Etymology Abernethy, recorded in the 10th century as
Aburnethige, means 'mouth of the river Nethy'. The first element of the name is the
Pictish word
aber 'river mouth'. The river-name Nethy is from the
Celtic root
nect- 'pure, clean'. The Nethy Burn flows down from the
Ochil Hills past the present village. The Gaelic form of the name is
Obar Neithich. Near to Abernethy lies the small settlement of Catochil, whose name is first attested in a sixteenth-century copy of a text from 1295, as
Cathehill, and again in 1508 as
Catoichill. This place-name too is thought to be from Pictish, or its close relative
Common Brittonic, from the elements *
ced ("woodland") and *
ogel ("high", its form influenced by the name of the Ochil Hills among which it lies).
Early history . There is evidence of early settlement in the area, with a
Bronze Age log boat being discovered at
Carpow in 2001, believed to date from around 1,000 BC. The Carpow boat is one of the best-preserved examples in
Britain, and the second-oldest example of a boat recovered in Scotland. Remains of suspected pre-historic
stone circles have been discovered to the north and south of the village. Castle Law was the site of an
Iron Age hillfort, first excavated in the late 19th century. A group of
Roman sites within the village have been given the name "the Abernethy complex", including later use of the fortress at Castle Law and the site of the former
Carpow Roman Fort to the east of the village.
Middle Ages and
jougs near the churchyard. The village was once the "capital" (or at least a major religious and political centre) of the
kingdom of the Picts. The parish church, which sits on land given by Nechtan,
king of the Picts, is dedicated to Saint
Brigid of Kildare (
fl. 451–525), and the church is said to have been founded by
Dairlugdach, second abbess of
Kildare, one of early Christian
Ireland's major monasteries. Several pieces of Pictish or
early medieval sculpture have been found in Abernethy, including an incomplete
Pictish symbol stone attached to the base of the round tower. The location "Afarnach's Hall" referred to in the earliest mediaeval
Arthurian literature is usually identified as Abernethy. Abernethy is believed to have been the seat of an early Pictish bishopric, its
diocese extending westward along
Strathearn. In the 12th century the bishop's seat was moved to
Muthill, then
Dunblane, so that Abernethy, no longer being a residential bishopric is today listed by the
Catholic Church as a
titular see. In 1072, Abernethy was the site of the
Treaty of Abernethy concluded between
William the Conqueror and
Malcolm III of Scotland. Abernethy remained the site of a small priory of
Augustinian canons, founded 1272. In the 15th century, this priory was suppressed in favour of a
collegiate church under the patronage of the
Douglas Earls of Angus. Remains of the collegiate church survived until 1802 within the present village graveyard, when they were replaced by the present plain red sandstone church, which is still dedicated to Saint Brigid. In 1933, Powrie Park was gifted to the burgh by William Powrie as a memorial and is maintained as
common good land by Perth and Kinross Council. In October 1909, future Prime Minister
Winston Churchill spoke at a political rally in the village, which was protested by a group of
Suffragettes including
Adela Pankhurst. In the
Second World War, the village hosted a camp for
Polish forces and was the destination for a number of
evacuees. In 2012, the
London Olympics torch relay passed through Abernethy as part of its progress around the
British Isles. ==Culture and community==