neat though the suggestion is, what does the place-name really mean?  The first element is Gaelic cathair, which fits.  The second part may either be mileadh, warrior or meallan, knolls or
hillocks (remnants of decayed Roman buildings on the site).

The View From the Air and other Evidence

Although the remains at Catermillie have been utterly destroyed by farming the site of the fort, or the rounded angle of its corner was picked up by aerial reconnaissance and photographed firstly in December 1949.  This showed the location as not far south of the main Dundee-Perth road, on the track leading from the west of present day Bullionfield filling station to Mylnefield Farm. Further aerial surveying in 1990 seemed to confirm this. The only way that this could be shown to be a Roman fort or otherwise would be through archaeological excavation.  The only two bits of solid physical evidence found nearby to indicate an Imperial presence are two solitary coins.  One is a  follis of Maximinus II (Maximinus Daza), 308-314 A.D., minted at Alexandria in Egypt.  The other is of a similar date, a debased tetradrachma of Maximianus I, Herculeus, 286-310 A.D., also minted at Alexandria. What this means for the supposed Severan date of the site is unclear, though of course the two coins could have come from the personal treasure of a local Pictish worthy.

Works Consulted

Alexander Elliot, Lochee: As it Was and As It Is (Dundee, 1911).

W. W. Gauld, 'Roman activity in the Firth of Tay,' Journal of the Perthshire Society of Natural Science, XV (1987), pp. 25-30.

James Knox, The Topography of the Basin of the Tay (Edinburgh, 1831).

Gordon W. C. Mechan, 'Catermilly: a lost Roman fort near Invergowrie.  With notes on two recent finds of Roman coins, '  Aspects of Antiquity, Abertay Historical Society Publication No. 11 (1966), pp. 33-42.

Rev. Adam Philip, The Parish of Longforgan, a Sketch of its Church and People (Edinburgh and London, 1895).

Rev. James Stuart, Historical Sketches of the Church and Parish of Fowlis Easter (Dundee, 1865).

St Drostan the Wanderer - Droustie of Glen Esk

Saints should possibly still be honoured, even in an irreligious age;  kept in mind in a different way. There is no patron saint of Angus,but if we were to look at the early saints who laboured here, the prime candidate would be St Drostan, even though his reputation and name is stamped over the landscape of widely scattered places in the north.  While we know that this saint was resident in Glen Esk and died further north at Deer, the details of his life are frustratingly brief.  One source is the 12th century notes contained in the 10th century Book of Deer:

Columcille and Drostan, Cosgrach's son, his disciple, came from Iona, by the inspiration of God, to Aberdour.  And Bede, a Pict, was mormaer of Buchan when they came there; and he made the offering of that town to them, in freedom forever from mormaer and from toiseach. They came afterwards to another town; and it pleased Columcille, because it was full of God's grace: and he asked of the mormaer Bede, that it should be given to him.  But he did not give it.  After he had refused the clerics, his son fell ill, and was upon the point of death; whereupon the mormaer went to beseech the clerics to pray for his son, that health might come to him: and he gave to them as an offering the land from the boundary stone of the well to the boundary stone of Gartnait's son's farm.  They prayed, and health came to him. Thereupon Columcille gave that town to Drostan, and blessed it; and he left a curse that whoever should oppose it should not be long-lived or victorious.  Drostan shed tears upon parting with Columcille.  Columcile said: 'Let tear henceforward be its name'.

   There we have succinctly a legend legitimising ancient rights bestowed by a local secular ruler, a link to a saint of greater fame (Columcille/Columba) and a folk explanation of the name of the monastery-dear being Gaelic for 'tear'.  But no mention of Glenesk, unfortunately.  There are possible mentions of the ancient monastery of Deer in the Annals of Ulster in the years 623 and 679 under the name of 'Ner'.

   The 16th century Aberdeen Breviary contains more information about the saint's wanderings.  It states that he was 'born of the royal race of the Scots' and was sent for education to his uncle Columba in Ireland.  He was educated at Dalquongale and became abbot of that place.  After some years he went to live a solitary life in desert hermitages in Scotland and 'build a church in the place that is called Glenesk, leading the life of a hermit there'.  Further detail is scant.  It is related that a blind priest named Simon was restored to sight by the saint, perhaps in Glen Esk.  The saint's time in Angus is not detailed; nor is his foundation or settlement in Deer mentioned, which is strange,  so this story links back to a different origin legend.  The account merely concludes by stating that his bones were laid in a stone tomb. The Martyrology of Aberdeen relates of miracle working relics of the holy man at Aberdour.

