Perth (Scottish Gaelic: Peairt) is a city and former royal burgh in central Scotland. There has been a settlement at Perth since prehistoric times. Finds in and around Perth show that it was occupied by the Mesolithichunter-gatherers who arrived in the area more than 8,000 years ago.[1] Nearby Neolithic standing stones and circles followed the introduction of farming from about 4000 BC, and a remarkably well preserved Bronze Agelog boat dated to around 1000 BC was found in the mudflats of the River Tay at Carpow to the east of Perth.[2] Carpow was also the site of a Roman legionary fortress.[3]
The name Perth derives from a Pictish word meaning "wood", "copse" or "thicket", which links the town to the Picts or Britons, of whom the Picts may have been a subset. Perth's original name, and some archaeological evidence, indicate that there must have been a settlement here from earlier times, probably at a point where a river crossing or crossings coincided with a slightly raised natural mound on the west bank of the River Tay (which at Perth flows north–south), thus giving some protection for settlement from the frequent flooding.[4] The original inhabitants subsequently merged with the Scots.
In the early 10th century, the city became an important centre of the Kingdom of Alba, which was later known as Scotland. During much of the medieval period the town was known colloquially as Sanct John's Toun (Scots for "Saint John's Town") because St John's Kirk, the church at the centre of the parish, was dedicated to St John the Baptist.[5] The presence of Scone two miles northeast, a royal centre of Alba from at least the reign of Kenneth I mac Ailpín (843–58), later the site of the major Augustinian abbey of the same name founded by Alexander I (1107–1124), will have enhanced Perth's early importance.
Perth was often the unofficial capital of Scotland, due to the frequent residence of the royal court there. It was at Scone Abbey that the Stone of Destiny was kept, and on it the Kings of Scots were crowned, until the coronation of Alexander III (1249–1286).[5]
12th and 13th centuries
A street sign in the town centre
King David I (1124–1153) granted burgh status to the town in the early 12th century, and documents from this time refer to the status of the kirk there. Many of the records taken from this time were the result of the arrival of the Dominicans or Blackfriars. Blackfriars friary was established by Alexander II (1214–1249) by 1240. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Perth was one of the richest trading burghs in the kingdom (along with such towns as Berwick, Aberdeen and Roxburgh), residence of numerous craftsmen, organised into guilds – for example, the hammermen (metalworkers) and glovers. There was probably some decline in prosperity during the numerous wars of the 14th century. The town also carried out an extensive trade with the Continent, and examples of foreign luxury goods have been recovered from excavations within the town, such as Spanish silk, fine pottery from France. Wine will also have been a major import, not least for the use of the Church. The main destinations were France, the Low Countries and the Baltic. Medieval crafts are still remembered in some of the town's old street names, such as Skinnergate, Cutlog Vennel (see Vennels of Perth).[6]
The royal castle (on or near the site of the present multi-storey car park adjacent to the new council offices) twas destroyed by a flood of the Tay in 1209, one of many that have afflicted Perth over the centuries.[7]William I (1142–1214) restored Perth's burgh status, while it remained as the nominal capital of Scotland.
14th century: English occupation
An indicative plan showing the medieval walls around Perth. The walls followed present day Murray Street, South Methven Street, Canal Crescent and Canal Street. Only one short part of the wall is still standing. The blue line marks the mill lade/ditches. The positions of gates (ports) and towers are marked including: (A) the site of Perth Castle; (B) Red Brig Port; (C) Turret Brig Port; (D) South Street Port; (E) Spey Tower; and (F) Monk's TowerThe last remnant of Perth's city walls, on George Inn Lane
King Edward I of England brought his armies to Perth in 1296 where the town, with only a ditch for defence and little fortification, fell quickly.[8] Stronger fortifications were quickly implemented by the English, and plans to wall the town took shape in 1304. They remained standing until Robert the Bruce's recapture of Perth in 1312. He ordered the defences destroyed.[9]
In 1332, the pretender Edward Balliol, son of John of Balliol, invaded to claim the throne of Scotland with the backing of Edward III of England. Robert the Bruce had died three years previously, and the regent of his infant son David II fell quickly at the hands of Balliol's army at the battle of Dupplin Moor. Balliol took Perth and the throne in September, and the Scottish Civil War ensued.[10] Balliol himself was driven out quickly, only to return the next year. His deposition was only made complete in 1336; his supporters were eventually driven from Perth in 1339. As part of a plan to make Perth a permanent English base within Scotland, Edward III forced six monasteries in Perthshire and Fife to pay for the construction of massive stone defensive walls, towers and fortified gates around the town (1336). These followed roughly the lines of present-day Albert Close, Mill Street, South Methven Street, Charterhouse Lane and Canal Street (these streets evolved from a lane around the inside of the walls). Perth Lade, which was led off the River Almond in an artificial channel to power the burgh mills, formed an additional line of defence around the walls.[11] The walls were pierced by several ports or gates, whose names are still remembered: the Red Brig Port (end of Skinnergate), Turret Brig Port (end of the High Street), Southgait Port (end of South Street) and the Spey Port (end of Speygate). There was probably also a minor gate leading to Curfew Row. These defences were the strongest of any town in Scotland in the Middle Ages. Though still largely complete at the time of the 1745 Jacobite rising, they began to be demolished from the second half of the 18th century, and there are now no visible remains, at least above ground. The last tower, called the Monk's Tower (corner of Tay Street and Canal Street) was demolished about 1810.
