Auchterarder, Scotland

Auchterarder (Gaelic, upper high land ) is situated on the Ruthven Water, a right-hand tributary of the Earn. The chief industries were those of tartans and other woollens, and of agricultural implements. At the beginning of the 13th century it obtained a charter from the earl of Strathearn, afterwards it became a royal burgh for a period. Its castle, now ruined, was built as a hunting-lodge for Malcolm Canmore, but of the abbey which it also possessed as early as the reign of Alexander II., no remains exist. The ancient church of St Mungo, now in ruins, was a building in the Norman or Early Pointed style.

The town was almost entirely burned down by the earl of Mar in 1716 during the abortive Jacobite rising. It was in connection with this parish that the ecclesiastical dispute arose which led to the dissruption in the Church of Scotland in 1843.

The old castle, now in ruins, was dismantled in 1645 by the Marquis of Argyll in retaliation for the destruction of another castle. The old ruined castle of Tullibardine, 2 miles west of the burgh once belonged to the Murrays of Tullibardine, ancestors of the duke Atholl, who derived the title of marquis of Tullibardine fromthe estate. The ancient chapel adjoining, also ruinous, was a burial-place of the Murrays.

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