Hellraising drivers tearing past Loch Tay at 20mph

You get the sense that Rev T Atholl Gordon was on the starched-collar wing of Presbyterianism.

We do not know if the Kenmore United Free minister’s stock in trade was fire and brimstone but he certainly railed against modernity.

He seemed to have taken a dislike to motorcars and, in particular, the speed at which they were driven through Highland Perthshire villages.

So in 1911, Mr Gordon, along with parish church minister Rev JB Gordon and the factor for the Marquis of Breadalbane, was among the notable signatories to a petition demanding tough action against the hellraisers, some of whom were tearing along the side of Loch Tay at up to 20mph.

In response, police agreed to put in a speed trap at Fortingall. An inventive Constable Campbell devised

a way of working out speed by measuring the time it took cars to travel between two points.

In September that year, a batch of highway demons was brought before Sheriff Sym at Perth to be punished.

Among them was Henry William Folkes, a chauffeur employed at Garth Castle to the north of Kenmore.

His was a particularly severe case. He was careering through Fortingall at the recklessly excessive speed of 15mph.

Folkes’ solicitor Mr AJ Rew said his client had sped up when rain came on to try to keep his passenger dry. And his passenger? Well it was one T Atholl Gordon.

Mr Gordon wrote a letter to the court on behalf of the chauffeur in which he stated Folkes was a very careful driver who rarely exceeded the speed limit. He also agreed to pay Folkes’ fine of 30 shillings.

The worst offender in court that day was Ian Bulloch of Meggernie, Glenlyon. He admitted racing through the 10-mile control at Fortingall at a breakneck 20mph. PC Campbell worked out his exact speed was 20 miles and 800 yards an hour. Bulloch was fined £3 and three shillings.

Hugh Burdell McCoutts of Kinloch Rannoch was caught doing 18mph and was fined three guineas and chauffeur Cecil Carr Nicholes of London was clobbered with a 30 shillings fine for doing 14mph.

He raced through the 10-mile control at a breakneck 20mph