Murrays, however,
succeeded in reaching the church, where 120 men able to bear arms, with
their wives and children, took refuge. They were followed by the
Drummonds, reinforced, as some say, by Campbell of Dunstaffhage, and
thirsting for vengeance. Even then they might have escaped, had not
one of the Murray clan indiscreetly revealed their hiding-place by
aiming a successful shot at one of the Drummonds. The Drummonds now
summoned them to surrender, but in vain, and then piled wood round the
long, low, heather-thatched edifice, and consumed it with its human
holocaust. One Murray alone, David by name, escaped, being aided by
one of the Drummonds, who was attached to his sister. He in turn was
hated and persecuted by his own clan, and forced to escape to Ireland.
After some years he returned thence under the effectual protection of
the powerful Abbot of Inchaffray, who was a Murray. He was settled on
the Abbey lands, and the property which he received still bears the
name of Drummond-Ernoch (of Erin).

The massacre of Monzievaird was sternly avenged by King James IV. The
Master of Drummond, leader of the party, and some of his followers were
executed at Stirling. The estate of Drummond was required to provide
for the widows and orphans, and further to expiate their sacrilegious
crime by re-building the church. Even then the house of prayer could
scarcely be called the abode of peace. It is said to have been the
scene of fierce bickerings, and that the gauntlet of the Murrays was
for many years fastened on a small gallery of the church, and formal
challenge made to anyone to remove it before divine service was allowed
to begin. When the foundations of the present mausoleum were being dug
a quantity of charred wood was found, and very many calcined
bones--those nearer the door on the west being of larger size than the
others towards the east, which were probably those of women and
children. They must have been buried as they lay.

The Murrays of Ochtertyre come of the Tullibardine family, and the
present proprietor is the fifteenth in descent from the first. The
addition of Keith to the ancient "Moray," changed to Murray, arose from
marriage with the heiress of Dunnottar Castle, in Kincardineshire. It
is a singular fact that the succession has uniformly descended from
father to son. The existing house of Ochtertyre was built by the
great-grandfather of the present Baronet, and for prospect it would be
har