Archaeology Notes

Event ID 715042

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/715042

NT27SE 9 2590 7364.

Town Guard House (NR) (Site of).

OS 1/1250 plan.

Black Turnpike: a mansion, also known as the "Auld Bishop of Dunkeld's Lodging"; was built in 1461 on the S side of High Street and a few feet W of the Tron Church. The Black Turnpike was demolished in 1788. Mary Queen of Scots and Darnley stayed here in 1566.

J Grant 1882.

(NT2590 7364) No trace remains of this building today.

Visited by OS (J D) 1953.

No reference was found to establish the fact that Black Turnpike was in fact the Town Guard House; the latter is not mentioned in any literary reference consulted, nor could any information be obtained upon it. The sites coincide, however, both in topographical position and dating.

Town Guard House (NR) (Site of)

OS 1:500 map, 1895.

The Town Guard House is shown on Edgar's map of 1742 (reduced facsimile in Grant 1882) in the centre of the High Street, a short distance W of the Tron Church. (For a description of the Town Guard, see Stark 1806)

D Wilson 1873; J Grant 1882.

No trace.

Visited by OS (JLD) 26 December 1953.