Montrose
Angus

Montrose Academy
©2011 Gazetteer for Scotland

A coastal resort town and royal burgh in Angus, situated 38 miles (61 km) northeast of Dundee between the mouths of the North and South Esk rivers. It is the northernmost coastal town in Angus and developed at a natural harbour that traded in skins, hides and cured salmon in mediaeval times. The town once possessed a strong castle which was occupied in 1296 by Edward I of England and destroyed a year later by William Wallace.

Today the town's economy depends on tourism, food processing, chemicals, engineering and oil-related industries. It is said that Lord James Douglas embarked from here in 1330 on a crusade against the Moors carrying the embalmed heart of King Robert the Bruce. Prince James Edward Stewart, the Old Pretender, also sailed from here at the close of the 1715 Jacobite Rising. Montrose, which boasts the widest High Street in Scotland, has many fine buildings including its Town House or Ba Hoose, and Montrose Museum and Art Gallery.

The first public mental health asylum in Britain opened in Montrose in 1782, becoming the Sunnyside Royal Hospital.

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