13 The Black Watch Memorial

To commemorate the first muster of the Black Watch on the north side of the river Tay it was decided to build a memorial in the 1880s.

When the erection of the Memorial was being decided on, a representation of Farquhar Shaw (one of the three men executed in the Tower of London for mutiny 1743) in the old uniform of the regiment, with his flintlock musket slung over his shoulder and in the act of drawing his sword, was chosen for reproduction as the dominating figure.

After the unveiling ceremony and what seemed endless speechifying, the procession reformed and, led by Pipe-Major Bain of the Dundee Highlanders, a Crimean veteran who on the 20^th September, 1854, had piped the “42^nd” up the Heights of Alma, the various bodies marched to the (then) new Public School where a public banquet took place – and more speeches! The rank and file of the soldiery who took part in the ceremony were entertained in Weem Hotel.

On the north-west face of the cairn is a tablet bearing an inscription in Gaelic, and on the south-east another in English. By the observant, a mistake in spelling may be noticed in the English inscription; in the words “Independent Companies” the word “Independent” is mis-spelt “Independant.”

On the south-west face is carved in relief a bust profile of Queen Victoria, and the inscription: “1887. The year of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. This site has been kindly granted by the most Noble Gavin Marquis of Breadalbane.”

On the north-east face, dwarfed somewhat, perhaps by that of Farquhar Shaw above, is the finely executed figure of another Highlander in the parade uniform of the regiment, as it was in 1887, in the act of completing a list of engagements in which the Black Watch had won renown. Were the list to be extended to include the names of the many battlefields on which the regiment has fought since 1887 the whole of the tablet, even had the Highlander been removed, would scarce suffice to hold them.

Some time after the 1914/18 War, five captured German guns were allotted as war trophies to Aberfeldy. They arrived on 2^nd April, 1920, and for a few years were domiciled in the Memorial grounds, four of them occupying each one corner of the grassy platform on which the cairn stands, and the fifth on a site facing across the river a few yards to the west. Beside being a defacement, they were a constant reminder of the horrors of a nightmare still fresh in men’s minds, and they were shortly removed to the general relief of the public.

It has been a tradition that members of the Black Watch visit the monument, firstly by troops from the old regimental depot at Queen’s Barracks, Perth, and now yearly by the Black Watch Association.

On the 22^nd June, 1910, during a thunderstorm a flash of lightning split the cairn from top to bottom, the tablet facing south west being shattered; the figure on the top was not damaged. The local Black Watch volunteers were on parade at the time. The necessary repairs which included the installation of a lightning conductor (there had not been one before!) cost £200, which sum also was raised by public subscription.

The sculpture is the work of Messrs. J. & W. S. Rhind of Edinburgh and the cairn was erected, under the personal supervision of Mr W. Birnie Rhind, R.S.A., by Messrs. Gow & Dewar, builders, Aberfeldy.

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.

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