Alyth () () is a town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, northeast of Blairgowrie and about northwest of Dundee. In 2022 the town had an estimated population of 3,046.
First mentioned by name in a 12th-century royal charter of William the Lion, Alyth for many centuries was an important market town and entrepôt on long-established drove roads by which Highland farmers brought their sheep and cattle to lowland markets. Another royal charter in 1488, from James III of Scotland granted Alyth the status of Burgh of Barony entitled to stage markets and fairs. The 17th-century stone Packhorse Bridge still stands in the middle of the town (now pedestrian-only), later joined by two other stone bridges for wheeled traffic, emphasising the settlement's importance as a river-crossing.
Agricultural improvements and expanding markets for livestock in the south contributed to Alyth's prosperity during the 18th and early 19th centuries, while water-power provided by the Alyth Burn plus, later, steam-power helped the development of a local textile industry specialising in linen. Steam power also brought the Alyth Railway to the town in 1861, accompanied by growth during the later 19th century in retailing along with hotels for holidaymakers, golfers and country sports enthusiasts.
Today, industry has largely gone, but Alyth retains many shops and businesses serving the local area. The town also has a flourishing community of artists and a growing tourism economy.
The boundaries of Alyth Community Council also encompass the hamlet of New Alyth (population c350), about southwest of the town, together with a handful of smaller hamlets and steadings giving a total population of just over 3,000.
History and archaeology In late medieval times Scottish kings used the nearby Forest of Alyth for hunting during their progress around the country. They probably occupied the royal castle of Inverquiech just east of the town (where Edward I of England stayed during his campaign against the Scots in 1296) or the castle of Corb, a royal hunting-lodge in Glenshee in the north-west of the Forest.
north of Alyth is Bamff House which has been held by the Ramsay family since 1232, when King Alexander II granted the estate to his physician Nessus de Ramsay. Bamff today is an ecotourism destination and, since 2002, home to a reintroduced population of wild beavers. Bamff is currently undergoing a major 'rewilding' project.
Alyth's Pack Bridge (intended to carry packhorses loaded with sidebags or panniers across the burn) is one of the oldest masonry bridges in Scotland and is shown on maps as far back as 1600.
During the Anglo-Scottish war (1650–1652), part of the War of the Three Kingdoms, the town was the scene of a dramatic incident known as the ‘Onfall of Alyth’ (28 August 1651). The town had been chosen as the rendezvous for the Committee of Estates, effectively the Scottish government at that time, to organise resistance to the English Parliamentarian invasion forces under General Monck, then besieging Dundee. The committee was betrayed and surprised by a force of Parliamentarian cavalry, and in the fighting that ensued the Earl of Leven (commander of the Scottish forces), the Earl of Crawford, the Earl Marischal, Lord Nairne and other prominent persons, including the Minister of Alyth, Rev. John Rattray, were captured and sent to the Tower of London. This event temporarily extinguished the Scottish government of the time.
Next to the Pack Bridge, on Pitnacree Street, is the site of one of the town's two textile mills. In the 18th century, Alyth became heavily involved in flax processing for the linen textile industry, and spinning and especially hand-loom weaving dominated local employment.
The Alyth Arches, visible from the centre of the town looking north, stand on the site of what is probably Alyth's oldest Christian church dating back to the 6th century and dedicated to St Moluag, a contemporary of St Columba. They formed part of the old parish church, which was abandoned in 1839 when the present fine new church was erected 200 yards to the west. There are also a number of graves, some of which are of notable local people, including James Sandy, the inventor of the invisible hinge.
The current parish church building, completed in 1839 to the design of Edinburgh architect Thomas Hamilton, dominates the skyline of the town. It is Gothic in style, with Romanesque influences, especially in the windows, and has an unusually high spire. Inside the church is the funerary hatchment of Sir George Ramsay (sixth baronet of Bamff) who was killed in a duel at Musselburgh, in April 1790 - one of the last duelling deaths in Scotland. In the church porch is preserved a late 7th-early 8th-century Pictish cross-slab, with a decorated cross on one face and a single Pictish symbol ('double disc and Z-rod') on the other. It was discovered in Alyth in 1887 when ground was being levelled in front of the manse.
Alyth retains a physical link with the Napoleonic Wars in the form of a church bell from Brittany. It was captured in 1810 from a French frigate taken by HMS Horatio and was sent as a gift to Alyth by John Warden, a son of the owner of the Bamff Arms, who served on the ship. It remains on display in Alyth Town Hall.
During the Second World War, Alyth formed a close bond with units of the Polish armed forces in exile formed from troops escaping from the Nazi conquest of Poland. There was an active Scottish-Polish Society branch in the town, and several memorials were erected to commemorate the bond.
Across the road from the entrance to the Alyth Arches stands the town's old mercat cross, which served as a symbolic representation of the right to hold a regular market or fair. The main annual market was held on St Moluag's name day (25 June) every year in the vicinity of the church and nearby Woolmarket.
