A prominent brass plaque reveals that Charles Edward Sturt (Bonnie Prince Charlie) visited the hotel on South Street during his stay in Perth in 1745 on his way south to Edinburgh. It is thought he planned his campaign in room 20 which the hotel is happy to say is still in use. The original building from the 1600s was the town house of the Murrays of Scone Palace. It was converted to a coaching inn in 1699.
A plinth on the North Inch just off Charlotte Street records that the Jacobite armies assembled on the North Inch in 1715 and 1745. James VII “The Old Pretender” arrived in Perth in December 1715 where he received a cold reception. He reviewed his troops after they had fought at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in November 1715 and was so disappointed with what he saw he decided to “abandon the contest as hopeless, due to the reduced state of the army and its deficiency in arms and ammunition” (Marshall, T.H., The History of Perth: From the Earliest Period to the…
A notice board, updated in 2023, suggests an Old Ship Inn has been on this site in the Skinnergate since Medieval times. The present building is described by Gifford as late-Victorian. The Inn was close to the Old Mercat Cross where presumably there were lots of customers on market days. The building also displays a series of boards showing mock newspaper headlines relating to events occurring within the life-time of the public house.