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The Logierait Trail
Logierait
Logierait in days gone by held a place of strategic importance
as it was situated at the junction of
the Rivers Tay and Tummel, with ferries over both rivers. The
name Logierait comes from the Gaelic words ‘laggan’ (a hollow)
and ‘rath’ (fortress). From ancient times its situation beside
the great highway from Perth to the north helped to increase its
importance. In 1791 its population was recorded as 200 people,
today there are about 60.
 Logierait
Church
St Cedd who was passing through the area from Iona with his
brother St Chad to Lindisfarne, founded the church in 650.
Today’s church was rebiult in 1904 – 06 to designs by John
Stewart of Dunkeld, the churchyard contains many interesting
historic items to see.
There are a number of beautiful decorated memorial stones.
There is a Pictish Cross behind the pulpit. You will see an old
Pictish stone with
 Pictish
symbols on one side and a more modern interlaced design on the
other. (A small Pictish cross-slab, although damaged, the lower
part of a horseman on the back, with a serpent round a straight
rod while the front bears a decorated cross with four small
circular raised bosses.)
A stone walled enclosure contains the burial ground of the
Stewarts of
Ballechin, lineal descendants of Robert II, known as a race of
big boned, strong and brave swordsmen who took part in all the
Atholl raids and forays, including the Argyllshire raid. They
fought with Graham of Claverhouse at Killiecrankie, under
Patrick Stewart, and at Culloden.
 Within
the walled enclosure you will also find three excellent examples
of iron mort safes, (two full size and the third is for a
child), they are heavy cast iron coffin covers which were used
around 1828 to prevent body snatchers from removing newly buried
bodies to sell in Edinburgh for medical examination. The
mortsafes were lowered on to the coffin and removed some time
later once the corpse was considered of no use for resale.
The oldest monumental stone in the churchyard, was for long on
the burial ground of the Stewart Robertsons of Edradynate but
has now been set up securely in the vicinity of the church
entrance porch. It is believed to be of Pictish origin. One side
is incised with a cross while the other depicts a horseman
trampling upon the traditional serpent transfixed by a lance.
The stone is the subject of a paper by A. Anderson of Pitlochry
published in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland Vol. XII p.561.
The names Stewart, Robertson, Reid and Ferguson predominate
among the burial grounds in the churchyard.
 The
ferry at Logierait
The early ferries were rowed across by the ferryman but in 1820
the artist and inventor James Fraser who was the millwright at
Dowally (about 2 miles south from Logierait as the bird flies)
designed the new Logierait ferry. The particular problem with
the ferry crossing at this spot was the swift flow of the River
Tay and the ferry had to cope with this flow. The design
consisted of two boats placed side by side connected by a
platform. The ferry had a revolving wheel on the boat that
pulled the ferry along a chain. The ferry was capable of
carrying two loaded carts with the horses yoked up. It is said
not a single life was lost during it operation until it was
replaced by a bridge in 1880.
Saint Cedd’s Market and Well
A charter by King Charles II is extant dated 26 May 1671 in
favour of John, Earl of Athol], erecting the town of Logicrait
into a Free Burgh of Regality, to be called the Burgh of
Logierait, with a weekly market and two free fairs yearly, the
Charter ratified by Act of Parliament in 1672. On 20 August of
each year, Saint Cedd’s Market ,feiIl-ma-Choede, was held in
Logierait and tradition holds that when the market ceased to be
held the Saint’s well, in the bank above the road opposite the
church, dried up and the prosperity of the village declined.
The Court house of Logierait (situated behind Logierait
Inn)
The first reference to a court at Logierait was made in 1457
when John Stewart was created Earl of Atholl by King James I.
The courthouse by all accounts was apparently of fine
proportions that it was described as the noblest apartment in
Perthshire at the time. Designed by Lady Margaret Nairn, wife of
William the brother of the 1st Duke of Atholl, circa 1707. 1710
Thomas and John Clark were paid £200 for building the
courthouse. Described as 21 metres long with galleries each end.
One hundred lairds and gentlemen of Atholl sat here in frill
session under Atholl or his hereditary Commissioner, Stewart of
Ballechin, on great occasions until the abolition of the
heritable jurisdictions in 1746. After the Battle of Prestonpans
in 1745 600 prisoners were sent here by Lord George Murray,
Lieut.-Gcncral of the army of Prince Charles Edward. It was used
to administer justice until 1746 following the defeat of the
Jacobites at Culloden when the government in Westminster removed
the powers of local courts to administer their own local law and
order.
Rob Roy and Logierait Prison
On 4th June 1717 Rob Roy MacGregor was imprisoned at Logierait
Prison for a single day on account of his feud with the Duke of
Montrose – as a result of being persued by Montrose he took
refuge in Atholl. The Duke of Atholl negotiated with Rob Roy
terms were upon Rob Roy would surrender in exchange for being
let free by the Government in Edinburgh. Under the Duke’s
protection Rob Roy surrendered and was committed the prison at
Logierait. The Duke took great pride in announcing to everyone
of his rich catch.
Rob Roy did not like this situation at all, so planned his
escape, which he managed to succeed in when a messenger came to
the door of the prison. Some accounts suggest Rob Roy got his
guards drunk, whilst the messenger was talking to the guards he
leapt on to the back of the messenger’s horse and rode away.
