Montrose ( ; ) is an historic coastal town and former royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. It is situated north of Dundee and south of Aberdeen, Montrose lies between the mouths of the North and South Esk rivers. It is the northernmost coastal town in Angus and developed as a natural harbour that traded in skins, hides, and cured salmon in medieval times.
With a population of 11,251 in 2022, it makes it the third most-populous settlement in Angus. The town functions as a port, but the major employer is GlaxoSmithKline, which was saved from closure in 2006. The skyline of Montrose is dominated by the steeple of Old and St Andrew's Church, designed by James Gillespie Graham and built between 1832 and 1834.
Montrose is a town with a wealth of architecture, and is a centre for international trade. It is an important commercial port for the oil and gas industry. It is known for its wide thoroughfare and high street, which leads to picturesque closes containing secluded gardens. The town has a view of a tidal lagoon, Montrose Basin, which is considered a nature reserve of international importance. It is the largest inland salt water basin in the UK, and an important habitat for the mute swan. Just outside Montrose is the 18th-century House of Dun, designed by the Scottish architect William Adam and built in 1730 for David Erskine, Lord Dun, 13th Laird of Dun.
History
Toponymy and early history
Prehistoric elements are found in the vicinity of Montrose, including the Stone of Morphie located to the north.C. Michael Hogan, Stone of Morphie, 2007, Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham One ancient name for Montrose was Celurca.Mitchell (1866), p. 1 The place-name is formed from the Scottish Gaelic Moine (meaning moor or peat moss) and Ros (meaning peninsula or promontory), perhaps ultimately of Pictish origin. The first documentary evidence of the existence of Montrose is the burgh charter issued by David I, ′who founded the town around 1140 as Sallorch or Sallork."The Royal Burgh of Montrose", Angus Council By 1178 the name had taken the form Munross before becoming Montrose.A.D Mills, A Dictionary of British Place-Names. Oxford University Press. 2003. Folk etymology attributes the origin of the town's name as "Mount of Roses". This is reflected by the motto on the town's seal: Mare ditat, rosa decorat. Rev. Mr. Alexander Molleson, "Town and Parish of Montrose", The Statistical Accounts of Scotland (1791–99), Vol.5, p. 24 (English: The sea enriches, the rose adorns)
Medieval history Montrose was visited and plundered in numerous instances by Danes. In 980 it was sacked and razed to the ground.Mitchell (1866), p6 It was once believed that a castle had existed in Montrose in the 10th century and was destroyed by Kenneth III. However the authenticity of this account has been disputed.Andrew Jervise, "Memorials of Angus and the Mearns"
In the two subsequent centuries there are no precise dates in its history. During the 1140s it was an important trading town. The trading revenues received from Montrose as well as Forfar and Dundee were acquired by Malcolm IV and contributed to Restenneth Priory. In 1178 William the Lion built a castle nearby in which he would occasionally reside. The ruins have acquired the name Red Castle. The last record of a charter there was in 1198.Mitchell (1866), p. 8 A convent dedicated to the Virgin Mary is said to have been founded in 1230 by Alan Durward but the precise location is unknown. In 1244 the town succumbed to fire.
In July 1296Angus Council, "The Royal Burgh of Montrose" during the Wars of Independence, Edward I of England visited the town with 30,000 of his men and stayed at Munros castle for three nights. Some accounts state that it was there that he humiliated the Scottish king, John de Balliol, by publicly stripping him of his royal insignia and status; other accounts claim that this occurred in Brechin. Twelve burgesses of the town swore allegiance to Edward I to protect themselves and the community of the town. The following year the castle, which was manned by an English garrison, was destroyed by William Wallace who is said to have slain all soldiers in sight. The site of the castle, known as Castlestead, is at the southern end of the High Street. David II visited it towards the end of his reign in 1371. The Dukedom of Montrose was created in 1488.
During the 15th century, the inhabitants of the town found themselves increasingly under heel of the Lairds of Dun who ransacked and took possession of property and cattle. The lairds are said to have arrived in the middle of one night on horseback heavily armed. The burghesses of the town immediately sent out an appeal to the Duke of Montrose for protection but the messenger was purportedly murdered before the appeal arrived. It was then that James IV of Scotland intervened and settled the matter.
Modern history
From its early inception as a port Montrose had traded in skins, hides and cured salmon, and in the 17th century Montrose also began to export wheat and barley in regular trading transactions with the Hanseatic League. The town imported flax and timber from the Baltic; salt, fruit and wine from France and Portugal. The wealth this brought to the town is demonstrated in the surviving houses built by landowning and merchant families, as well as local street names of "America Street", "California Street", "Baltic Street" and "India Street" evidencing its trading heritage.
The site of the castle, now known as Castlestead, was the birthplace of the famous James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose. Graham signed the National Covenant against Charles I's reorganisation of the Kirk in Scotland, fighting in the ensuing Bishops' Wars, but later switched to the king's side, only to be captured and executed in Edinburgh in 1650.