Possible Origins and Traces Elsewhere

   Tracking this saint, in terms of geography and even racial origins, is difficult.  Alan Macquarrie believes that he was undoubtedly of Pictish origin and thinks that Dalquongale may represent Dercongal, near Dumfries, also known as Holywood (site of a later medieval abbey).  He also identifies Drostan with a Drostan Dairtaighe ('of the oratory'), whose death is recorded in the Annals of Ulster in the year 719 - a considerable time of course after Columba- at Ardbraccan in County Meath. This was an early Columban church.  A further Irish sources includes this Drostan as one of seven saintly sons of a man named Oengus who crossed from Scotland to Ireland.  Such diffusion of territory ascribed to early clerics is not unusual.  To those so inclined, saints are anything that you want them to be and this extends  as far as experts and scholars who drag up illogical theories for their own satisfaction.  Sp Archibald Scott in his book The Pictish Nation (1918) may make Drostan the son of a prince of the Demetae (Dyfed in Wales), but it is almost certainly untrue.  (Though there is a Llan-Trostroc, now Trosdre, there.)

   Drostan's cult in Scotland seems to have been widely spread as well, but concentrated in the north and east, the old Pictish territories:  Old Deer, Aberdour, Glen Esk, and also in the Inverness-shire district of Glen Urquhart, called St Drostan's Urquhart (Urchardan Mo-Chrostain) in Catholic times.  In this locality there was a plot of ground that Drostan is said to have cultivated while he lived here as a hermit, known as St Drostan's Croft. In St Ninian s Chapel, in the glen, was preserved the saint s cross, and the custodian of the relic had the use of the 'Dewar s (or keeper s) Croft' as a reward for his services. This place was called in Gaelic Croit Mo-Chrostain. The close association of the saint with this place has not entered the traditional written record of the saint.

   Churches in northern Scotland dedicated to Drostan include -   Alvie and Urquhart (Inverness-shire); Aberlour (where there is Skirdurstan, St Drostan's Parish, above Craigellachie) and Rothiemay (Banff); Dunachton, Deer, Insch and Aberdour (Aberdeenshire);   plus Cannisbay and St Drostan's Burial Ground at Westfield (Hallkirk parish)  in Caithness, where the saint is also credited as being the founder of the Chapel of St Tear near Ackergill, Wick; also anciently Ard Trostain at Loch Earn (Perthshire).  A southern outlier is the Church of Mo-Dhrust at Markinch in Fife.

   The feast day of St Drostan was 14th December and fairs were held to him usually around this date.  The one at Old Deer in Aberdeenshire is recorded from the beginning of the 17th century and is certainly much older.  The fair here lasted for eight days, while that at Aberlour lasted three days.  Another fair was held at Rothiemay.  Pope Leo XIII restored the feast of this saint in 1898.

  Apart from the wells in Angus considered below, there were other wells dedicated to the saint at Aberlour, and around five in the area between Edzell and Old Aberdour.  Are we, from all this, to infer that we are dealing with an originally Aberdeenshire holy man?  There is too little evidence to determine that.  We can also go along with the caution of K.H. Jackson by agreeing that 'the "cult" of Drostan was concentrated in the north-west triangle within a curving line drawn roughly from Montrose to Kingussie and thence to the head of the Beauly Firth'.

   It should also be mentioned that the name Drostan was not unique to the saint. Variants include Drostan, Trust, and Trusty (plus Drystan and Trystan) and it was borne by Pictish rulers and possibly other early clerics as well.  The Irish scholar T. H. O'Rahilly equated the origin of the name (like that other Pictish royal name Tarain) to a thunder deity; the original Celtic would have been *Trusto-gnos.

