Murthly Castle

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Murtly Castle, a seat of Sir Archibald Douglas Stewart, Bart., in Little Dunkeld parish, Perthshire, near the right bank of the Tay, 4¼ miles ESE of Dunkeld and 2¼ WNW of Murtly station on the Highland railway, this being 10½ miles N by W of Perth, and having a post and telegraph office. Old Murtly Castle, said to have been a hunting-seat of the kings of Scotland, includes a keep of unknown antiquity and a beautiful modern addition. Its interior is richly adorned with paintings and other works of art. A little to the S is the new castle, a splendid Elizabethan structure, designed by Gillespie Graham, which, however, was left unfinished at the death of the sixth baronet in 1838, and is hardly likely ever to be completed. The small pre-Reformation chapel of St Anthony the Eremite, to the N of the old castle, in 1846 was gorgeously restored for a Catholic place of worship. It is now dismantled, but is occasionally used as a Protestant place of worship. Between the two castles is a fine garden, laid out in 1669, and retaining much of its old Dutch character, with terraces, pools, and clipped hedges. The grounds are of singular beauty, both natural and artificial, with the 'Dead Walk' or ancient yew-tree avenue, the Douglasii Avenue, the Lime Avenue (1711), the Deodara or Sunk Terrace, and every variety of hill and dell, wood and stream, carriage-drive and sequestered walk. Perth Lunatic Asylum, ¼ mile N of Murtly station, was erected in 1864 at a cost of £30, 000, and, as lately enlarged at a cost of nearly £10, 000, has accommodation for 300 inmates. The grounds, comprising some 60 acres, are tastefully laid out.—Ord. Sur., sh. 48, 1868. See Grantully, and chap. vi. of Thomas Hunter's Woods and Estates of Perthshire (Perth, 1883).

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Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer