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The Story of the Drovers Tryst in Crieff
All Roads Lead to Crieff
Have you ever heard the well-trod idiom 'all roads lead to Rome'? Well whoever claimed that all roads lead to Rome clearly didn’t own cattle in Scotland 300 years ago. Otherwise, they would have made a caveat that all roads lead to Rome except those with cattle in which case all roads lead to Crieff.
If you were to enter the Crieff cattle market in the early 18th century, you would find a sprawl of human and animal activity coming from this busy town. Drovers, merchants, cattle, dogs, townspeople, bank clerks, and enforcers of the law, amongst many others could be found at these trysts; a hub of activity. You might hear a babble of Gaelic, Scots, and English and see people wearing kilts, breeches, or patterned gowns. Best not to think about the smell.
By the beginning of the 18th century drovers would lead their cattle hundreds of miles from all points of the Highlands to Crieff on the Highland boundary where craggy, heathered mountain melts to verdant farmland.
But hang on, what is cattle droving and why was Crieff so important?
The Old Droving Roads
Droving in Scotland occurred throughout much of the medieval and early modern period. Cattle were were moved en-masse by dovers on foot towards a market to be sold. Before the 1700's this was often to smaller local markets however the expansive market at Crieff really took off in the eighteenth century. Crieff is situated on the Highland Boundary Fault in central Scotland making it a natural meeting point for both those heading south and those heading north.
Drovers from the Outer Hebrides and Skye, the North East, the Northern Highlands, Argyll, and Southern Scotland, met at a handful of roads towards Crieff. Once near Perthshire they would meet at points such as Killin before passing through Glen Almond and Glen Lednock to the fields of Upper Strathearn. Popular too was the route from Aberfeldy through the Sma’ Glen or from Killin through Glen Ogle and past Loch Earn. However Scotland was rapidly changing and these two ways were about to become militarised roads in the struggle for the modern British state.
Military Roads
By the 1720’s the drove roads to Crieff began to intertwine with a series of roads built for the British Government following the 1715 Jacobite Rising by General Wade and his successor General Caulfield. These became known as military roads and were part of a project of road, bridge, fortress, and barrack building throughout the Highlands from 1725, intended to pacify the land seen as treacherous in both terrain and spirit by the British state.
Traditional routes from Aberfeldy through the Sma’ Glen and Glen Ogle were soon built upon, the British forces obviously seeing the same ease of way in these routes as the drovers. Paving did not help the drovers however and these roads wore down the hooves of the cattle, often leaving the drovers little choice but to find new routes or prioritise other ones.
You can read more about Wade and Caulfield’s roads in another blog soon.
Crieff Tryst
Now a ubiquitous icon of Scotland, cattle was one of the biggest businesses in Early Modern Scotland. Fairs and markets were an essential part of life in Europe throughout the medieval and early modern period, bringing essential goods, communication, and even entertainment to rural communities and urban centres alike.
In an act of parliament from 1672 the Earl of Perth petitioned parliament for a third yearly (and weekly) market to the yearly fairs held at Michaelmas and St Thomas’ day every year. By the beginning of the 18th century Crieff’s fairs were flourishing, and by 1739 Bank of Scotland tellers brought in £3000 worth of notes into circulation for use at the market, a significant amount for a rural community.
At the markets, Lowland and English merchants were the interested buyers, and the cattle would continue their journey south whilst their drovers might remain in Crieff a few more days before returning home north.
Where did the drovers come from?
You might see the titles cateran and drover used in the same sentence. Sometimes drovers and caterans are equated with another. Caterans were mercenaries within the Gaelic speaking world. The word Cateran comes from Gaelic ceatharn meaning ‘lightly armed warrior’, and the profession of ‘katherani’ was outlawed in 1384 under the rule of Robert II. Caterans had been in the service of Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch, who had terrorised the North-East.
Later, men known as caterans would serve Irish lords as mercenaries in the 16th century, often at the direction of their chief. However the conclusion of the Nine Years War in Ireland meant an end to this martial culture. Caterans had to take up another means of employment as they no longer had a patron willing to pay them for military service. Some of these caterans would become drovers. Of course, not all drovers in the 17th century had been caterans. Many had always worked with animals and the land.
The droving life was hard, long days of labour walking and tending to their cattle. A drover might pass an inn such as the King’s House but most nights were spent in the elements. For sustenance? So it goes that cattle were bled and that some oats were kept in their sporran to allow them to make black pudding whilst on the road.
At Crieff in 1723 the drovers and gentleman owners of cattle are described thus;
‘The Highland gentleman were mighty civil, dressed in their slashed waistcoats, a trousing (which is breeches and stocking of one piece of striped stuff) with a plaid for a cloak and a blue bonnet. They have a poniard, knife and fork in one sheath hanging at one side of their belt, their pistol at the other and their snuff mull before with a great broadsword at their side. Their attendance was very numerous all in a belted plaids, girt, like women’s petticoats down to the knee ; their thighs and half of the leg all bare. They had each a broadsword and poniard.' Quite the image!
Removal to Falkirk
After the end of the ’45 rising, estates belonging to Jacobite traitors of the crown were forfeited, and many later annexed for the crown to run and 'improve'. After land enclosures of traditional grazing land around Crieff, drovers struggled to find land to feed their cattle. The Statistical Account for 1792 suggested that the enclosure of land around the town in 1750 resulted in the drovers having to find other grazing land to keep their cattle before the market. Alternative options were sought and the Falkirk market became a great success whilst Crieff’s dwindled before coming to an end. The dues at the Crieff market were also considered high, another death knell for the Crieff market.
In the Old Statistical Accounts from 1793, older residents of Crieff apparently spoke of 'deep regret of the glorious scene displayed to view, when 30,000 black cattle in different droves, overspread the whole adjacent country for several miles around the town'.
Nonetheless droving continued until the end of the 1800's, although this traditional life was much altered by the technological advances of the 19th century.
The Tryst Today
The modern Drovers Tryst in Crieff takes these ancient droving routes and provides a way for people today to connect with Scotland’s and Crieff’s heritage.
Today’s tryst is lead by a dedicated group of volunteers who lead guided walks and other events across Strathearn, Perthshire, and even further afield. Venues like Strathearn Arts hold events for mark the tryst, melding walking, art, and heritage.
You can view many of the events taking place on the Drovers Tryst website Here.
If you're in Crieff from the 9th to the 12th of May, why not take part in one of the glorious walks or find out more about Crieff's fascinating heritage? If you do, make sure to send us some pictures and share your stories.