The Settlement in the Glen and Memorials in the Area

Drostan may be one of three locally venerated clerics found on the 'Drosten Stone' at St Vigeans, in southern Angus (see link at the bottom of the page), but this is by no means certain. Colm, Medan and Fergus are three saints supposed to be his acolytes, and these names are found in the countym, but any certain link to the early medieval saint called Drostan is insubstantial indeed.  The linkwith one area of north Angus is very much stronger. We can safely say that the association of Drostan with Glen Esk definitely dates from the 16th century and almost certainly dates from many centuries before this time.  In this area we have Droustie's Meadow and Droustie's Well, plus the church known as Kirk of Droustie.  The well, near the kirk, was described in 1860 as being muddy from long disuse, and by the 1960s was all but obliterated by an infill of rubble and debris.  The chucrh dedicated to the saint is described by Alexander Warden in Angus or Forfarshire (volume 4, 1884):

The ruins of the kirk of St Drostan of Glenesk stand near the north-west corner of the old kirkyard, at the east end of Lochlee, on the left bank of the stream which issues from the loch, and on the south of the road leading up the glen. Down to 1784 it was thatched with heath. It was then covered with grey slates...A new Parish Church was erected in 1803 on the peninsula between the Mark and the Brawny, about a mile to the east of the old kirk ; and a comfortable manse stands near to the church. The site of the manse is called Droustie, and near by it is a fountain called Droustie's Well. As these are corruptions of St Drostan, it may be inferred where his residence had been. The name has been retained for more than a thousand years.

Loch Lee in Glen Esk

   Andrew Jervise states in Land of the Lindsays (1882):

the site of the present manse of Glenesk being called 'Droustie,' and a fountain near by 'Droustie's Well,' it may be inferred that these are corruptions of the name of St. Drostan, and point to the site of his ancient residence and church. 'Droustie's Meadow' is also the name of a piece of ground near the parsonage at Tarfside...

   In his article for the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Jervise further says of the relevant places in the glen:

 An adjoining field on the glebe lands of the Episcopal Church, and one of the best fields of the locality, is called Droustie's Meadows...There is, indeed, another place about four miles farther up the glen, also called Droustie, near the old kirkyard and Loch of Lee. It is probable that St Drostan had one of his cells or residences at or near to the meadows, and that this ancient place of sepulture was the burial place of,if not the aborigines, some of his devoted followers...It ought also to be observed, that near to the site of that primitive place of sepulture, there stands a large boulder, with a rudely incised cross upon it. This, too, is said by the peasantry to have reference to the engagement between Bruce and Cumyn ; but, as it was removed within those sixty years from a place nearer both to Droustie's Meadows and to those graves, perhaps (for its original site is quite unknown) it had been connected with St Drostan's Cell at the Meadows, or with the burial place.

  A pool in the river here named the Monk's Pool hints at religious settlement of some date, as does the simple cross carved into the stone which Jervise mentions (though it has apparently been moved from its original location).  Elsewhere in the region, at Newdosk over the border in the Mearns, Drostan had a church dedicated to him  at Piper’s Shade. There was a well here renowned for its curative powers, but jealous local healers tried to poison it. Followers of the saint were outraged and slew the healers, burying them in a rather pagan fashion around the holy spring.

   The site in Glen Esk has all the inferential hallmarks of a small, early Christian settlement, but we will never know for sure, barring extensive archaeological investigation - which seems unlikely.  But, barring challenges from others, I would happily accept Drostan as our primary county saint.

Some Works Consulted

A.O. Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History (2 vols., 1922, rep. Stamford, 1990).

Dom Michael Barrett, A Calendar of Scottish Saints, 2nd. edition (Fort Augustus, 1919).

K. H. Jackson, The Gaelic Notes in the Book of Deer (Cambridge, 1972).

Andrew Jervise, 'Notes regarding Historical and Antiquarian peculiarities of the Districts in Forfarshire, where the various relics now presented to the Museum of the Society were found,' Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 2 (1855), pp. 64-70.

Alan Macquarrie (ed.), Legends of the Scottish Saints, Readings, Hymns and Prayers for the Commemoration of Scottish Saints in the Aberdeen Breviary (Dublin, 2012).

John Stuart (ed.), The Book of Deer (The Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1859).

Previous Posts Mentioning Drostan

St Drostan and Other Early Saints

The Drosten Stone and St Vigeans

Bloody Advocate Mackenzie - Monster or Genius?

