History of Menmuir

The history of Menmuir Menmuir's most tangible link with its past is the pair of Iron Age hill forts, the Caterthuns (NO 548 661). The Brown Caterthun, overgrown with heather, is the more extensive, with a series of concentric ramparts and ditches; the White Caterthun, more immediately impressive, is one of the most striking prehistoric ruins in Britain. It takes its name from the enormous ring of piled white stones, the tumbled remains of two walls, each originally 6 to 12 metres thick. The original function of the Caterthuns, whether ritual or military, is uncertain; today they retain a role in the life of Menmuir as the tangible centre of the parish's communal identity.

To the west of the Caterthuns there are numerous scattered cairns and traces of ancient field systems, and a mile or so north of the Kirkton is a group of mounds traditionally thought to be the burial places of Picts or Danes.

Surviving from the Pictish period, the five Menmuir Stones, presently housed in the Pictavia Centre near Brechin, were found in the kirkyard of Menmuir. They are decorated with key pattern and interlaced designs, and carved with figures of riders, hunting scenes, real and imagined animals, and Christian crosses. An ancient cup-marked stone has recently been found in the area.

In the Middle Ages most of Menmuir was covered by the royal hunting forest of Kilgarie, still the name of a local farm. A rare survival of a medieval deer-dyke, probably the eastern boundary of the Kilgarie forest, runs from the south bank of the West Water and climbs between the Brown Caterthun and the Hill of Lundie (NO 558 677) and continues down to Cairndrum. The title deeds of some local farms still specify their location "within the Forest of Kilgarie".

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