Menteith

Menteith, or Monteith, a district of south Perthshire, Scotland, roughly comprising the territory between the Teith and the Forth. Formerly it was a stewartry and gave the title to an earldom. The title was first held by Gilchrist, a Celtic chief ennobled by Malcolm IV., and passed successively toWalter Comyn (d. 1258), to a branch of the Stewarts, and finally to the Grahams, becoming extinct in 1694. The lake of Menteith, situated 22 m. S. of Loch Vennachar measures 12 m. long by i m. broad, and contains three islands. On Inchmahome (Gaelic, "the Isle of Rest") are the ruins of an Augustinian priory founded in 1238 by Walter Comyn. It is Early English, with an ornate western doorway. The island was the residence of Queen Mary, when a child of five, for a few months before her departure to France in 1548. On Inch Talla stands the ruined tower of the earls of Menteith, dating from 1428. The village of Port of Monteith (pop. of parish, 1088), on the north shore of the lake, is 31 m. north by west of the station of the same name on the North British Railway Company's Forth & Clyde line.