There are two men of Angus who were prominent during the time of the Covenanters in the late 17th century and whose reputations have been forever blackened by their roles in prosecuting those whom the state believed to be dangerous religious zealots.  One of these men was John Graham, Viscount Dundee, whom I have briefly written about previously (see my post on Bonnie Dundee). The other man has somewhat slipped back into obscurity in recent times.  However his ill-fame in the minds of hard line Presbyterians earned him an afterlife of ill fame for several centuries.  Sir Walter Scott included him (along with Dundee) in his supernatural rogues gallery in his chilling story 'Wandering Willie's Tale'.

   Sir George Mackenzie was born in Dundee in 1636, though his paternal family were not from the area, having their roots in Ross-shire and the ancient house of the Mackenzies of Kintail. His father, Simon Mackenzie of Lochslin, was the brother of the Earl of Seaforth.  His mother was Elizabeth Bruce, daughter of Dr Peter Bruce, principal of St Leonard's College, St Andrews.  His maternal grandmother, in whose household he spent his first few years, was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Alexander Wedderburn of Kingennie, town-clerk of Dundee.  Simon Mackenzie 'was added to the Burgesses and Brethren of the Guild' of Dundee, 'for his numerous services to the State,' on 3rd June, 1634.  He died around 1666 and his son became a burgess of the burgh in 1661.

 George was educated to the highest standard of his age.  He was said to have devoured all the leading classical authors by the time he was ten.  He went to the universities of Aberdeen and St Andrews, then studies civil law at Bourges.  Back in Scotland, he was admitted to the bar in 1659 and quickly gained a reputation as an accomplished advocate.  He also began to indulge in a talent for writing literature (as detailed below).

   As a criminal judge and member of the privy council, Sir George soon came into conflict with the large body of Scots whose religious stringency set them at odds with the establishment.  This followed his appointment as Lord Advocate of Scotland in 1677. He resigned when King James VII was replaced at the revolution by the Prince of Orange and was a strong opponent of the proposed Union between Scotland and England.  He retired to the University of Oxford and died in London in May 1691.  His body was conveyed by land back to Scotland and his funeral in Greyfriars Kirkyard was attended by all the council, the major nobility and 'a greater concourse of people than was ever seen on any similar occasion.'

Mackenzie as an Author

Apart from highly influential works on legal matters, such as Institutes of the Scots Law, Mackenzie wrote a  range of allegorical and philosophical works which earned him wide admiration, including from discerning men like the poet Dryden, who called him 'that noble wit of Scotland'.  His first published work, a romance called Aretina (Edinburgh, 1660) has allegedly not stood the test of time and critical judgement, for his biographer Andrew Lang states it 'is no longer readable "for human pleasure".'  His follow-up, The Religious Stoic (1663) was a more sober affair.

Achievements and Reputation

Apart from his towering legal reputation, Mackenzie founded what became the Advocate's Library in Edinburgh in 1689. Sometimes held up as an opponent of the prosecution of witches, Mackenzie was not outright sceptical on the matter, though he states that real witches were few er than was popularly believed and he pertinently stated that most confessions were the result of torture. His role in the prosecution of Covenanters and extreme Protestants earned him ill fame. Large scale arrests were followed by some executions, imprisonment, transportation to the West Indies, plus incidents of torture.  Mackenzie was not alone in imposing harsh judgements, but acted according to the precedence of the law.  The leaders of the various extreme factions were often charismatic and sometimes prone, like biblical heroes, to prophecy.  So, Donald Cargill not only prophesied his own violent demise but also foretold that Sir George Mackenzie would die in no ordinary way.  Evidently Mackenzie expired in agony, 'all the passages of his body running blood'.  This is said to have been fulfilled as Mackenzie was seen to be vomiting blood for three quarters of an hour prior to his decease.

