Old County of Perthshire

A former county and earldom of Central Scotland, Perthshire extended to 2528 sq. miles (6547 sq. km) making it the fifth largest county by area. It was bounded to the NE by the county of Aberdeenshire, to the E by Angus, to the SE by Fife and Kinross-shire, to the S by Clackmannanshire and Stirlingshire, to the SW by a narrow border with Dunbartonshire, to the W by Argyllshire and to the NW by Inverness-shire. Divided between the fertile plains of the Midland Valley and the less productive land of the Highlands, its ancient divisions included Atholl (or Athole), Breadalbane, Gowrie, Menteith, Methven, Rannoch, Stormont, Strathearn and Perth itself, which is the county town. Other notable settlements including Alyth, Aberfoyle, Blair Atholl, Callander, Crieff, Dunblane, Dunkeld, Pitlochry and Tyndrum. Its principal rivers include the Almond, Earn, Ericht, Garry, Isla, Tay and Tummel, while it takes in much of the Ochil and Sidlaw Hills together with a section of the Grampian Mountains. A detached portion of the county existed before 1890, involving the parishes of Culross and Tulliallan. In 1929 a joint administration was established between Perthshire and its much smaller neighbour Kinross-shire. In 1974 both were incorporated into Tayside Region as Perth & Kinross District; although Perthshire had markedly changed boundaries having lost a fifth of its territory to the new Central Region to the southwest. Perth & Kinross because a unitary authority in 1996.


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