A Day On Wikipedia

With the extinction of the main Menzies of Weem line in 1911, the Clan was therefore without a Chief until Col. Ronald Steuart Menzies of Culdares and Arndilly, the lineal heir of Colonel James Menzies of Culdares, a prominent Covenanting officer and cousin of the first Baronet, petitioned Lyon Court in 1957 and obtained arms in the title of ‘The Menzies of Menzies’. His son, David Steuart Menzies of Menzies is the present Chief. The title Menzies of Culdares was matriculated to his seconds son, Simon Menzies of Culdares in 2006.

Scotland is indebted to the Menzies of Culdares for the introduction of the larch tree which now flourishes all over the Highlands. Menzies of Culdares, ‘Old Culdares’ who had been pardoned for his participation in the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion, brought the first larches from the Austrian Tyrol in 1737 and presented them to the Duke of Atholl. Two of the original saplings, now grown to a great size, can be seen besides Dunkeld Cathedral.

Culdares, near Fortingall, Perthshire; possible site of castle or old house. Held by the Moncreiffes, but passed to the Menzies family. Colonel James Menzies of Culdares was a Royalist officer during the Civil War in the seventeenth century and was wounded nine times in various fights. Menzies of Culdares fought for the Jacobites in the 1715 Rising, but was captured after the rebellion and was exiled to North America. He was an agricultural improver, and introduced the larch to Scotland. He was too old to take part in the 1745-46 Rising, but sent Bonnie Prince Charlie a fine horse, delivered by his servant, MacNaughton:

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Stewart of Garth makes most honourable mention of Macnuaghton, who was in the service of Menzies of Culdares in the year 1745. That gentleman had been ‘out’ in 1715, and was pardoned. Grateful so far, he did not join Prince Charles, but sent a fine charger to him as he entered England. The servant, Macnaughton, who conveyed the present, was taken and tried at Carlisle. The errand on which he had come was clearly proved, and he ws offered pardon and life if he would reveal the name of the sender of the horse. He asked with indignation if they supposed that he could be such a villain. They repeated the offer to him on the scaffold, but he died firm to his notion of fidelity. His life was nothing to that of his master, he said.

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Meggernie Castle in Glen Lyon, Perthshire was the the Seat of the Culdares line and is well known for its ghost:

The castle was involved in the intrigue of the 45 rebellion, and Jacobite troops are said to have stayed here, sheltered by James Menzie of Culdares. The castle is said to be haunted by a murdered women, who appears as two separate pieces of her dismembered corpse.

The story goes that one of the owners of the castle – a Menzie of Culdares – murdered his wife in a fit of jealousy and then chopped her into pieces. She seems to have returned in her dismembered form, as her apparition is said to appear variously as a trunk, severed legs and a head and shoulders. The pieces of her ghostly diced cadaver haunt different areas of the castle, her upper half haunting the higher levels of the castle, and her lower half haunting the lower reaches of the ground floor and the old burial ground – where her legs are supposed to have been hidden. The upper part of her torso was discovered as a skeleton by workmen during restoration in the 1800’s.

The apparition is still said to make an appearance, and the focus of the haunting takes place in one of the rooms, which has been dubbed the haunted room. Male guests have been surprised to receive a ghostly kiss in the small hours of the morning.