Continued Local Connections

In 1665, George Mackenzie  was chosen as Advocate for the town of Dundee, his retaining fee being the moderate sum of £46 (Scots). Most of his estates were held in Angus and eastern Perthshire (Gowrie), including  Bannatyne House, nearby in Newtyle. (A later Mackenzie, Lord Privy Seal James Mackenzie was responsible for building the observatory on Kinpurney Hill in the vicinity.) Sir George also owned the nearby Belmont estate in Meigle, Perthshire, and also Keilor. It was probably here that he made his second wife, Margaret Haliburton, daughter of the Laird of Pitcur (a place now in Perthshire, but formerly firmly in Angus), and they lived together in a house called Shank, near Edinburgh.  Writer Andrew Lang admits very little is known of this lady.  He cites one anecdote to show she may have been in charge of the household finances however.  Very early one morning Lord Tweeddale rode to the house to consult with the lawyer, who was still in bed.  The consultation was conducted from within a four poster bed sight unseen.  When the nobleman came to hand over his gold a lady's hand slipped between the curtains and accepted the gold.  A scrap of gossip states that John Graham of Claverhouse, later Viscount Dundee, had an affair with this lady and that Mackenzie and Graham fell out as a result, but the rumour seems to have been made up by Mackenzie's political enemies.  Mackenzie's brother-in-law incidentally died alongside Claverhouse at the Battle of Killiecrankie. After Sir George's death, his widow married Roderick Mackenzie of Prestonhall, a Lord of Session.

Bannatyne House, Newtyle

Guided to London by an Apparition

You may take the following tale with a pinch of seasoning, or not, at your own discretion.  On evening when Sir George was taking his habitual walk down Leith Walk he was interrupted by an old, eccentric acting gentleman who said:

There is a very important case coming up in London a fortnight from now.  It concerns a large city estate where a false claimant is doing his utmost to disinherit the rightful heir on the grounds that he has no title deeds..  If you will be so good as to visit the mansion house on the grounds of the estate, you will find in the attic an old oak chest with two compartments.  Between the layers you will find hidden the titles required.  I desire you to attend the case.

   Mackenzie heard the address from the old man and watched him walk away.  He thought him insane and did nothing about then  matter. The next night the same man appeared, urging him to take the case and stating he would be well paid.  On the third evening, the same again, with the man urging him not to delay another hour or the matter would be lost.

   His anxiety and sincerity persuaded Mackenzie to ride south on the apparent fool's errand and he arrived the day before the case was due before the courts.  He met the supposed rightful heir and his barrister, both of whom were aggravated by the intervention of this Scottish lawyer.  The barrister was especially scathing and made hateful comments both about Scotland and its distinctive legal system.  But the heir became intrigued and took Sir George into his drawing room.  There was a portrait over the fire of an old man whom the Scot recognised as the person he had met in Edinburgh.  The man informed him that it was his great-grandfather, fifty years dead.   

   Needless to say they went to the old trunk and found the title deeds and the case was won.  Scottish law, via supernatural means, triumphed over its metropolitan counterpart.

Afterlife and Return?

   According to tradition, Sir George does not rest easy in his mausoleum in Edinburgh. Even before his coffin was laid to rest In Greyfriars it is said that the coffin began to move, its occupant being post-mortem uncomfortable at being placed so near to a prison where many Covenanters were jailed. The story of his restless, malevolent spirit is interesting because it seems like a sudden re-occurrence of negative Covenanting propaganda against the former Lord Advocate. Why it should have cropped up in recent years is a mystery. While the haunting legend is perhaps modern, generations of local laddies regarded the tomb and its occupant as something to be taunted with the following rhyme:

Bluidy Mackenzie, come oot if ye daur!

Lift the sneck and draw the bar!

 
   The story which erupted in the 1980s or 1990s was that many people have been left with bruises, scratches, even bite marks in the vicinity of his burial place. One newspaper says that around 400 people have been attacked to varying degrees in the locality, with one person being knocked unconscious.  The most outlandish story is that of a homeless man who, in 1999, broke into the mausoleum in hope of finding secreted treasure there. However the floor collapsed beneath him and he ended up in the less than pleasant surroundings of a plague pit.  Whether this actually happened or not is uncertain. In 2003, two teenagers enter the mausoleum and broke into the coffin, then played with Mackenzie's skull. They were given probation. 

Another view of the mausoleum in Edinburgh.

