Despite a plaque in North Port giving the date of the destruction of the Castle by flooding as 1210 AD, the 1911 edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica states that the castle was still in existence during the Wars of Independence in the 14th century. In the encyclopaedia Bruce is stated to have attempted to destroy the castle to prevent its use by English armies.
A plaque on this building (now 15-19 North Port) claims this the site of Lord John Murray’s Town House, occupied by him from 1758 - 1787. It is now the headquarters of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. An earlier information board (now replaced by Panel 4 of the Medieval Trail) gave more information and reported that it was actually the stable block for the town house. Some modern histories suggest the building may in fact have been an arcade of shops at one time. Lord John Murray was the second son of Duke of Atholl and brother of Lord George…
The house was chosen by Sir Walter Scott as the home of Catherine Glover, the heroine in his 1828 novel “The Fair Maid of Perth”. Scott had been shown round the oldest parts of Perth in his search for an authentic setting for his novel. In a similar fashion to his choice of the Hal O The Wynd house the story pre-dates the buildings. Some of the walls date from 1475 but most are from 1629 and the whole building was extensively renovated in 1893-4. For 150 years it was the meeting place of the Glovers Incorporation of Perth. It now…