Perthshire


Perthshire or the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland.
Geographically Perthshire 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.
Prominent settlements include the city of Perth, the county town, as well as smaller towns such as Auchterarder, Blairgowrie and Rattray, Crieff, Dunblane and Scone. Perthshire is known as the "big county", or "the Shire", due to its roundness and status as the fourth largest historic county in Scotland. It has a wide variety of landscapes, from the rich agricultural straths in the east, to the high mountains of the southern Highlands.
Perthshire was formerly an administrative county until being combined in 1930 with neighbouring Kinross-shire under a joint county council, prior to the administrative counties being abolished in 1975. Today, much of the two counties form part of the Perth and Kinross council area.

History

Administrative history

Perthshire's origins as a shire are obscure, but it seems to have been created during the reign of David I.
The Sheriff of Perth had authority over several provinces, including Atholl, Breadalbane, Gowrie, Menteith and Strathearn. Over time, Scotland's shires became more significant than the old provinces, with more administrative functions being given to the sheriffs. In 1667 Commissioners of Supply were established for each shire, which would serve as the main administrative body for the area until the creation of county councils in 1890. Following the Acts of Union in 1707, the English term "county" came to be used interchangeably with the older term "shire".
Elected county councils were established in 1890 under the Local Government Act 1889, taking most of the functions of the commissioners. The burgh of Perth was deemed capable of managing its own affairs and so was excluded from the administrative area of the county council, although the county council still chose to base itself there. Perthshire County Council held its first official meeting on 22 May 1890 at Perth Sheriff Court, then also known as County Buildings, the courthouse which also served as the meeting place for the commissioners.
The 1889 Act also led to a review of boundaries, with exclaves being transferred to a county they actually bordered, and parishes which straddled more than one county being adjusted such that each parish was entirely in a single county. There were several such changes affecting the boundaries of Perthshire, notably including the exclaves of Culross and Tulliallan being transferred to Fife.
Reforms in 1930 under the Local Government Act 1929 saw the burgh of Perth brought within the administrative area of the county council, and merged the county councils of Perthshire and the neighbouring small county of Kinross-shire for most purposes. The two county councils continued to be elected as separate bodies, but operated together as the "Perth and Kinross Joint County Council", serving the combined area of the two counties.
As part of the same reforms, the county council took over the functions of the abolished Perthshire Education Authority. The education authority had bought the former County and City Infirmary on York Place in Perth in 1920 to serve as its headquarters; after 1930 it served as the headquarters of the joint county council, and was renamed County Offices.
Perthshire was abolished as an administrative area in 1975 under the Local Government Act 1973. It was split between the Central and Tayside Regions:
  • West Perthshire was included in the Stirling District of the Central Region.
  • The parish of Muckhart was made part of Clackmannan District, also in the Central Region.
  • Longforgan was included in the City of Dundee District, in the Tayside Region.
  • The remainder of Perthshire was combined with Kinross-shire and the Angus parish of Kettins to form the Perth and Kinross District Council in Tayside.
The two-tier system introduced in 1975 was superseded by a system of unitary authorities in 1996. The districts of Tayside and Central Scotland all became unitary authorities, with Longforgan being transferred from Dundee to Perth and Kinross. The majority of historic Perthshire lies in Perth and Kinross. The exceptions are the southwestern part that is now in the Stirling council area and a few parishes that are now in Clackmannanshire. Perth and Kinross also contains some areas that were not historically in Perthshire, such as Kinross-shire. The lieutenancy areas in the area of historic Perthshire are mostly coterminous with the council areas, the exception being that the Stirling council area forms part of a larger Stirling and Falkirk lieutenancy. The boundaries of the historic county of Perthshire are still used for some limited official purposes connected with land registration, being a registration county.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of the County of Perth appears to have been granted for use on the colours and standards of the volunteer and militia units of the county raised at the end of the eighteenth century. The Earl of Kinnoull, a native of Perthshire, and commanding officer of the Perthshire Gentlemen and Yeomanry Cavalry, was also Lord Lyon King of Arms at the time, and he presented the arms to the county in 1800. The grant document was discovered in the Lyon Office in 1890, and forwarded to the newly formed Perth County Council.
The shield is very similar to the Scottish royal arms, reflecting that Perthshire was the home county of the House of Dunkeld and contains the former royal capital, Scone. Further royal references are made on the canton, which shows Scone Palace surmounted by the Crown of Scotland. The crest is a Highland soldier, reflecting that the famous Black Watch were formed in the county. The supporters are an eagle and a warhorse, the former from the arms of the city of Perth.

