Menteith

Menteith or Monteith (Scottish Gaelic: Mòine Tèadhaich), a district of south Perthshire, Scotland, roughly comprises the territory between the Teith and the Forth. Early forms including Meneted, Maneteth and Meneteth. The area between Callander and Dunblane was historically known in English as the Vale of Menteith.

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)

Etymology

The name Menteith may be derived from the Brittonic cognate of Welsh mynydd (borrowed into Gaelic as monadh), meaning "mountain, muir",[1] combined with the obscure river-name Teith.[1]

History

In medieval Scotland, Menteith formed 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, allied 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, and then through Isabella's sister Mary to Stewarts, and finally to the Grahams, becoming extinct in 1694.[2] The earlier introduction of Sheriffs to Scotland provided a ready-made alternative authority, so the extinction of the earldom did not create a lack of jurisdiction in the area; Menteith was covered by the sheriffdom based at Perth.

In the mid 19th century, local government reforms replaced the ancient provinces by new Counties (shires), aligned to sheriffdom boundaries; hence, Menteith became the south-western portion of the new 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 before her departure to Dumbarton Castle, and on to France in 1548. On Inch Talla stands the ruined tower of the earls of Menteith, dating from 1428. The village of Port of Menteith stands on the north shore of the loch.[2]

References
  1. "The Journal of Scottish Name Studies Vol. 8" (PDF). Clann Turic. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  2. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Menteith" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 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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