Kirk was minister at Balquhidder from 1664 and at Aberfoyle from 1685. He never published The Secret Commonwealth in his lifetime; Walter Scott first printed it in 1815. The Mysterious Britain gazetteer notes that Kirk was said to be a seventh son and to have second sight. The official record is that he died and was buried in the churchyard at Aberfoyle, and his gravestone survives.
Local tradition tells a different story: the fairies punished him for putting their secrets in a book, and Kirk 'entered the fairy realm' through the fairy hill, Doon Hill, which is a small wooded knoll near the village. The account in Mysterious Britain says he had collapsed in a swoon and was carried off. The story is a legend that was attached to a real man, and the real events of his death are not known in any detail.
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