Perthshire

Perthshire
Perthshire within Scotland
Area
• 1975	2528 sq. miles (6547 sq. km) (5th)
History
• Succeeded by	Tayside Region
Status	Local government county (until 1975) Land registration county (1996 - )
Chapman code	PER
Government	County: Perthshire County Council (1890-1929) Perth and Kinross County Council (1929-1975) Modern: Perth and Kinross Council (1996 - ) Lieutenancy: Lord Lieutenant of Perth and Kinross
• HQ	Perth (county town and administrative centre)
• Motto	Pro Lege et Libertate ('For Law and Liberty')
Coat of arms of the county council

Perthshire (/pɛrθʃər/; Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. 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 was a local government county from 1890 to 1930.

Perthshire is known as the "big county", owed to its roundness and status as the 4th 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.

Administrative History

Perthshire was an administrative county between 1890 and 1975, governed by a county council. This Local Government council was superseded in 1930, when a joint Local Government council was formed with the neighbouring small county of Kinross-shire, linking the two.

In 1975 this Local Government council was in turn superseded by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and split between the Local Government Central and Tayside Regions:

• West Perthshire (the area west and south of Killin including Callander, Crianlarich and Aberfoyle) was included in the Stirling District of Central Region.
• The parish of Muckhart and Glendevon was made part of Clackmannan District Council, also in Central Region Council.
• Longforgan was included in the City of Dundee District, in Tayside Region Council.
• The remainder of the council was combined with the council of Kinross and the Angus parish of Kettins to form 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The two-tier system introduced in 1975 was superseded by a system of unitary authorities in 1996.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 area of the former council is now divided between the Local Government council areas of Clackmannanshire, Perth and Kinross and Stirling.

The area included in Dundee in 1975 was transferred to Perth and Kinross.

Boundaries

Prior to the 1890s Perthshire's boundaries were irregular: the parishes of Culross and Tulliallan formed an exclave some miles away from the rest of the county, on the boundaries of Clackmannanshire and Fife; while the northern part of the parish of Logie formed an enclave of Stirlingshire within the county.

Following the recommendations of the council boundary commission appointed under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, Culross and Tulliallan were transferred to Fife, and the entire parish of Logie was included in Stirlingshire.

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.^[1] 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:

The Local Government (Scotland) 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

Perthshire and Clackmannanshire. c.1851. https://archive.org/stream/imperialgazettee02wilsuoft#page/n648/mode/1up Parishes outlined in red

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 (Scotland) Act 1889, the county contained the following civil parishes:

Towns and villages

Bridge of Earn from Moncreiffe Hill

Perthshire includes the City of Perth and the following other towns and villages (see also Civil Parish list):

Other towns and villages

Some others listed in alphabetical order in the Land Register Counties :^[2]

Districts

In 1930 the landward area of the Local Government councils (the part outside of burgh boundaries) was divided into five districts, replacing the parish councils established in 1894:

• Central District
• Eastern District
• Highland District
• Perth District
• Western District

Parliamentary constituencies

Following the Act of Union, Perthshire returned members to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1708.

1707 - 1885

• The Royal Burgh of Perth originally formed part of the Perth burghs constituency along with burghs in Fife and Forfarshire. The Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1832 made Perth a separate burgh constituency.
• The remainder of the county returned a single member as the parliamentary county of Perthshire. The parishes of Tulliallan, Culross, Muckhart, and the Perthshire portions of the parishes of Logie and Fossaway were annexed to constituency of Clackmannanshire and Kinross in 1832.

1885 - 1918

In 1885 seats in the House of Commons were redistributed: Perthshire received three seats.

• Perth remained a burgh constituency.
• Perthshire Eastern
• Perthshire Western

1918 - 1975

In 1918 there was a further redistribution. Perthshire was combined with Kinross-shire to form a parliamentary county, divided into two constituencies:

• Perth constituency consisted of the burgh of Perth, the former Eastern constituency and part of the Western constituency. In 1950 it was renamed Perth and East Perthshire. The area included in the constituency was defined in 1948 and 1970 as the burghs of Perth, Abernethy, Alyth, Blairgowrie and Rattray and Coupar Angus; and the Eastern and Perth districts of the county of Perth.^[3]
• Kinross and Western Perthshire: the constituency consisted of the entire County of Kinross, the burghs of Aberfeldy, Auchterarder, Callander, Crieff, Doune, Dunblane and Pitlochry; and the Central, Highland and Western districts of the county of Perth.^[3]

These boundaries continued in use until 1983, when new constituencies were formed based on the Local Government regions and districts created in 1975.

Famous places

Notable people

Rivers

Mountains

Ben Vrackie: View west to the Lawers range, Schiehallion, lochs Tummel and Rannoch, and very distant Glen Coe peaks

Glens and straths

Schools

Surnames

Most common surnames in Perthshire at the time of the United Kingdom Census of 1881,^[4] by order of incidence:

1. Robertson
2. Stewart
3. Campbell
4. McGregor
5. McDonald
6. Cameron
7. McLaren
8. Anderson
9. Smith
10. Ferguson

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Towns and villages in Perth and Kinross.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Perth, Scotland.

External links

• Perth 800
• "Perthshire" from A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland by Samuel Lewis, London, 1846 (British History Online)
• Perth & Kinross Council
• A Vision of Britain Through Time: A vision of Perth and Kinross

Coordinates: 56°30′N 4°00′W / 56.500°N 4.000°W / 56.500; -4.000