Burghs

By the 1890s the county contained the following burghs, which were largely outside the county council's jurisdiction:
  • Royal Burgh of Perth
  • Burgh of Auchterarder
  • Burgh of Aberfeldy
  • Burgh of Abernethy
  • Burgh of Alyth
  • Burgh of Blairgowrie
  • Burgh of Rattray
  • Burgh of Callander
  • Burgh of Coupar Angus
  • Burgh of Crieff
  • Burgh of Doune
  • Burgh of Dunblane
The Local Government Act 1929 divided burghs into two classes from 1930: large burghs, which were to gain extra powers from the county council, and small burghs which lost many of their responsibilities.
Of the twelve burghs in Perthshire, only Perth was made a large burgh. There were ten small burghs: Blairgowrie and Rattray being united into a single burgh. In 1947 Pitlochry was created a small burgh.

Civil parishes

In 1894 parish councils were established for the civil parishes, replacing the previous parochial boards.
The parish councils were in turn replaced by district councils in 1930.
Following the boundary changes caused by the Local Government Act 1889, the county contained the following civil parishes:
  • Aberdaugie
  • Aberfeldy
  • Aberfoyle
  • Abernethy
  • Abernyte
  • Alyth
  • Ardoch
  • Arngask
  • Auchterarder
  • Auchtergaven Moneydie
  • Balquhidder
  • Bankfoot
  • Bendochy
  • Blackford
  • Blair Atholl
  • Blairgowrie and Rattray
  • Blairmacgregor
  • Callander
  • Caputh
  • Cargill
  • Clunie
  • Collace
  • Comrie
  • Coupar Angus
  • Crieff
  • Dowally
  • Dron
  • Dull
  • Dunbarney
  • Dunblane and Lecropt
  • Dunkeld and Dowally
  • Dunning
  • Errol
  • Findo Gask
  • Forgandenny
  • Forteviot
  • Fortingall
  • Foss or Fossoway or Crook of Devon
  • Fowlis Easter
  • Fowlis Wester
  • Glendevon
  • Glen Shee
  • Inchture
  • Innerwick
  • Killin
  • Kilmadock
  • Kilspindie
  • Kincardine
  • Kinclaven
  • Kinfauns Kinfauns Castle
  • Kinloch
  • Kinnaird, Gowrie
  • Kinnoull
  • Kirkmichael
  • Lethendy
  • Little Dunkeld
  • Logiealmond
  • Logierait
  • Longforgan
  • Madderty
  • Meigle
  • Methven
  • Moneydie and Auchtergaven
  • Monzie or *Monzievaird and Strowan
  • Moulin
  • Muckhart
  • Muthill
  • Persie
  • Perth
  • Port of Menteith
  • Blairgowrie and Rattray
  • Redgorton
  • Rhynd
  • St Madoes
  • St Martins
  • Scone
  • Stanley
  • Strathfillian
  • Strathloch
  • Tenandry
  • Tibbermore
  • Trinity Gask
  • Tullybelton
  • Weem

    Districts

In 1930 the landward area of the Local Government councils was divided into five districts, replacing the parish councils established in 1894:
  • Central District
  • Eastern District
  • Highland District
  • Perth District
  • Western District

    Language

Perthshire historically straddled the "Highland line" separating the English-speaking and Gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland. Until the 19th century it was linguistically divided between the "mountainous, sparsely-populated and largely Gaelic-speaking parishes to the north and west and predominantly arable, densely-settled, and chiefly English-speaking parishes to the south and east".
Linguistic data for Perthshire is limited before the 17th century. Based on James Kirkwood's assessment of Highland parishes for his Scottish Gaelic Bible project, it has been estimated that around 45 percent of Perthshire spoke Gaelic in 1698. The decline in the use of Gaelic accelerated rapidly in the early 19th century. In the 1881 United Kingdom census, the first to count Scottish Gaelic speakers, Gaelic was recorded as spoken "habitually" by 12.1 percent of Perthshire residents. This had declined to 1.7 percent by the 1971 census.
Perthshire Gaelic has existed as a distinct dialect since at least the 16th century, when the Book of the Dean of Lismore was published. Lady Evelyn Stewart Murray compiled Perthshire Gaelic folk tales and songs in the late 19th century, a collection now held by the School of Scottish Studies. Alexandra Stewart of Glen Lyon, a reputed direct descendant of Allan Breck Stewart was obituarised in 1991 as the "last surviving native speaker of Perthshire Gaelic", although this status was uncertain. In the 20th century, a revival of Scottish Gaelic in Perthshire was led by Elizabeth McDiarmid.