Menteith or Monteith, a district of south Perthshire, Scotland, roughly comprises the territory between the Teith and the Forth. Formerly it formed a stewartry and gave the title to an earldom.
Gilchrist, a Celtic chief ennobled by Malcolm IV of Scotland, first held the title, which passed successively to Walter Comyn (d. 1258), to a branch of the Stewarts, and finally to the Grahams, becoming extinct in 1694.
The lake of Menteith, situated 24 miles south of Loch Venachar , measures 14 miles long by 1 mile broad, and contains three islands. On Inchmahome (Gaelic, the Isle of Rest) stand the ruins of an Augustinian priory founded in 1238 by Walter Comyn, and built in the Early English style, with an ornate western doorway. Queen Mary, when a child of five, lived on the island for a few months before her departure to France in 1548. On Inch Talla stands the ruined tower of the earls of Menteith, dating from 1428.
The village of Port of Monteith stands on the north shore of the lake.
In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Menteith is "a noblemen of Scotland," appearing in Act V allied with Malcom et al to oppose Macbeth's usurpation.
