#aberfoyle

Reverend Robert Kirk was born on December 9th 1644 at Aberfoyle.

"Truth be told, friends, mine was not a dramatic life. While strife and blood blighted much of Scotland - the time-honoured argy-bargy of Catholics and Protestants having briefly yielded to the new trend of Protestants knocking lumps out of each other, in what historians call ‘The Killing Time’ - I was happy with my lot. Politics was not for me. I was a country pastor. A scholar. Your servant, Robert Kirk, Minister o’ the Kirk, late o’ Balquiddhar an’ Aberfoyle.

Well that really sums up the life of Oor Robert, he is said have enjoyed taking walks up nearby Doon Hill, said to be a local haunt of the faeries, one night he set off for an evening stroll on the hill, when he did not return, searchers discovered his collapsed body atop the hill; aged only forty-eight he had been the victim of a sudden death, or had he?

He was duly buried at Kirkton graveyard, a stone now marking his final resting place, though it is not the original gravestone. Legend has it that the deceased appeared to a relative with a message for his cousin, Graham of Duchray, that he was not dead but was being held captive in Fairyland and left instructions for his release. At the appointed hour, Kirk would appear once again and Graham was to throw a dagger above the apparition, thus breaking the spell and releasing Kirk from captivity. Allegedly, Kirk did indeed appear but Graham was so shocked that he failed to throw the dagger and the spectre vanished, trapped for evermore in the land of the fairies.

There are some who believe that that Reverend Kirk’s soul is still inside the lone Scots Pine tree on Doon Hill.

2 bedroom flat for sale on Main Street, Aberfoyle

Asking price: £200,000

Aberfoyle Old Parish & Burial Ground and the supposed grave of Rev. Robert Kirk Scotland