HIGHLAND STRATHEARN TODAY
As with all things change is a constant and the couthy life of yesterday no longer exists. The composition of the area is intact however; parts of Strathearn have changed dramatically.
The large caravan park on the south road of Loch Earn is a blight although an effort has been made to conceal it on the ground, but from the high ground on the north side of the loch looking down it stands out as an as an eyesore. Equally so the tree harvesting operations there have left the whole slope as a catastrophe!
New houses built in Comrie especially in Dalginross suggest that they would be more suitable in Arizona or sunny Spain, rather than in our highland village. It is true that if they were situated in Culross they would blend in just fine. The red pantile roofs originally brought from Holland as ballast was used in housing construction throughout Fife, however, in this much more scenic part of Scotland, they get very low marks for aesthetics when contrasted against the original Scottish stone. Stand today, however, on the Braes of Cowden and look to the north. It reminds me of the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley written in 1817 and attributed to Ozymandias “look on my works, ye mighty…and despair! The newer blue slate houses are much more in keeping though!
All is “relatively” peaceful now in Upper Strathearn. We live in a sanitised world where at the flick of a switch we can put on our television and see the world’s carnage brought in to our homes on the hour. Not much happens in our immediate vicinity other than the odd nagging doubt that at our doorstep odd things do, and did, occur from time to time. It is these “odd things” that comprise the “stuff of legends.”
Who gave the beautiful Elsie a black eye when she refereed a game of football between the Ross boys and the Burrell Street lads - the Ross won and Elsie lived in Burrell Street? Why did the butler put the two bodies of his victims behind a wall on the Back Road? And who was the butler? Where are all the highland folk of yesteryear buried? Where was the mortuary in Comrie? And where also were the itinerant workers, the tinks for that matter, buried? What really happened to the policeman in Lochearnhead for messing around with other folks’ wives? And who were the culprits? What lies under that man made hillock in Glen Lednock near the Shaky Bridge? Who was the man who died from taking too much chocolate? Where is “Little America” and why is it so-called? What happened to the man who challenged a High Court judge because his dog was not on a leash? Who was the man that fought another in Glen Artney for the hand of a “lady fair?” Is the lady who lived in the Ross, and who complained about the mess and smell made by the honest manure of cattle, still not cashing the cheques which are deposited to her account to cover the feu? How old are the Flambeaux and what are their origins? How did the railway carriage end up just off the Sawdust Road? Who paints the Crocodile stone? Who was Willie Bain? Who was the Bowler who played for Comrie and took six straight wickets with six balls? Where is the best spot to view the sleeping giant?
It is all these small and larger issues which make up the fabric of our society. It is our Clochmerle...and not so different from other places. Someday perhaps, someone will write about them as they are the sum total of our posterity, our heritage and the pathway of life. Without them, we, as a civilization, are at a loss.
This overview of Comrie and Highland Strathearn is an attempt to record its history and much more can be added to it. The author will be quite happy to add in more and newer information, and would ask the readership to send him appropriate material so that he can include it in the website. These may be stories or photographs about this beautiful place. Each contribution will be acknowledged. The address is rossion@videotron.ca
I Hope you enjoy this retrospective and wee walk down memory lane.
The heritage is yours.
Peter R McNaughton
March 2008.