Why The Jorums Got Their Name

Added by Thornie at 14:33 on 29 August 2025

No one now knows why a small chapel was dedicated to St Jerome at Hillhead, above Dunkeld. Or when. The mystery deepens as it is the only one dedicated to him in Scotland. The chapel was first mapped in the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of the area. [ Stobie’s map of 1783 below references a ...

Dundonnachie Revisted

Added by Thornie at 14:58 on 21 May 2025

The text of a talk given to the Dunkeld & Birnam Historical Society on Friday 4th March 2025 The subject of my talk this evening is Alexander Robertson of Dundonnachie. Often just simply “Dundonnachie”. Obviously, I’m a bit trepdacious, talking about a Dunkeld hero. In Dunkeld....

A Tale of Two Outings

Added by Thornie at 15:28 on 20 May 2025

The railway fever that swept Great Britain in the 1840s democratised travel. Families, couples, clubs and societies quickly responded to the opportunity to get away, well away from wherever they were. Just to be somewhere other. At least for an afternoon, when for many it was still a five and a hal...

Where Parishes Butt

Added by Thornie at 10:32 on 05 February 2025

Murthly estate stretches across three parishes – Auchtergaven, Kinclaven and, mostly, Little Dunkeld. Their boundaries meet at a particular point. And I had a pretty good idea as to where that would be. Thanks to the National Library of Scotland’s excellent digital mapping service (www....

Working Man's Diary

Added by Thornie at 11:56 on 02 August 2024

Over the centuries, the folk of this parish (well, ordinary people everywhere) have come across as gingerbread men or women. Baked as they are, even individually, from a flour sifted from church and statutory records — births, marriages and deaths, census snapshots, valuation rolls — ho...

Gauls of Murthly

Added by Thornie at 10:42 on 19 June 2024

On the road out to the old A9 from Byres of Murthly, just past the sawmill on the right, there used to be a small farm: Gauls of Murthly. It had fields on both sides of the road. Today, the most noticeable feature by the roadside is a large clump of bamboo. The area behind that was once better known...