Newsletter Article
I love history and I adore archaeology... so I was terribly excited when a wee lady from the village submitted this article for the Inchture Area Spring newsletter!!!!! Even more so since, if family legend is to be believed, I'm descended from Robert the Bruce through Graham of Claverhouse!
Parliament at Inchture, 7th April 1312
It is 700 years since this parliament was convened by King Robert the Bruce. Present were various Earls of the Kingdom and Bishops of the Church, and also some unnamed burgesses: the Three Estates of medieval Scotland were nobility, clergy, and commoners. Business included codifying a way for burghs to collect taxes and enlist men for service in the army; and also the granting of a large chunk of land, in perpetuity, to the Abbey at Scone.
Robert, by the grace of God king of the Scots, to all good men of this
land, greeting. Know that we gave and granted by this present
charter the abbots and canons of Scone, all the thanage of Scone
with all its rightful pertinents according to its rightful boundaries …
wood and plain, meadows and pastures, marshes and peat-muirs,
roads and footpaths, rivers, fish-ponds and lochs, mills, hunting
grounds and hawking places …
at Inchture on April 7 in the seventh year of our reign.
It is not clear why Robert the Bruce chose Inchture as a venue, but the answer may lie with the castle. Unfortunately there is no real drawing of it, not even in a ruined state - it does appear on Pont’s map dated around 1590. But there certainly was a castle: in the 19th century, excavations near the Inn revealed its substantial foundations.
The connection with the King is possibly Robert of Inchture. He is named on a list of landowners who, in 1306, forfeited their lands by order of Edward the 1st (the Hammer of the Scots) for supporting Robert the Bruce. He was a patriot and a nationalist, and the castle could have been big enough to hold both King and entourage.
There is a medieval disc-headed grave slab in the south side of Inchture Kirkyard. One side has a simple sword; the other has an inscription beginning hic iacet (here lies), but further lettering is indistinct, so the identity of the man beneath remains unknown. It is not impossible that this is the last resting place of Robert of Inchture.
Parliament at Inchture, 7th April 1312
It is 700 years since this parliament was convened by King Robert the Bruce. Present were various Earls of the Kingdom and Bishops of the Church, and also some unnamed burgesses: the Three Estates of medieval Scotland were nobility, clergy, and commoners. Business included codifying a way for burghs to collect taxes and enlist men for service in the army; and also the granting of a large chunk of land, in perpetuity, to the Abbey at Scone.
Robert, by the grace of God king of the Scots, to all good men of this
land, greeting. Know that we gave and granted by this present
charter the abbots and canons of Scone, all the thanage of Scone
with all its rightful pertinents according to its rightful boundaries …
wood and plain, meadows and pastures, marshes and peat-muirs,
roads and footpaths, rivers, fish-ponds and lochs, mills, hunting
grounds and hawking places …
at Inchture on April 7 in the seventh year of our reign.
It is not clear why Robert the Bruce chose Inchture as a venue, but the answer may lie with the castle. Unfortunately there is no real drawing of it, not even in a ruined state - it does appear on Pont’s map dated around 1590. But there certainly was a castle: in the 19th century, excavations near the Inn revealed its substantial foundations.
The connection with the King is possibly Robert of Inchture. He is named on a list of landowners who, in 1306, forfeited their lands by order of Edward the 1st (the Hammer of the Scots) for supporting Robert the Bruce. He was a patriot and a nationalist, and the castle could have been big enough to hold both King and entourage.
There is a medieval disc-headed grave slab in the south side of Inchture Kirkyard. One side has a simple sword; the other has an inscription beginning hic iacet (here lies), but further lettering is indistinct, so the identity of the man beneath remains unknown. It is not impossible that this is the last resting place of Robert of Inchture.