In the churchyard of Dron church is the grave the covenanter minister, the Rev. John Welwood, who died of natural causes in Perth during April 1679.

Welwood was by all accounts a remarkable preacher spending the last three months of his life in Perth, in secret preaching to selected families one at a time. For a quick run down on Covenanters see Cupar.)

When the Perth Magistrates heard that an intercommuned preacher had died in town, they sent a messenger to arrest the dead body, and forbade it to be interred in the burial-ground of Perth, but gave his friends liberty to bury it outside the civic bounds wheresoever they pleased. The magistrates watched who of the towns people accompanied the funeral and apprehended them and put them in prison.

Welwood's friends sent two men onwards to Dron to prepare a grave, but here the parish minister would not give them the keys to the churchyard. They settled the matter by going over the church yard dyke (wall).

Dron church can be found by taking the Kintillo road off the A912 in Bridge of Earn, remaining on the road as it goes under the M90 motorway, taking the first right, then left at the top of the slight hill. The entrance to the church and grave yard are straight ahead.

Welwood's grave