Between 1677 and the summer of 1678, Dronner, a Dutch engineer, began to build a dyke across the Montrose Basin, designed to drain and reclaim the northern half of the basin. However the dyke was destroyed in a storm soon afterwards. One of the most vocal objectors to the scheme was the elderly Meggie Cowie, who was said to have made blasphemous comments to those who were involved. She was tried for witchcraft, found guilty, and burnt at the stake on 14 January 1679. 1715 and 1745 rebellions
The final chapter of the ill-fated 1715 Jacobite rebellion was also played out in Montrose. Towards the end of the uprising (which had lasted nearly six months, from September 1715 to February 1716) James Francis Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender; formerly James, Prince of Wales) arrived in Montrose, where he spent his last night in Scotland, on 4 February 1716. He sailed from Montrose to exile in France. The town was held for his son, Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie; the Young Pretender), 30 years later and in February 1746 the largest naval battle of the war was fought in Montrose Harbour. Smuggling and prosperity from trade During the 18th century the town was a major smuggling centre. It profited from the slave trade, but only for a brief time. The wealth accrued by trade was substantial. Wealthy merchants in the 18th and 19th centuries dominated the town and built their houses gable to gable. Hence Montrosians have inherited the sobriquet, "gable-enders".Alan Murphy, Scotland, Footprint Travel Guides. 2004, p504 A statistical account taken between 1791 and 1799 estimates the population in the 1750s as 4,248; in 1776 as 4,465; in 1784 as 4,866 and in 1790 as 5,194. Contemporaries expected that many would emigrate at the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, but those who did leave were few. Revd Mr Alexander Molleson, "Town and Parish of Montrose", The Statistical Accounts of Scotland (1791–99), Vol.5, p. 32
Samuel Johnson made a tour of the town on his visit to Scotland in the 1770s. He said of it:
Lunatic asylum Alexander Christie (c. 1721–1794) was provost in the town during the 1760s and 1780s and oversaw the establishment of Scotland's first lunatic asylum in Montrose in 1781Angus Council, "Provost Alexander Christie of Montrose (c 1721–1794)" which eventually became known as Sunnyside Royal Hospital. The asylum, initially called Montrose Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary and Dispensary, was founded by Susan Carnegie of Charleton to treat both paupers and private patients, and was originally situated on Montrose Links. It was granted a royal charter in 1810. In 1858 it moved to Sunnyside farm at the nearby village of Hillside. Its facilities were expanded several times in the next few decades, and it underwent various changes in name, finally becoming Sunnyside Royal Hospital in 1962. Sunnyside remained in use for the treatment of people with mental illnesses until its final closure in 2011 when many of its patients and functions moved to the Susan Carnegie Centre at Stracathro Hospital.
In 1785 a subscription library for learned men was formed. Rev. Mr. Alexander Molleson, "Town and Parish of Montrose", The Statistical Accounts of Scotland (1791–99), Vol.5, p. 35
20th century Before World War I the Royal Flying Corps established a base at Montrose (later RAF Montrose). On 26 February 1913, it became the first operational military aerodrome to be established in the United Kingdom. The following results for Montrose in the years before the First World War were obtained from the annual reports of the Fishery Board.
Between the wars, Montrose was a focus for key figures of the Scottish Renaissance.Riach, Alan (2016), Modernist Montrose: Scotland’s 1920s Capital of Culture! In 1920, a young Christopher Murray Grieve (later Hugh MacDiarmid) was employed as a reporter on the Montrose Review. By 1922 he had been elected as an Independent Labour Party councillor. The poet and novelist Violet Jacob was brought up at the nearby House of Dun and spent time in Angus during the 1920s. The sculptor William Lamb was born in Montrose and returned to the town in 1924.
Another native of Montrose, the writer Tom MacDonald (Fionn MacColla) returned to Montrose in 1929, as did his friend the painter Edward Baird. Willa and Edwin Muir lived at her mother's house in Montrose at various times during the 1920s. The poet Helen Cruickshank attended Montrose Academy, though she had moved to Edinburgh by the 1920s. She was a key figure in maintaining the network of contacts between writers and artists of Scotland's inter-war cultural renaissance.Fraser, Linda J. & Benvie, Rachel H.F. (2015), Ideas o' Their Ain: Montrose and the Scottish Renaissance, Angus Council Museums and Galleries,
During World War II Montrose became a hub for a constant stream of international pilots from all over the Commonwealth, Poland, Czechoslovakia, America, Russia, France and other allied nations. As well as a training base, RAF Montrose was also an operational airfield for Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire squadrons, which flew sorties over Norway and were a part of the air defences of Edinburgh. Of course, this also made the town a target for German aircraft, and it was bombed on more than one occasion. Despite its coastal location presenting a danger, large numbers of children and young mothers from Dundee were evacuated there during the period of the Phoney War. Initially numbers totalled around 2,000; but in a second wave around 1,200 more were sent.Forbes Inglis, "An Invasion of Montrose", Montrose Review, 20 August 2009. As was the case in many other receiving areas, the local population was concerned by the condition of the urban poor, and impetigo and vermin were found on some of those evacuated. By June 1940 Montrose could no longer provide shelter.
Montrose was a royal burgh until 1975.Gazetteer of Scottish Places
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