The Square in the middle of the 18th century was described to Dr Mackay as the centre of life in the town, the place where everything of interest took place; it was the meeting place of young and old, the playground of children and the place where stage coaches changed horses.
About 1770, there were some fifty houses east of the burn; a number of these were congregated round the base of the Tulloch (i.e. along the line of what is now the south side of The Square) and along General Wade’s military road to the bridge across the Paldy, as the Moness Burn was then called.
At that time The Square as such did not exist, but Dr. Kennedy noted that in 1806 it was in the process of formation and, later, Robert Southey in his Journal of a Tour in Scotland 1819 continued his remarks (v. above) “…a sort of Square or market place has been lately built so that, mean as the village or townlet is, it appears to be thriving.”
The Square, as can be seen now, has little of the ‘old’ about it, a considerable part dating no further back than the last quarter of the 18th century. It was in the western section of this last-mentioned block that the Rev. Hugh Macmillan, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E., F.S.A. Scot, author of the Highland Tay, etc, etc., was born in 1833.
In this building, his father carried on business in a shop which, up until the 1860s, was fitted with a door of the old-fashioned barn-door type which could open either at the top or at the bottom.
In 1813, the Rev. John Kennedy. D.D. was also born in the square, in the old Independent manse which, before its removal to make way for the Congregational Church, stood on the north side directly facing Dr Macmillan’s birthplace.
The Commercial Bank of Scotland Buildings date from 1886. When the Aberfeldy branch was first opened on 24th August, 1868, business was conducted in a house (Auchrannie) in Taybridge Road part of which was occupied by the Branch Manager, Mr C. W. L. Forbes who had been formally employed in the local branch of the Bank of Scotland and who, in 1887, became the town’s first Chief Magistrate.
In 1881 the firm of W & A Robertson built large business premises on the east side of the Square, W&A’s being a household word in Aberfeldy and district for over 50 years. During the early 1940’s it was the CooP and is now TOFS.
The Locus Centre was built as the Congregational Church built in 1877 to replace the Independent Chapel in Chapel Street. The Foundation Stone was laid on 28th August, 1877, by the Hon. Arthur Kinnaird M.P., and the Rev. John Kennedy, D.D. the so-called Nonconformist Bishop of Stepney (London) who was a native of Aberfeldy. The stone, bearing an inscription to this effect, is in the wall next to the doorway
The 160th anniversary of the formation of the Independent Church in Aberfeldy was celebrated on the 6th August, 1950. The formation in 1790 was the result of the evangelistic labours of the Haldane Brothers, two Scottish missionaries who lived during the latter half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th. J.A. Haldane, the younger of the two, was ordained pastor of a large Independent congregation in Edinburgh; their meeting place to begin with being a circus. This was the first Congregational Church known by that name in Scotland; Aberfeldy’s was the second.
From the late 1830s to the 1860s the coming and goings of the stage coaches were events of considerable importance in the daily lives of the locals as they constituted the town’s main, if not only, link with the outside world. At their hours of arrival, The Square presented a busy and animated scene; here it was a case of ‘all passengers ashore’, for travellers from east to west or west to east were obliged to sleep at least one night in the town before proceeding on their way. It was here too that through-going carriages changed horses, and it is on record that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert en route from Scone to Taymouth in 1842 halted for a little in front of the Breadalbane Hotel while a fresh team was being yoked in.
Some of the old coach drivers were real worthies and well aware of their own consequence in the scheme of things, which is not to be wondered at in view not only of the importance of their jobs but the facts that as kings of their particular castles, as it were, they were responsible for the safety of, and met and conversed with, people in all walks of life. Further, they were carriers of news as well as passengers at a time when, in Aberfeldy, daily papers were practically unknown.
Such a man was Peter Tough (or Ruff) who drove the Perth coach for many years. So much a character was he indeed, that there was generally keen competition among his passengers for the privilege of sitting on the box behind him. On one occasion Sir Robert Menzies, as a young man on his way home from Oxford University, finding that this, his favourite seat, was taken, declared that rather than sit elsewhere he would complete his journey on foot. He also declared that he would beat the coach to Aberfeldy. He set off across the hills – and did!
In the late 1800s, an annual Feeing Market was held in late October. Farmers from all around gathered to engage employees for the ensuing year; 1/-arles or earnest money to seal the contract being given to each person engaged. Prospective employees, male and female, paraded the streets in their best attire, the girls gradually accumulating, as the day wore on, armfuls of sweets, etc., ‘fairings’ from their male admirers. The Square was filled with booths of travelling showmen ready and eager to relieve all and sundry of their spare cash, cheep-jacks, try-your-strength merchants, etc., vying with the rest in creating a scene noisy as well as colourful, especially after dark under the naked lights of paraffin flares. Often these booths overflowed from The Square down into Dunkeld Street and up Bridgend into Bank Street.