Late 14th and 15th century
During the Middle Ages, Perth's only parish church was the burgh kirk of St John the Baptist (St John's Kirk). Medieval Perth had many other ecclesiastical buildings, including the houses of the Dominicans (Blackfriars), Observantine Franciscans (Greyfriars) and Perth Charterhouse, Scotland's only Carthusian Priory, or "Charterhouse". A little to the west of the town was the house of the Carmelites or Whitefriars, at Tullilum (corner of Jeanfield Road and Riggs Road).[12] Also at Tullilum (a name preserved by today's Tullylumb Terrace, near Perth Royal Infirmary) was a manor or tower-house of the bishops of Dunkeld. The bishops also owned a house within the burgh itself, at the corner of South Street and Watergate.
A bronze statue of a seated Fair Maid in the High Street
The theatre of trial by combat was first brought by Perth in 1396. The Battle of the Clans pitted Clan Chattan against Clan Cameron, each thirty strong, at the town's North Inch. This 'tournament' (actually an attempt to resolve a disruptive Highland feud) took place under the gaze of King Robert III (1390–1406) and his court, who watched the spectacle from the Gilten Arbour, a garden attached to the House of the Blackfriars. Although records vary, Clan Chattan is understood to have won the battle, with the last of their opponents fleeing to safety across the Tay. The assassination of King James I occurred in 1437 when rebel noblemen forced entry into the house of the Dominicans or Blackfriars. James was the last king to command from a throne at Perth; the capital was moved to Edinburgh in 1437.
16th century
Perth was a focal point for the religious conflicts of the 16th century. In 1543, three men were hanged for vandalising a statue of Saint Francis.[13]:129 In May 1543, the Blackfriars monastery was attacked.[13]:130John Knox began the Scottish Reformation from grass-roots level with a sermon against 'idolatry' in the burgh kirk of St John the Baptist on 11 May 1559.[14] An inflamed mob quickly destroyed the altars in the Kirk, then attacked the Houses of the Greyfriars and Blackfriars, and the Carthusian Priory. Knox later blamed these events on "the rascal multitude".[13]:140–141 Scone Abbey was sacked shortly afterwards. The regent of infant Mary, Queen of Scots, her mother Marie de Guise, was successful in quelling the rioting but Presbyterianism in Perth remained strong. There are no visible remains of the pre-Reformation religious houses of Perth, though their approximate locations are perpetuated in modern street-names.
Records survive from the incorporations of the Perth craft of carpenters and barbers, and the hammermen (metal workers), and others. Apprentices progressing to become master craftsmen in 16th-century Perth traditionally had to pay for a banquet and hold a football match.[18]
17th and 18th centuries
Charles II was crowned at Scone, traditional site of the investiture of Kings of Scots, in 1651.[19] Within a year, Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarians, fresh from victory in the English Civil War, came to Perth. Cromwell established a fortified citadel on the South Inch in 1652, one of five built around Scotland at this time to overawe and hold down the country. Perth's hospital, bridge and several dozen houses were demolished to provide building materials for this fort. Even grave slabs from the Greyfriars Burial Ground were used. It was given to the town in 1661 not long after Cromwell's death, and began almost immediately to be dismantled. The ditch, originally filled with water from the Tay, was still traceable in the late 18th century, but there are now no visible remains. The restoration of Charles II was not without incident, and with the Act of Settlement came the Jacobite risings, to which Perth was supportive. The town was occupied by Jacobite supporters thrice in total (1689, 1715 and 1745).
