Undiscovered Scotland

 

The scattered settlement of Amulree stands at a historically important crossroads in Highland Perthshire: but one largely bypassed by today's travellers. From here old military roads travelled north to Aberfeldy and south to Crieff, while important drove routes headed east towards Dunkeld along Strathbraan and north-west towards Kenmore along Glen Quaich.

The name Amulree comes from the Gaelic Ath Maol Ruibhe or "ford of Maelubha". This is a reference to Saint Maelrubha, an Irish monk who founded a monastery at what is now Applecross in 673. There seems to have been a church dedicated to Saint Maelrubha in Amulree from a very early date, known as Cill Ma-Ruibhe.

Cill Ma-Ruibhe was located on the north side of the River Braan in Amulree. The last in possibly a long line of churches on the same site, it was abandoned when the church you see today was built to the south of the river in the years from 1743 by the architect John Douglas.

Amulree Church is more properly known as Amulree and Strathbraan Church, and its appearance today is largely down to a major refurbishment undertaken in 1881. There were further changes in 1960 when the west end of the ground floor of the church and the gallery above it were partitioned off to provide more flexible accommodation.

Internally the church is dominated by the line of six round headed windows along its south wall. The north wall is windowless. The focus of the church is at its east end. This is home to the pulpit and communion table, and is dominated by a large stained glass window dating from 1905 in the east gable. This depicts Faith, Charity and Hope.

The surrounding graveyard provides some fine views over the rather bleak upland landscape surrounding Amulree. It also has some very good gravestones. The most notable was erected in 1759 and commemorates the children of Donald MacLean. The west face of the stone carries many of the symbols of mortality often found on Scottish gravestones of the time, plus carvings of a set of tools depicting MacLean's trade as a maltster.