Crieff - History

History

For a number of centuries Highlanders came south to Crieff to sell their black cattle whose meat and hides were avidly sought by the growing urban populations in Lowland Scotland and the north of England. The town acted as a gathering point or tryst for the Michaelmas cattle sale held each year and the surrounding fields and hillsides were black with the tens of thousands of cattle - some from as far away as Caithness and the Outer Hebrides (for comparison, in 1790 the population of Crieff was about 1,200 which led to a ratio of tens cows per person, similar to the sheep/human ratio in New Zealand).

During the October Tryst (as the cattle gathering was known), Crieff was the prototype 'wild west' town. Milling with the cattle were horse thieves, bandits and drunken drovers. The inevitable killings were punished on the Kind Gallows, for which Crieff became known throughout Europe.

By the eighteenth century the original hanging tree used by the Earls of Strathearn had been replaced by a formal wooden structure in an area called Gallowhaugh - now Gallowhill, at the bottom of Burrell Street. What is now Ford Road was Gallowford Road which led down past the gallows to the crossing point over the River Earn. In such a prominent position, Highlanders passing along the principal route would see the remains of so punished dangling overhead. The Highlanders used to touch their bonnets as they passed the place, with the words: "God bless you, and the Devil damn you." In Lord Macaulay's history he talks of a score of plaids hanging in a row, but the remains of the Gallows - held in Perth Museum - suggest the maximum capacity was only six. Crieff's Parish Church had a strong Episcopalian dominance from the Reformation in 1560 up until the " Revolution " of 1688 . In 1682 William Murray, ignored the Presbytery and brought Episcopalian format into worship including the Lords Prayer and the Doxology .The Apostles Creed was also used at Baptisms . After the Jacobite victory at Killiecrankie, Murray quoted the 118th Psalm " This is the day God made, in it we'll joy triumphantly ".

Rob Roy MacGregor visited Crieff on many occasions, often to sell cattle. 'Rob Roy's outlaw son' was pursued through the streets of Crieff by soldiers and killed. In the second week of October 1714 the Highlanders gathered in Crieff for the October Tryst. By day Crieff was full of soldiers and government spies. Just after midnight, Rob Roy and his men marched to Crieff Town Square and rang the town bell. In front of the gathering crowd they sang Jacobite songs and drank a good many loyal toasts to their uncrowned King James VIII.

In 1716, 350 Highlanders returning from the Battle of Sheriffmuir burned most of Crieff to the ground. In 1731, James Drummond, 3rd Duke of Perth, laid out the town's central James Square and established a textile industry with a flax factory. In the 1745 rising the Highlanders were itching to fire the town again and were reported as saying "she should be a bra toun gin she had anither sing". But it was saved by the Duke of Perth - a friend and supporter of Prince Charles. In February 1746 the Jacobite army was quartered in and around the town with Prince Charles Edward Stuart holding his final war council in the old Drummond Arms Inn in James Square - located behind the present hotel in Hill Street. He also had his horse shod in the blacksmith's in King Street. Later in the month he reviewed his troops in front of Ferntower House, on what is today the Crieff Golf Course.

In the nineteenth century Crieff became a fashionable destination for tourists visiting the Highlands and as a country retreat for wealthy businessmen from Edinburgh, Glasgow and beyond. Many such visitors attended the hydropathic establishment, Crieff Hypopathic Establishment there, now Crieff Hydro which opened in 1868, and remains in operation. Crieff still functions as a tourist centre, and the large villas stand as testaments to its use by wealthy city-dwellers.

Crieff was once served by Crieff railway station. The station was opened in 1856 by the Crieff Junction Railway, but was closed in 1964 by British Railways as part of the Beeching Axe.