In 1760, a new building for Perth Academy was begun, and major industry came to the town, now with a population of 15,000. Linen, leather, bleached products and whisky were its major exports, although the town had been a key port for centuries. A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Queen's Barracks in 1793.[20]
In 1804, Thomas Dick received an invitation from local patrons to act as teacher in the Secession school at Methven that led to a ten-years residence there for him. The school was distinguished by efforts on his part towards popular improvement, including a zealous promotion of the study of science, the foundation of a people's library, and what was substantially a mechanic's institute. Under the name Literary and Philosophical Societies, adapted to the middling and lower ranks of the community, the extension of such establishments was recommended by him in five papers published in the Monthly Magazine in 1814.
The Perth Royal Infirmary was built in 1838 as the Perth City and County Infirmary. The original building, designed by William Macdonald Mackenzie, now houses the A. K. Bell Library. In 1914, it relocated to Taymount Terrace due to cramped conditions – making the hospital one of the first in Scotland to deal with X-rays.[21][22] Murray Royal Asylum was established in Perth via the will of James Murray (died 1814), and opened in 1827 as the Murray Royal Lunatic Asylum, with the original building being designed by William Burn. Originally designed to house 80 patients it was expanded several times in the next two centuries.[23] 1876 saw the foundation of what would become Hillside Home, a facility for patients with incurable conditions, which moved to Dundee Road in 1883 and functioned until 1997.[24] In 1888, Hillside gained a building for patients with tuberculosis and in 1901 Barnhill Sanatorium was opened.[24]
Piped water and gas became available in the 1820s, and electricity in 1901.
Despite being a garrison town and major developments, social and industrial, during the First World War, Perth remained relatively unchanged, according to Dr Bill Harding in his study of the effects of the war on the people of Perth, titled On Flows the Tay: Perth and the First World War (2000).
During the Second World War, Perth's main cemetery, Wellshill Cemetery, was enlarged to provide space for the war dead of the Free Polish Forces based in Scotland. The graves are in a special section of the cemetery. The gravestones have the Polish eagle engraved on them, and at the entrance to the section is a Polish war memorial.[25]
The Great Flood of Perth occurred on 17 January 1993, causing damage amounting to around £10 million.[26] The city installed flood defences, which were completed in 2001.[27]
In January 2023, the most deadly fire in Scotland since 2017 took place in Perth at the New County Hotel, resulting in three deaths and eleven injuries.[28][29]
Perthshire, officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south; it borders the counties of Inverness-shire and Aberdeenshire to the north, Angus to the east, Fife, Kinross-shire, Clackmannanshire, Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire to the south and Argyllshire to the west.
Perth is a centrally located Scottish city, on the banks of the River Tay. It is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and is the historic county town of Perthshire. It had a population of about 47,430 in 2018.
The Royal Mile is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century (1901), describing the city "with its Castle and Palace and the royal mile between", and was further popularised as the title of a guidebook by R. T. Skinner published in 1920, "The Royal Mile (Edinburgh) Castle to Holyrood(house)".
Abernethy is a village and former burgh in the Perth and Kinross council area and historic county of Perthshire, in the east central Lowlands of Scotland. The village is situated in rural Strathearn, 8 miles (13 km) south-east of the city of Perth, near the River Earn's confluence with the River Tay and on the northern edge of the Ochil Hills.
Liff is a village in Angus, Scotland, situated 4+1⁄2 miles west-northwest of Dundee on a south-facing slope two miles north of the River Tay. It had a population of 568 in 2011.
The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town.
A mercat cross is the Scots name for the market cross found frequently in Scottish cities, towns and villages where historically the right to hold a regular market or fair was granted by the monarch, a bishop or a baron. It therefore served a secular purpose as a symbol of authority, and was an indication of a burgh's relative prosperity. Historically, the term dates from the period before 1707, when the Kingdom of Scotland was an independent state, but it has been applied loosely to later structures built in the traditional architectural style of crosses or structures fulfilling the function of marking a settlement's focal point. Historical documents often refer simply to "the cross" of whichever town or village is mentioned. Today, there are around 126 known examples of extant crosses in Scotland, though the number rises if later imitations are added.
