Tom na Chaistel Hill and Baird's Monument

TOM na Chaistel Hill, which lies in the shadow of Turleum, was where the Earls of Strathearn had their castle. In the early 1300s Joanna, Countess of Strathearn, was imprisoned in chains in the dungeons there for her complicity in the conspiracy of Lord Soulis and others against the life of Robert the Bruce. The castle was destroyed by fire in the 14th century and never rebuilt but when builders were digging out the foundations to build Baird’s monument, the bottle dungeon was found along with some gold and silver ornaments – and a chained-up skeleton.

General Sir David Baird, whose monument rises out of Tom na Chaistel Hill, was a soldier in the British Army from 1772 to 1827, fighting in wars from India to South Africa. He died at his home at Ferntower in Crieff in 1829 and, in 1832, his wife had the obelisk erected in his memory.