Menteith

56.175°N 4.057°W / 56.175; -4.057

Map of Scotland showing roughly the historic district of Menteith (however, the eastern shore of Loch Lomond was actually part of The Lennox, rather than Menteith)

For other uses, see Menteith (disambiguation).

Menteith or Monteith (Scottish Gaelic: Mòine Tèadhaich), a district of south Perthshire, Scotland, roughly comprises the territory between the Teith and the Forth. Earlier forms of its name include Meneted, Maneteth and Meneteth. (Historically, the area between Callander and Dunblane was known in English by the similar name of the “Vale of Menteith”.)

Menteith encompasses the parishes of Callander, Aberfoyle, Port of Menteith, Kippen, Kilmadock, Kincardine, Lecropt and Dunblane.[1]

Etymology

The name Menteith may be derived from the Brittonic cognate of Welsh mynydd (borrowed into Gaelic as monadh), meaning "mountain, muir",[2] combined with river-name Teith (of obscure origin).[2] Alternatively, given the topography of the area the name is possibly derived from the Gaelic word moine, meaning Moss or Marsh, cognate with Teith. Much more likely it has a Brittonic basis reflecting two Welsh words mign meaning "bog, morass" and tuth/tith meaning "to trot" so conveying the meaning "(the river which) flows steadily through the marsh".

Because the name includes the River Teith rather than the River Forth, the name must have been given to it by people living to the north of it rather than the south or west.

History

In medieval Scotland, Menteith was a stewartry, and later an earldom, ruled by the earls of Menteith. Gilchrist is the first known earl. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Menteth (sic) is one of the "noblemen of Scotland" appearing in Act V who allies himself with Malcolm and others to oppose Macbeth's usurpation.

The lands and the earldom passed to Walter Comyn (d. 1258) in right of his wife Isabella; then, through Isabella's sister Mary, to the Stewarts; and finally to the Grahams. One notorious relative of the earls of Menteith was John de Menteith who betrayed William Wallace to the English. The earldom became extinct in 1694,[3] but because sheriffdoms had previously been introduced into Scotland, sheriffs were a ready-made alternative source of authority: Menteith was covered by the sheriffdom based at Perth.

When local government reforms in the mid-19th century replaced the ancient provinces with new counties (shires) that were coextensive with the sheriffdom boundaries, Menteith became the south-western portion of the newly created county, Perthshire.

Lake of Menteith

The Loch or Lake of Menteith, situated 2+1⁄2 mi (4.0 km) south of Loch Venachar, measures 1+1⁄2 mi (2.4 km) long by 1 mi (1.6 km) broad, and contains three islands. On Inchmahome (Innis MoCholmaig, island of St Colmaig) stand the ruins of Inchmahome Priory, an Augustinian priory founded in 1238 by Walter Comyn, and built in the Early English style, with an ornate western doorway. Mary, Queen of Scots, when a child of four, lived on the island for a few weeks in 1548 before leaving for Dumbarton Castle on her way to France. On Inch Talla stands the ruined tower, dating from 1428, that belonged to the estate of the earls of Menteith. The village of the Port of Menteith lies on the north shore of the loch.[3]

References
  1. Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A survey of Scottish Topography statistical biographical and historical, by Francis H. Groome; publ. Thomas C. Jack, Edinburgh, 1882 - 1885. (Article on Monteith)
  2. "The Journal of Scottish Name Studies Vol. 8," (PDF). Clann Turic. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  3. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Menteith" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 146.
  • Watson, William J., The Celtic Place-names of Scotland. Revised with introduction by Simon Taylor. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2004. ISBN 1-84158-323-5
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