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Cateran Ecomuseum

Donald Cargill’s Monument

The birthplace of the famous covenanter and defender of Presbyterianism.

Donald Cargill, born in Rattray, was a Presbyterian minister and Covenanter. The Covenanters pledged to maintain their own way of worship following the signing of the National Covenant
in 1638, hence their name.

However, during the latter half of Charles II’s reign, Presbyterianism was outlawed by the Scottish Parliament. Ministers who resisted were evicted from the Church. Cargill, like many other ministers, was forced to hold illegal meetings called ‘conventicles’. These meeting were often broken up by the military and those captured were cruelly treated.

On one occasion Cargill managed to escape the troops by leaping a very narrow part of the River Ericht just above Blairgowrie, still called Cargill’s Leap.

He was eventually captured in 1681 and taken to Edinburgh where he was found guilty of treason and executed.

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