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27-553: Portmoak is a parish in Kinross-shire , Scotland . It consists of a group of settlements running north to south: Glenlomond , Wester Balgedie, Easter Balgedie , Kinnesswood , Kilmagadwood and Scotlandwell . The name derives from the Port of St Moak (an alternative name for St Monan), being a port in relation to Loch Leven The main villages are Kinnesswood (where the Post Office

54-544: A pupil's home. He became a divinity student at the Theological Hall, Kinross, with a Scottish seceding church, classified at that time as the Burghers . Bruce was sincere in his Christian deportment and it was said of him 'Religion was obviously with him a matter of experience'., 'only an evangelical Christian of reformed faith could have penned his hymns and paraphrases'. In the first summer (1766) of his course at Kinross he

81-622: Is known to the locals as The Cuckoo Wood. Portmoak has an amateur football team competing in the Perthshire 3rd division. Portmoak Airfield (aka Kinross Airfield) lies between Scotlandwell and Loch Leven. The Scottish Gliding Union at Portmoak Airfield, Scotlandwell is the largest gliding club in Scotland. The airfield has no hangar space and is primarily used for gliding. Gliders are launched either by ground-based winches or aero-towed by single engine aeroplanes capable of take off and landing on

108-484: Is officially called Orwell and Portmoak Parish Church. Historic ministers included John Bruce who served from 1666 but was dismissed in 1690 for drunkenness. Ebenezer Erskine was minister of Portmoak from 1703 to 1731 before translating to Stirling. John Mudie (primus) was minister from 1743 to 1762 and his son John Mudie (secondus) continued to 1784. In 1802 Hugh Laird DD took over and at the Disruption of 1843 he joined

135-446: Is situated) and Scotlandwell . The parish is on the east side of Kinross-shire lying between Loch Leven and Fife . It is bounded by the parishes of Cleish, Kinross, Orwell, Strathmiglo, Falkland, Leslie , Kinglassie, Auchterderran and Ballingry. The area is a rich landscape of braes, crags, fine meadows, fertile fields and plantations. The entire area of Portmoak is dominated by Bishop Hill, 1,512 ft (461 m) high, one of

162-667: The Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) used to administer schemes within the Common Agricultural Policy . According to the website of the General Register Office for Scotland , there are now 871 civil parishes. Civil parish boundaries originally corresponded with the ecclesiastical parishes of the Church of Scotland . As parishes used for religious functions diverged from civil parishes,

189-490: The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 , with powers being transferred to county councils in landward areas of counties and burgh councils where they were within a burgh. Their boundaries continued to be used to define some of the local authorities created by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and they continue to be used for census purposes. They are used as part of the coding system for agricultural holdings under

216-512: The Lomond Hills , known locally as "the bishop". On its lower reaches are oak, rowan and Scots pine. It is best approached by walkers from Scotlandwell. As you climb to the top of Bishop Hill, passing the subsidiary top of Munduff Hill as you go, you may see good views of Loch Leven , the Firth of Forth , Bass Rock , North Berwick Law , Mossmorran , the rain radar tower at the top of Munduff hill,

243-690: The Ochils , the Forth Bridge , Schiehallion , the distant Cairngorms , West Lomond , East Lomond and Largo Law . The site of Carlin Maggie is on the western slope of Bishop Hill, overlooking Loch Leven. Good views of Bishop hill and Munduff Hill can be had from nearby Benarty Hill in Fife. As the name implies, Scotlandwell is home to a well where King Robert the Bruce is reputed to have been cured of leprosy by drinking

270-539: The Cuckoo in the possession of a friend, in Bruce's handwriting, and signed by Bruce, with the words 'you think I might have been better employed than writing about a gowk (cuckoo)'. In a manuscript Pious Memorials of Portmoak , drawn up by Bruce's friend, David Pearson, Bruce's authorship of the "Ode to the Cuckoo" is emphatically asserted. This book was in the possession of the Birrell family, and John Birrell, another friend of

297-446: The Cuckoo" appeared. In the preface he stated that "to make up a miscellany, some poems written by different authors are inserted." In a collection of his own poems in 1781, Logan printed the "Ode to the Cuckoo" as his own; the friends of Bruce did not challenge its appropriation publicly but Dr Davidson, Professor of Natural & Civil History wrote at the time that he saw a copy of the Ode to

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324-610: The Free Church and served as minister of the Free Church of Portmoak until his death in 1849. 56°13′N 3°19′W  /  56.21°N 3.31°W  / 56.21; -3.31 Civil parishes in Scotland Civil parishes gained legal functions in 1845 when parochial boards were established to administer the poor law . Their local government functions were abolished in 1930 with their powers transferred to county or burgh councils. Since 1975, they have been superseded as

351-405: The alleged theft by John Logan of several of his poems. Logan, a fellow-student of Bruce, obtained Bruce's manuscripts from his father, shortly after the poet's death. For the letters, poems, etc., that he allowed to pass out of his hands, Alexander Bruce took no receipt and did not keep any list of the titles. Logan edited in 1770 Poems on Several Occasions, by Michael Bruce , in which the "Ode to

