In the south end of the parish stands Gleneagles, which Sir David
Lyndsay, in his "Tale of Squire Meldrum," describes as "ane castell ...
beside ane mountane in ane vaill," and a "triumphand plesand place."
Gleneagles Castle was for many centuries the home of the Haldanes.
They held the neighbouring lands of Frandie by charter of William the
Lion, A.D. 1165-1214, and came into possession of Gleneagles about a
century later. From time to time we find them taking an active and
prominent part in the affairs of the kingdom. Sir John Haldane, in the
reign of King James III., became "Lord Justice-General of Scotland
benorth of the Forth"--a dignity next to that of Lord Chancellor; a
later Sir John fought and fell at Flodden; another was one of the Lords
of the Congregation. Sir John, in 1650, fell as a leader in the
Presbyterian army against Cromwell at the Battle of Dunbar. Towards
the end of the 17th century Mungo Haldane was an active member of the
Scottish Parliament; his son John was member for Perth County in the
last Scottish Parliament, and in the first British Parliament after the
Union. At the beginning of the present century the estate passed into
the hands of Viscount Duncan of Camperdown, and is now the property of
his descendant, the Earl of Camperdown. The old castle, of solid
walls, surrounded by a moat, was superseded in 1624 by the modern Place
of Gleneagles, built from the ruins. Locally, the family is best
remembered in one of its Presbyterian members, an ardent respecter of
the Sabbath. He forbade the keeping of stalls and selling of wares on
the Kirk Brae on the Lord's Day; and, finding his injunction slighted,
was so roused that he went next Sunday with drawn sword, scattered the
offending merchants down the brae, and tossed their wares into the lake
beneath. There was no more Sunday trading at the kirk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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