KYQ4: Glen Lednock and the Monument

Sunday 19 January 2020

Glen Lednock and the Monument

Beechwwods alongside the Lednock Glen

Saturday, 18 January 2020

On the first decent day of the year and after a hard overnight frost, we decided to visit the village of Comrie on the River Earn. Comrie retains the charm of a Victorian settlement built on a grid pattern and has the highest proportion of retired people in Scotland. It has the ambience of less hectic times with shops and eating places that honour their locality and its produce. The object was to walk up the Glen Lednock trail alongside the deeply incised river Lednock passing the rapids of the Wee Cauldron before reaching the waterfall eerily named the De'il's Cauldron.

In the winter sunshine, it was a perfect way to kickstart the year's activities. The meandering path through the beechwoods provided a peaceful setting as the bright sunshine gave dappled light. The only sound was of the Lednock river barreling down the ravine. The trees were heavily clothed in malachite green mosses, a marked contrast with the ground cover of bronze beech leaves. The Territorial Army had erected viewing platforms at both the Wee Cauldron and the De'il's Cauldron. Despite being 30 years old the timbers were still sound, just as well because the platforms sat above near vertical precipes over the river.

The path through the woodland continued until it re-emerged on the Glen Ledock road that leads to the starting point for the ascent of Ben Chonzie, a Munro that is littered with hares and much visited by eagles. We decided to take the steep path from the road up Dun More, a prominent hill that overlooks Comrie. There were quite a few walkers slipping and sliding as they made the descent. The summit gave fine views back down to Comrie and the shapely hills to the west.

Dun Mor hosts a tall granite obelisk as a monument to commemorate Lord Melville. He was given a peerage as the First Viscount Melville following his long career as an advocate and prominent Scottish politician. He was the Secretary of State for War in the Younger Pitt's government and the last UK cabinet minister to be impeached. This was for the misappropriation of public money from the Admiralty, where he had been treasurer of the navy from 1782 to 1800. He was expelled from the Privy Council in 1805 after his impeachment. He had also been responsible for obstructing the abolition of the slave trade and for overseeing the flawed planning during the Wars of the French Revolution. Despite these dubious achievements, his business acquaintances funded the monument in recognition and 'grateful recollection of his public service.'

It always intrigues me how such impressive structures, an 80 feet obelisk constructed of dressed granite could be built at the top of a steep hill in less than a year for just £10,000, that's £813,000 at today's prices, and fully funded by his business friends. I doubt it would pay for the design of the monument today and with someone like Joanna Lumley to promote the monument, it would probably cost £10 million or so to build, mainly dependent upon government and council grants of course.

We returned to Glen Lednock via the less steep path to the north and enjoyed a leisurely walk back to Comrie where we concluded the outing at the excellent Cafe Comrie, a friendly local cafe serving wholesome food and good coffee. On the drive back along the B827 to Braco, a dozen or so red kite were patrolling the skies above Little Hill and even in the late afternoon the road was still frozen.