It is also reported that Bonnie Prince Charlie’s
Jacobite army held 600 prisoners captured after their rout of
Government forces at the Battle of Prestonpans were held here
1745.
The large iron gates (yetts) that belonged to the prison can
today be seen on display at Blair Castle.
 Stuart
Kings Hunting castle, the execution mound and Atholl Monument.
To the north of the village stands the Atholl Monument erected
10th August 1865 to the 6th Duke of Atholl who died 1864 by his
tenants. It was said “They had lost a good and kind friend …. A
good landlord, faithful husband, an affectionate father and a
true friend”. The Duke it is claimed revived and maintained the
national Highland Games. He also was the one who revived the
Atholl Highlanders in their present form.
The Atholl Monument was erected on the site of the old execution
mound where prisoners were put to death following sentence at
Logierait Court having been held in Logierait jail awaiting the
arrival of the executioner to carry out his grisly task. It was
also called the ‘Rath’ where is castle once stood.
It is believed the height of the ‘rath’ above the high bank of
the Tummel, just north of the present
road bridge over that river, which forms the ‘rath of Logierait’,
a very early fortified position, surrounded on the sides not
facing the river by a deep fosse or dry ditch, above which a few
traces of wall masonry remain. The unrivalled strategic
situation of the rath, above the confluence of the rivers Tay
and Tummel and their straths in the very middle of Atholl seem,
according to ancient records, to have caused it to be chosen as
centre and seat of the Celtic Earls of Atholl of the royal house
of Dunkeld. On the forfeitures of these descendants of the
Celtic Earls after the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, Atholl
passed by charter of King Robert the Bruce to Walter the High
Steward, and after the Stewarts ascended the throne, the castle
on the rath became a favourite royal residence of Robert II and
Robert III, continuing to be used as a hunting scat until after
the reign of James III, when it fell into disuse and became the
hanging knoll of the Court of Regality.
 Dool
Tree or execution tree.
In later times executions were carried out beside the Boat (or
Ferry) of Logierait where there was an Ash tree allegedly
planted in 1570 and said to have grown to a height of 63 feet
high in which robbers and villains were executed “…. and their
bodies left hanging till they dropped and lay unburied.”
The last man said to have been executed here was a man called
Donald Dhu who it is said was innocent of his alleged crime of
cattle stealing. On the night he was hanged the ash tree was
struck by lightening.
The Weeping House.
We have two stories associated with this building and they are;
1. The farm house by the roadside on the way to Logierait
village was the spot to which the bodies of persons executed on
the rath were brought to be handed over to their relatives and
is still named dais an deoir, the place of weeping.
2. When people had been deported to the colonies they were sent
to this house to meet their families for the last time.
Canada’s First Liberal Prime Minister – Alexander
Mackenzie.
Next to the Weeping House was a small cottage where Alexander
was born in 1822, he was to become Mackenzie become Canada’s
first Liberal Prime Minister. Alexander was the third son of a
Logierait stone mason. When aged twenty he sailed to Canada
followed by his mother and six brothers. He was regarded as a
man of integrity, unpretentious and down to earth.
Highland Perthshire’s Poor House.
 Cuil
an Daraich was built in 1864 as a poorhouse to serve the eleven
parishes of Highland Perthshire. It was reported as
accommodating 117 inmates. Scots Law unlike English and Welsh
law allowed poor relief assistance for the needy in their own
homes. The poor house (not workhouse) was for those through age
(too old or too young), illness or disability that were too
expensive to keep in the community. In the 1930’s it was adapted
for use as an Old People’s Home until 1984. Today it contains a
number of flats for residence.
Logierait Inn.
William Wordsworth with his sister Dorothy dined here on the 6th
September 1803 on the tour of the Highlands. The Inn was a focal
place for the village it is said that Gaeic choirs trained in
the hotel, concerts and country-dances. It was said “the rafters
of the hotel rang to the music and joyous ‘hoochs’ of the
village dancers.”
We know Gilbert Jamieson rented Logierait Inn from 1818 to 1858.
In the early 1900s the Smith family ran the hotel.
 In
May and November each year the Factor of Atholl Estates for many
years collected the dues from the tenant farmers and house
tenants at Logierait Hotel. He also discuss any problems which
needed attention. This practice did not cease until the late
1950’s.
The railway viaduct
The River Tay was crossed here by the railway viaduct which was
opened 1865. With the closure of the railway the local ‘bridge’
committee have kept the bridge as a road bridge to make the
crossing of the Tay easy from here.
Highland clearances and Logierait
All along the hillsides are traces of former dwellings.
Tullypowrie and Inver of Tullypowrie were
once considerable villages. Desire for a higher standard of life
than could be won from the high steep slopes was no doubt the
chief cause of this depopulation for there is no sad history of
 evictions
here, as in so many places. In this respect, the Atholl family
bears a particularly good name; it is said by the local people
that no one was ever evicted from the Atholl lands,
a statement which is substantiated by the author of the New
Statistical Account of the parish who, writing around 1840 when
great areas of the Highlands had been subjected to ruthless
clearances,
states that ‘the change in the agricultural system pursued by
the landlords has not been so great as to make any difference
observable in the number of the rural population in the
Logierait parish,’
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