In the middle of the new Pitcrocknie housing development on the north east edge of the town, is a fine example of a late Neolithic or early Bronze Age Standing Stone. Called the Pitcrocknie Stone it is made out of very fine garnet-bearing schist.
To the northeast of the town a hill fort, possibly of Pictish date or earlier, stands atop Barry (or 'barrow') Hill. It is considered to be one of the best preserved examples of an enclosed hilltop settlement in Scotland. The remains consist of massive collapsed stone ramparts that take advantage of the topography of the Hill. Local legend connects the fort with King Arthur, and Hector Boece's History and Chronicles of Scotland claims that Guanora, the Scottish name for Guinevere, Arthur's queen, was imprisoned here for a very short time(page 86).
Another nearby early medieval feature is a Pictish 'Class I' symbol stone in a field on Bruceton Farm somewhat to the east of Alyth. The southeast face of this slab is incised with two Pictish symbols - an arch with traces of internal ornament above a finely scrolled Pictish beast - and is one of relatively few likely still to be in its original position. It may have marked an ancient burial.
Archaeological excavation of a souterrain - Shanzie Farm
A late British Iron Age souterrain was excavated by a team of Headland ArchaeologyColeman, R and Hunter, F (2002) "The excavation of a souterrain at Shanzie Farm, Alyth, Perthshire" Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal vol 8 (2002), 77-101. in Shanzie Farm, c 3.5. north-east of Alyth. The underground structure was roughly C-shaped in plan and measured c 35 metres in length. There was a single chamber c 5m long and an entrance to the south-east. For the most part, the souterrain had been badly plough truncated and the walls survived as a single course. The northern terminal of the souterrain was better preserved, where 3-4 courses of wall survive. The chamber here narrowed and had been filled with rubble to a depth. The walls also started to corbell inwards indicating this was originally a stone-capped structure rather than timber roofed. No evidence of an associated settlement or any other surface features were identified; these have undoubtedly been lost to the plough. The structure is typical of the 'southern Pictland group'.Wainright, F.T. (1963) The Souterrains of Southern Pictland London. The souterrain had clearly been broken into during the Victorian period, but also, during medieval times. Finds included several types of late prehistoric pottery, a fragment of probable Roman pottery, an amber ring, a pair of tweezers, a brooch or clasp, two copper alloy rings and a fragment from a quern stone. The souterrain was partially backfilled allowing visitors to see the structure in plan.
Governance Alyth lies within the Perth & Kinross council area of eastern central Scotland. The town is the second largest settlement within Ward 2 (Strathmore) of Perth & Kinross Council, which is currently (2020) represented by four councillors - two Conservative, one SNP and one Liberal Democrat. Alyth lies within the Perth and North Perthshire constituency of the UK Parliament and the Perthshire North constituency of the Scottish Parliament.
In 1488, King James III made Alyth a Burgh of Barony, a status it retained until 1834 when it became a Police burgh with its own law enforcement and other functions under the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1833. In 1624, the lands around Alyth passed from the Lindsay Earls of Crawford into the hands of the local Ogilvy family, and the first Earl of Airlie acquired the feudal superiority of the burgh. Baron Ogilvy of Alith and Lintrathen remains a subsidiary title of the Earls of Airlie. Throughout these centuries, Alyth was a distinct parish within the Scottish local government system, situated mostly within the historic county of Perthshire but also partly within Forfarshire until 1891 when, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, it was moved wholly within Perthshire. In 1894, Alyth became a civil parish and later, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929, a 'small burgh' following the abolition of Scotland's parish councils. Almost 80 years later, the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 created Alyth Community Council with boundaries taking in the minor settlements of Tullymurdoch and Bamff to the north, Shanzie to the east, and New Alyth, Balhary and Leitfie to the south.
Geography
Alyth lies north of Edinburgh and north of London. The town straddles the burn which bears its name, at the point where the burn descends from the Perthshire Highlands to the lowland Vale of Strathmore. Most of the town lies in a shallow, sheltered basin around above sea-level, nestled under the Hill of Alyth (970 feet or 295 metres) which is part of the southern edge of the Perthshire Highlands. The underlying geology is Devonian-age Old Red Sandstone ( 400 million years old) overlain by glacial deposits left behind by the Pleistocene ice ages. Alyth lies just a few miles southeast of the Highland Boundary Fault which divides the Scottish Highlands from the Scottish Lowlands.
The Alyth Burn bisects the town and is crossed by two road bridges and four footbridges, including the 17th-century Packhorse Bridge.Neil Wilson and Alan Murphy, Scotland, 2004, 444 pages Alyth's built environment comprises the mediaeval street pattern northeast of the burn where the ancient drove roads converge on the river crossing, and the more planned 19th-century street grid to the south and southwest of the crossings. The town is the only significant built-up area within the Alyth Community Council boundaries, most of which is upland pasture and grouse moor or lowland arable land. Three golf courses occupy a significant area of land to the south and east of the town. Apart from the extension of the golf courses, land-use around Alyth has changed only marginally in the past 80 years.
Den of Alyth