Ferryden in the Nineteenth Century

The History of Ferryden was written by Andrew Douglas and published in 1855.  Much of the work focuses on his reminiscences of his time as a schoolteacher just across the water in the village of Ferryden.  His does not not back at his time with unalloyed sentiment and his first impressions of the fishing hamlet when he arrived in 1820 were not good:

My first impressions of the physical and moral condition of my new companions were not of the most favorable character. I did not think I could endure their society. The amenities of my situation were 'few and far between,' and in no case indigenous to the sphere of my labours—it was only by escaping from the interior of the village that a congenial atmosphere, moral or physical, could be obtained. Clean thoroughfares through Ferryden there were none. The main avenues to every quarter were blocked up by a succession of large pits, containing heaps of mussel-shells and fish offal, thrown out by the inhabitants, who seemed loath to part with such relics, if their tolerance of the villanous effluvium discharged therefrom can be regarded as an indication of such a disposition. Mussels are mussels now, because they must be paid for in the current coin of the realm; but in those days they were to be had gratis. The pits referred to often accumulated to imposing dimensions; and it was, in consequence, quite an adventure to perambulate the village after night-fall, for one might fall over these mounds of putrefaction. (pp. 5-6.)

   The account, with its heartfelt complaint from an intelligent man stranded in uncongenial territory, reminds me of the plight of Dundonian doctor and scholar Peter Goldman, who, in old age, found himself stranded among unschooled fishermen in north Fife. (His fascinating story can be read here.)

   One of the keynotes in the Ferryden book is, of course, change.  When Douglas first went to the village there were only 470 souls in the place; the population had nearly  tripled by the time he was writing. This can be compared with the figures noted by the minister in the Old Statistical Account in 1792, when there were 38 families in Ferryden (compared with 20 in its neighbour Usan).  Six boats were active at that date from the port, each employing 4 men.

 By 1836, Douglas tells, us the place was thriving due to an upturn in the fishing industry. According to the New Statistical Report in 1845:

The white or sea-fishing is carried on by the inhabitants of two villages, Ferryden and Usan, to a very great extent. The former contains a population of 679, and the latter of 142, the greater part of whom are employed in the fishing,- in the one, 85 families, or 590 souls; in the other, 16 families, or 85 souls. In Ferrydcn 25 boats are regularly employed; 18 of these, of a larger size, carrying 6 men each 2 of a medium size, carrying 5; 5 of a smaller size, carrying 5 or 4.

In the winter season, during calm frosty weather, these boats go from eight to ten miles from land, nearly due east from the Bell-rock; but in stormy weather, they rarely venture more than three or four miles from land. In summer, they go to a much greater distance, and fish upon two banks called the north and south shold; the first about eighteen, and the second twenty miles from land. Four of the larger boats in Ferryden... use in summer what are called the great lines, and sometimes go thirty miles to sea. The boats with the great lines take principally, halibut, skate, cod and ling,- the other boats, cod and haddocks. The halibut is in best season from April to July, and the skate during the same period. The ling is best during the summer months, and the cod during winter, or from November to July. The haddock is good all the year, except the months of March and April. During the summer season, there may be frequently seen at Ferryden fifteen or sixteen boats, after an absence of twelve or fourteen hours coming ashore in one day, with 1000 haddocks in each, which are currently sold in the Montrose market, or to retailers through the country, at little more than a farthing per lb.

  In 1855 there were 68 boats and 186 fishermen and the village population was around 1200.

 Cadgers from Brechin, Forfar, Coupar Angus, Dundee and Perth eagerly resorted to the port to get as much fish as they could carry away to their customers.  Haddock was the fish they mainly purchased and there might be about 12 of they vying for the catch at the height of the season. Andrew Douglas, incidentally, had no high opinion of these incoming fish merchants:

a more undeserving class are not to be met with ; and the filth, squalor, savagery, cheating, and lying with which they have become associated in the minds of all, will not be palliated by me. I have seen much of their cruelty to their poor dumb beasts, and little of their good dispositions to any one, unless their indirect services to the whisky shops be regarded as coming under that head. (p. 47.)

   He further describes their way of life (pp. 50-51):

Cadgers used to visit Ferryden from every quarter. They always lodged in a whisky-shop, and were invariably 'drouthy neebours.' When a cadger’s cart was loaded, there was always something given by the cadger, which was invariably spent on drink. Besides, cadgers would often spend a week in the public—house waiting for the boats going out. When money was at command, treating was a very common thing; and on the principle of one good turn, real or imaginary, deserving another, the publicans reaped a good harvest from the alternating fortunes of the fishers and their customers. The cadgers uniformly settled with the boat’s crews in the public-house; and all these things considered, it would be wonderful indeed if the fisher population could have escaped from the whirlpool of intemperance.

