Dull

Perthshire

The name of the parish comes from Dail, Gaelic for a plain and it sits between Crieff to the south and Blair Atholl to the north. It contains Appin, Foss, Fincastle and Amulree with part of Glenquaich. Schiehallion lies partly in this parish and partly in Fortingall. The rivers Tay and Tummell flow through it, as do the lesser Quaich, Lyon and Garry.

The Rev Mr Archibald Menzies described the parish in the 1799 Statistical Account, 6, 149ff. Although Webster's population figures of the 1750s were uncertain (he used a formula based on the Roll of Examinables - those being tested on their knowledge of the catechism),

'It would seem that this parish was more populous about 50 years ago than it is at present .... The reasons for the decrease appear to be, that some of the proprietors have extended their own farms and that it was considered moe beneficial for the farmers that there should be no farm less than a ploughgate. In this part of the country it was usual to halve, and even quarter a small farm, so that, perhaps three or four families lived where only one lives now. In the higher parts of the country, sheep farms have also been united.'

'There is no district, perhaps, in the Highlands of Perthshire where the tenure of property is so fluctuating as in this parish. In corroboration of this, it is sufficient to observe that no fewer than thirteen estates .... have passed by purchase into the hands of different proprietors during the last fifty years.'

Population

Date	Population
1831	4590
1841	3811
1851	3342
1881	2565

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