Dr Mackay in ‘Aberfeldy Past and Present’, describes a particular booth in which was housed an amazing new invention – a phonograph! The instrument was inside a large sound-proof glass box from which were led a number of rubber tubes, each ending in a binaural earpiece not unlike that of the stethoscope used by doctors. For the fee of one penny one was privileged to listen to such music as a well worn cylindrical record and an equally well worn needle between them could scrape out. But in the middle 1890s, it was a wonderful and unheard of experience at the time, and the enterprising showman reaped a rich harvest.
The Square has been witness of many events over the years and seen many historic figures pass through.
In 1745 it saw Sir John Cope and the Government Army heading North to find the Jacobites under Prince Charlie, and then in 1746, Prince Charlie and the Highland part of the Jacobite Army on the way to Culloden.
In September 1842 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert passed through on their way from Scone to Taymouth. Queen Victoria passed through again in 1866, five years after the death of Prince Albert, this time incognito.
In 1877 Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, and 10 days later his brother Prince Albert, Duke of Connaught, both passed through on route to Taymouth Castle.
In 1884 it was Oscar, King of Sweden, who passed through, also on his way to Taymouth who was followed a week or so later by his son, Crown Prince Gustav.
Some other noted visitors passing through were Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden, in 1879; Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, in 1881; H.R.H. Fredrica, of Hanover, 1885.
Two other visitors in the 1800s were Conte de Paris, Pretender of the French throne, a tenant in 1887 of Loch Kennard Shooting Lodge; another tenant being the Maharajah Duleep Sing (Black Prince of Perthshire) who spent around 10 years in the area and whose first son is buried in Kenmore Churchyard.
In 1925 the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and his queen, spent a short time at Grandtully Castle as guests of the Earl and Countess Beattie who had a ten-year lease of the Castle and shooting. In 1950 Queen Elizabeth, the Queen mother, motored through on her way from Balmoral to open the new hydro-electric station at Loch Sloy.
A political visitor in the 1870s was Mr William E. Gladstone, who was accorded an almost royal welcome by the people of Aberfeldy, then strongly Liberal in their sympathies, when passing through to visit Lord Breadalbane, one of the Liberal Peers of that time. He arrived at the station at 6.30 one winter night and received a great ovation.
An awning lit by hanging lights had been erected across the platform to where his carriage was waiting, and from a rostrum set up outside the station buildings an address of welcome was read. Gladstone made a suitable reply and, as he drove away, was escorted through the town by a torchlight procession and a band.
In the general election shortly after, when his party was returned to power, when the first results began to come through, a carnival was held in The Square, and when the local result arrived to announce the victory of Sir Donald Currie, at that time a member of the Liberal Party, enthusiasm knew no bounds and crowds assembled at the Lochan where a huge bonfire that had been laid was lit. The windows of some of the leading Tories were smashed and known members of the Party were wise to remain indoors.
The Square has continued to serve as a public space for events including wartime recruitment drives and dances, a start of spot for the Co-op Galas, Jubilee Events, Christmas Lights and New Year Celebrations and the monthly farmers markets during the summer.
THE BIRKS CINEMA
The Birks Cinema, named after the popular local rambling route beside Moness Burn known as the Birks, was built by Strathmore Picture Houses and opened on 3rd July 1939, just a few weeks before the outbreak of World War II. The elegant Art Deco building housed a 450-seater auditorium. Local newspaper reports praised the new cinema’s contemporary ‘Snowcrete’ exterior and cream, primrose yellow and green interior. The whole project took a team of 20 workers just six months to complete and there’s a story that their names were sealed in a bottle built into a roof support pillar.
Sadly, the cinema closed its doors in 1982, and there was no clear plan for the future of this architectural gem and local landmark. The Friends of The Birks Cinema charity was born with the dream of acquiring the building and reviving it as a community-run social enterprise.
The Friends of The Birks Cinema Board faced many challenge, not least was ensuring the total of £1.8 million needed for the renovation, which had to be reached by the end of the January 2012 deadline stipulated by the Scottish Government as the provider of the Scottish Rural Development Programme grant. On Saturday 20th April 2013, The Birks Cinema’s doors opened again to the public. All the hard work had paid off – the magic of cinema had returned to the heart of rural Perthshire!
For information on the individual Heritage Trail locations, click on these links:
00: A brief history of the Churches in the Aberfeldy area; 01: The Square; 02: Aberfeldy Town Hall;
03: Former St. Andrew’s Church; 04: Birks of Aberfeldy; 05: Moness House; 06: Aberfeldy Hospitals;
07: Former Wee Free Chapel; 08: Independent Chapel; 09: The Watermill; 10: Parish Church;
11: Breadalbane Academy; 12: St. Margaret’s Church; 13: Black Watch memorial; 14: Aberfeldy Golf Club;
15: Wade’s Bridge; 16: Weem Parish Church; 17: Menzies Mausoleum; 18a Castle Menzies;
18b Castle Menzies Walled Garden; 19: Our Lady of Mercy’s RC Church; 20: Aberfeldy Branch Line.
Breadalbane Heritage Society 
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