   The coming of the railways and improvements in fish curing which meant they could more easily be transported meant the end of the cadgers' way of life.

  For the more stable elements in the village, drinking was also  a conspicuous element in daily life, though probably not more so than anywhere else.  When a new boat was built the family routinely ended up in the public house for celebrations.  At one time there were six 'whisky shops' in the settlement, but that number decreased over time. (Although there were 12 ale-house reported in 1845, this covered the whole parish of Craig.) There was also a tendency for young men to slip over the water from Montrose and cause drunken mischief at times, but riots do not seem to have erupted with any regularity. The mid Victorian temperance movement caught fire to a great extent later,even among fishing crews and seemed to over a sea change (pardon the pun) in the character of the place.

The 'Light Bread' Scandal

 While the following story told by Andrew Douglas in his book (p. 66) might to out of tune with the tenor of this post, it has to be included because it's irresistible.  An unnamed baker in Ferryden was so anxious that his raw materials should stretch as far as possible and went to extreme lengths to make them last.  One day he was selling a loaf to a customer when the shop parrot (who would be banned by health and safety regulations now) sang out: 'Light bread! Light bread!'  The lady was amused, paid for her bred and asked what it meant.  The baker assured her, 'Puir chat

terin’ thing! ye wud hardly ken, and we need care as little, fat he says, ma’am.'  When the woman got home she weighed her loaf and found that it was short.  He gave her a replacement, but the bird called out again.  She made him weigh the second loaf, then all the other loafs. All were under weight.  She got her money back.

   After the customer went, the baker conjectured that his reputation was in ruins.  He took immediate violent revenge on the poor parrot and threw its mangled body into the ash pit behind his premises.  However, the parrot revived, shook its feathers, then managed to stand up in a wobbly manner.  Just then he saw a great, filthy old pig (a creature he'd never see before) rooting about in the midden, accompanied by a litter of similarly bedraggled piglets.

   The poor parrot looked at them and said, 'Here, did ye happen to say anything aboot the light bread?'

The Religious Revival at Ferryden

   In view of what happened several decades later the state of religious observance in the village in the 1820s is surprising.  According to Andrew Douglas, there was no public place of worship in the village and church attendance was low.  Women in particular were prone to state that the demands of the family meant they could not observe the Sabbath.  The first steps to remedy this was the ministration of Dr Brewster who set up a regular service in the village each Sunday. The real change in Ferryden came following the beginning a regional religious phenomenon, a religious revival in the north-east which had its peak in the years between 1858 and 1862.   

   As detailed in an article by D. W. Bebbington ('Contrasting Worldviews in Revival: Ferryden, Scotland, in 1859', Evangelical Review of Theology, 31 (1), pp. 43-59.), lay preachers from Montrose infliltrated into Ferryden in late 1859, followed by a charismatic evangelist, Hay Macdowall Grant, and took the village by storm.  According to Bebbington, 'Sightseers flocked to Ferryden, earnest lay evangelists made a beeline for the village and ministers were drafted in from outside to preach and counsel the anxious.'  The inhabitants were strongly, physically gripped by lucid, physical transformations via were manifested in their daily life.  When a fisherman was baiting his line he experienced a wave of celestial music and then felt an overwhelming awareness of the presence of Christ in his boat.  Not a few other people had full-scale religious visions within their own homes.

   The close-knit community meant that the religious fervour was contagious and brought scenes, certainly in private, which were communicated like a form of mania.  The strength of women in the community meant that they were often key in persuading men folk to embrace a new intensity of religion.  The near hysterical atmosphere was so intense that, inevitable, it could not be sustained and the local Free Church, which had hitherto been dominant in Ferryden, took measures to calm the population.  So soon the village, like the raging sea, became calm and serene once more.

   

Previous Posts Mentioning Ferryden

For a discussion of the superstitions in Ferryden and other fisher villages see Fisher Folk(lore) and also The Slippery World of Superstition.

For Bull Waast, a 19th century wise man mentioned by Douglas, see The Later Witches.

A brief mention of Ferryden's mutual loathing of its neighbour Usan is mentioned in Place Rivalries Part 1.

Other Sites of Interest

Apart from the Ferryden Online website marked in the column to the right, another resource is the website dedicated to an old Ferrydenner, Davy Dick.