• Locally
Prehistoric Villages
Glenesk is an extensive semi-natural environment which has, nonetheless, borne the imprint of human activity over thousands of years. The remains of earlier civilisations, iron-age and Pictish settlements are still evident. Evidence of small scale silver mining in the 18th century is also still visible; of more recent origin is the prominent Rowan Tower on the Hill of the Rowan and the Masonic Tower on the Mudlach.
Signs of human habitation are also evident, not only in the many houses still occupied but also in the much greater number of ruins, testifying to a much larger population in former times. There is much fascinating information in the museum showing the steep downward trend in the population over the last two centuries reflecting changes in the intensity and type of land use.
Glenesk has been settled for thousands of years. On the Hill of Rowan can be seen the outlines of Bronze Age settlements, three thousand years old. Glenesk Folk museum at The Retreat has flint knives and arrowheads found in the Glen and an axe head, said to come from Switzerland. In the lower part of the Glen, at Colmeallie, in the parish of Edzell is to be found a stone circle, said to be of Druidical origin. Little remains now of what were once two concentric circles, the larger consisting of from fifteen to twenty stones, enclosing an area of forty five by thirty six feet. Many of the stones were removed for building purposes, either whole or blasted into smaller stones.
Stone coffins have been found in various sites in the Glen and one has been re-created in front of The Retreat. Christianity was brought to the area by St. Drostan, and he is remembered by sites still bearing his name, such as Droustie's Well and Droustie's Meadow. There is a pool on the River Lee, near the Kirkton, called the Monks' Pool where the monks were allowed to fish for salmon during Lent. During a good part of the past one thousand years, Glenesk was owned by the Lindsay clan. Early in the fourteenth century, Lyndesay of Glenesk was a companion of King Robert the Bruce's man, Lord Douglas, whom he accompanied towards Jerusalem with King Robert's heart.
In the records of the late fourteenth century, David Lindsay was married to Princess Catherine (Jean) Stewart and several of their children were born in Glenesk. Invermark Castle was built around 1526 by the Lindsays and was used as a refuge by the locals when Highland caterans or raiders descended on the Glen to steal cattle and whatever else they could find. In 1659, when the Laird bestowed a grant for the reader or schoolmaster, he bound himself and his successors to pay the whole stipend in the event of "a general vastatione of the paroche by the Highlanders or otherwise." During one such raid, half the cattle and sheep in the glen were carried off and five Glenesk men died trying to stop them. The castle was used by the young David Lindsay after he had killed Lord Spynie in Edinburgh in 1607, after a long-standing quarrel.
James Carnegie, Lord Balnamoon, sought shelter in Invermark Castle after Culloden when he was hiding from government troops. Further up the Glen, in Glen Mark, there is a cave called "Bonnymune's Cave" where he successfully eluded the Redcoats until he was pardoned. The local people brought him food and warned him when the soldiers were about.