378-451: The burgh was termed the landward area. Until 1891 some parishes lay in more than one county . In that year, under the terms of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 , the boundaries of most of the civil parishes and counties were realigned so that each parish was wholly within a single county. In 1894 the parochial boards were replaced by more democratically elected parish councils. Parish councils were in turn abolished in 1930, under

405-491: The former became known as quoad sacra parishes . Since 1975, Scotland has been divided into community council areas which are often similar to civil parishes in their boundaries. These community council are not equivalent to English parish councils and Welsh community councils and do not have legal powers of their own but in some cases local authorities have a legal obligation to consult them. Michael Bruce (poet) Michael Bruce (27 March 1746 – 5 July 1767)

432-812: The graveyard is for Michael Bruce , 1746 to 1767, poet and author of several scripture paraphrases used in Church of Scotland worship. On 29 October 2013 the Rev Dr Angus Morrison , minister at Orwell and Portmoak Parish Church since 2011, was nominated to be Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for 2014–15, but in March 2014 he had to withdraw his nomination on grounds of ill health. Orwell church, in Milnathort , had previously been separate. The remaining operational Church of Scotland parish church

459-463: The hills. Now a commuter village Wester Balgedie or Meikle Balgedie lies 4 miles east of Kinross overlooking Loch Leven. At a fork in the road stands the Balgedie Toll Tavern, a building dating from the 19th Century. A tavern has stood here from around 1534. Two woods, Kilmagad Wood and Portmoak Moss are situated adjacent to the villages of and Kinnesswood and Scotlandwell. Kilmagadwood

486-577: The partisans of Bruce against Logan to have been the hymns printed in the 1781 edition of Logan's poems. Logan tried to prevent by law the reprinting of Bruce's poems (see James Mackenzie's Life of Michael Bruce , 1905, chap. xii.), but the book was printed in 1782, 1784, 1796 and 1807. Dr William McKelvie revived Bruce's claims in Lochleven and Other Poems, by Michael Bruce, with a Life of the Author from Original Sources (1837). Logan's claim to authorship rests on

513-478: The pet of his family and friends. He studied Latin and Greek , and at fifteen, when his schooling was completed, a small legacy left to his mother, with some additions from kindly neighbours, enabled him to go to the University of Edinburgh , which he attended during the four winter sessions 1762–1765. In 1765 he taught during the summer months at Gairney Bridge, receiving about 5/- a year in fees and free board in

540-501: The poet, adds a testimony to the same effect. Pearson and Birrell also wrote to Dr Robert Anderson while he was publishing his British Poets , pointing out Bruce's claims. Their communications were used by Anderson in the "Life" prefixed to Logan's works in the British Poets (vol. ii. p. 1029). The volume of 1770 had struck Bruce's friends as being incomplete, and his father missed his son's "Gospel Sonnets," which are supposed by

567-564: The publication of the poems under his own name, and his reputation as author during his lifetime. His failure to produce the "poem book" of Bruce entrusted to him, and the fact that no copy of the "Ode to the Cuckoo" in his handwriting was known to exist during Bruce's lifetime, make it difficult to relieve him of the charge of plagiarism. John Veitch , in The Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry (1887, vol. ii. pp. 89–91), points out that

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594-453: The short grass runway. The Pre-Reformation church was a chapel served by Portmoak Priory and was first dedicated to St. Monan then to St. Stephen . The present Portmoak Parish Church building, built in 1832, is the third on the site. The church bell is dated 1642. The surrounding graveyard is older than the church, and the Celtic crosses are of the 10th or 11th centuries. A memorial stone in

621-400: The smallest unit of local administration in Scotland by community councils . Civil parishes in Scotland can be dated from 1845, when parochial boards were established to administer the poor law . While they originally corresponded to the parishes of the Church of Scotland , the number and boundaries of parishes soon diverged. Where a parish contained a burgh , the area of the parish outside

648-412: The waters. At one time it was an important monastic centre, the monks ran a hospital here from which patients took the spring water as part of their treatment. Pilgrims journeyed from St. Andrews The monks would have been linked to the nearby Portmoak Priory . Portmoak was formerly a parish of Fife . The area has always relied on farming area, and till the late 19th century limestone quarried down from

675-535: The winter he returned on foot to his father's house, where he wrote his last and finest poem, "Elegy written in Spring" considered among ' the sweetest and most moving compositions in the English language'. He died in 1767, cheerful to the last. A poetical genius James Grant Wilson said of him in 1876, 'cut off in life's green spring' As a poet his reputation spread, through sympathy for his early death; and also because of

702-502: Was a Scottish poet and hymnist. Bruce was born at Kinnesswood in the parish of Portmoak , Kinross-shire. His father, Alexander Bruce, was a weaver. Michael was taught to read before he was four years old, and one of his favourite books was a copy of Sir David Lyndsay 's works. His attendance at school was often interrupted, because he had to herd cattle on the Lomond Hills in summer, and this early companionship with nature greatly influenced his poetry. A delicate child, he grew up as

729-450: Was put in charge of a new school at Forestmill , near Clackmannan , where he led a life marred by poverty, disease and loneliness. There he wrote "Lochleven," a poem inspired by the memories of his childhood, which shows the influence of Thomson and confirmed his reputation as a 'local poet and one of the heralds of the later outburst of Scottish song '. He had already been threatened with consumption, and now became seriously ill. During

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