Old Photographs Of Fowlis Wester Perthshire Scotland

Tour Scotland wee video of old photographs of Fowlis Wester, a small village in Perthshire. The Earls of Strathearn once held court at Fowlis Wester and it was Gilbert, the third Earl, who gifted the building to the parish at the beginning of the 13th century. The church was dedicated to St Bean, the great grandson of the King of Leinster, Ireland. He had come to the area to preach in the 8th century. One of seven brothers, who were all ardent Roman Catholic ecclesiastics and founders of churches, St Bean came to Scotland to preach the Gospel among the Picts in the area, who had been converted to Christianity almost two centuries earlier. The standing stones in the area convinced him that this was the best place to begin driving out the dark pagan practices associated with such stones. It is believed there has been a church at the site since those times but what kind of building existed prior to Gilbert's gift is not known. However, the Pictish Cross Symbol Stone , discovered embedded in a wall during renovations in 1927, is thought to date back to St Bean's time. Notable features of the church are the aumbry, recess for church vessels, the eighth century Pictish cross already mentioned, which shows Jonah and the whale, and the lepers' squint which is a special window from where the afflicted could watch Mass without coming into contact with the rest of the congregation. The church also contains a piece of McBean tartan which US astronaut Alan Bean took to the moon and back in 1969. Many graves with Scottish surnames of Comrie and Duncan. Comrie, Comry and Comrea, is an ancient Scottish surname. It originates from an estate known as the lands of Comrie in the county of Perthshire, now a parish and village. The first recordings or at least those that have survived, are to be found in about the year 1447 when John de Cumre held the lands by royal charter. This charter was renewed in 1475, when the spelling changed again to that of John Combry. The original nameholders were still to be found in the parish in 1673, when yet another John, but by now spelt in the modern form of Comrie, is still recorded as charter holder. Although there is nothing to directly link the nameholders with the famous or infamous MacGregor clan, it seems that after 1613 when the clan was outlawed, and members forced to change their name, some took up residence in the village of Comrie and changed their name to Comrie. The outlawing of the MacGregor clan was not finally rescinded until 1780, when they were restored to their fortunes, or what remained of them. Whether the Comrie's reverted to MacGregor, is unclear. The Duncan surname derives from the pre 7th century Gaelic male given name Donnchad, related ultimately to Donncatus, a Celtic personal name of great antiquity. Early recordings include that of Dunchad, the eleventh abbot of Iona, who died in 717, and Dunchad, the abbot of Dunkeld, who was killed in the battle of Dorsum Crup, Perthshire, in the year 965. The name was borne by two 11th Century kings of Scotland, Duncan 1, who was slain by MacBeth in 1040, and Duncan 11, slain in 1094. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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