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland with a population of around 150,000 people. It is situated on the north bank of the Firth of Tay on the east coast of the Central Lowlands of Scotland. The Dundee area has been settled since the Mesolithic with evidence of Pictish habitation beginning in the Iron Age. During the Medieval Era the city became a prominent trading port and was the site of many battles. Throughout the Industrial Revolution, the local jute industry caused the city to grow rapidly. In this period, Dundee also gained prominence due to its marmalade industry and its journalism, giving Dundee its epithet as the city of "jute, jam and journalism".
John Mylne of Perth was a Scottish master mason who served as Master Mason to the Crown of Scotland. He was born in Perth, the son of John Mylne, also a master mason, and Helen Kenneries.
John Mylne was a Scottish master mason, the first of three successive generations of the name to serve as Master Mason to the Crown of Scotland. He was born in Dundee into a family of master builders. His great-grandfather, also John, had been Master Mason to both James III and James IV. He was the son of Thomas Mylne, Master Mason to the Crown and burgess of Dundee. His grandfather may have been Robert Mylne former provost of Dundee.
The Church of the Friars Preachers of Blessed Virgin and Saint Dominic at Perth, commonly called "Blackfriars", was a mendicant friary of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church founded in the 13th century at Perth, Scotland. The Dominicans were said by Walter Bower to have been brought to Scotland in 1230 by King Alexander II of Scotland, while John Spottiswood held that they were brought to Scotland by William de Malveisin, Bishop of St Andrews. Later tradition held that the Perth Dominican friary was founded by King Alexander II.
Scotland has eight cities. Edinburgh is the capital city and Glasgow is the most populous. Scottish towns were granted burghs or royal burgh status by Scottish kings, including by David I of Scotland and William the Lion.
Scone is a town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The medieval town of Scone, which grew up around the monastery and royal residence, was abandoned in the early 19th century when the residents were removed and a new palace was built on the site by the Earl of Mansfield. Hence the modern village of Scone, and the medieval village of Old Scone, can often be distinguished.
There have been several town walls around Edinburgh, Scotland, since the 12th century. Some form of wall probably existed from the foundation of the royal burgh in around 1125, though the first building is recorded in the mid-15th century, when the King's Wall was constructed. In the 16th century the more extensive Flodden Wall was erected, following the Scots' defeat at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. This was extended by the Telfer Wall in the early 17th century. The walls had a number of gates, known as ports, the most important being the Netherbow Port, which stood halfway down what is now the Royal Mile. This gave access from the Canongate which was, at that time, a separate burgh.
Scotland in the late Middle Ages, between the deaths of Alexander III in 1286 and James IV in 1513, established its independence from England under figures including William Wallace in the late 13th century and Robert Bruce in the 14th century. In the 15th century under the Stewart Dynasty, despite a turbulent political history, the Crown gained greater political control at the expense of independent lords and regained most of its lost territory to approximately the modern borders of the country. However, the Auld Alliance with France led to the heavy defeat of a Scottish army at the Battle of Flodden in 1513 and the death of the king James IV, which would be followed by a long minority and a period of political instability.
The Howff is a burial ground in the city of Dundee, Scotland. Established in 1564, it has one of the most important collections of tombstones in Scotland, and is protected as a category A listed building.
Government in medieval Scotland, includes all forms of politics and administration of the minor kingdoms that emerged after the departure of the Romans from central and southern Britain in the fifth century, through the development and growth of the combined Scottish and Pictish kingdom of Alba into the kingdom of Scotland, until the adoption of the reforms of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century.
Walter Binning, or Bynning was a painter in 16th-century Edinburgh.
The vennels of Perth are a collection of small medieval streets in the city of Perth, Scotland. Similar to York's Snickelways, vennels are a public right-of-way passageway between the gables of buildings which can, in effect, be a minor street. In Scotland, the term originated in royal burghs created in the twelfth century, the word deriving from the Old French word venelle meaning "alley" or "lane". Unlike a tenement entry to private property, known as a "close", a vennel was a public way leading from a typical high street to the open ground beyond the burgage plots. The Latin form is venella, related to the English word "funnel".
↑ Smith, David Crawford (1906). The Historians of Perth, and Other Local and Topographical Writers, Up to the End of the Nineteenth Century. J. Christie. p.3.
1 2 3 McRoberts, David (2010). "Material Destruction Caused by the Scottish Reformation". Innes Review. 10 (1). Edinburgh University Press: 126–172. doi:10.3366/inr.1959.10.1.126.
↑ George William Cullen Gross, '1651: The Last Coronation in Scotland', Court Historian, 26:3 (December, 2021), pp. 229-245 doi:10.1080/14629712.2021.1996947
↑ "Perth". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
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