History
Albeit feeling rather small, Crieff is one of the largest towns in Perthshire. The dominating force behind the settlement were the Earls of Perth. The Earl being traditionally the chief of clan Drummond, therefore Crieff was known as Drummond in the 17th century. After having been destroyed in 1716 by Jacobites fighting at Sheriffmuir it was rebuilt under the original name Crieff.
Economy
This small town was an economic center in the 18th century, the October cattle sales (trysts) were the largest in Scotland at the time. Many Lowlanders and English farmers bought their livestock here. In 1723 the massive number of 30.000 cattle changed owners in Crieff. The famous Rob Roy MacGregor used to drive his cattle to Crieff, him being a notorious cattle thief the animals that went on sale might have been “aquired” elswhere.
When the market moved to Falkirk, drovers and cattle were gone from the streets of the town, it might have been more peaceful but life was also less lucrative now. Bleaching, tanning and later education became the main occupations in Crieff.
Myth
The Ford Road Cemetery is not one of the most picturesque in the country, most headstones have been arranged along straight lines and lack the beauty of disorder that gives older graveyards in Scotland a more nearly natural and organic feel.
Some believe the lines and arrangements of the graves have special meaning, leylines that join here and align the cemetery with ancient sites and the graves of the freemasons with a quartz cairn that attracts the lines of 12 freemason’s graves.
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