Perth, Gowrie House

NO12SW 44 1203 2345

(NO 1203 2345) Site of Gowrie House (NR)

OS 25" map, (1932)

Gowrie House, 1525 and Scene of Gowrie Conspiracy 1600. The site is now partly occupied by the Northern portion of the County Prison and a part of the County Buildings. Some remains of it are still standing along the south side of the Water Vennel.

The Countess of Huntly who died in 1526, built Gowrie House between 1523 and 1526.

Name Book 1860.

Gowrie House in which the Gowrie conspiracy of 1600 took place was demolished in 1807. An earthen pot found in the process was donated to the Perth Museum in 1806 by the Provost Marshall.

Information from Trans Perth Lit Antiq Soc 1827, Vol. 1, 37, 80-1.

EXTERNAL REFERENCE

The National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, contains, among the "Uncatalogued MSS of general Hutton", and numbered 107, 108, 109 and 110, Vol.1, several views of 'Gowrie castle', Perth, dated 1783. They include the Monk's Tower, the South View, and the View looking North.

Perth.

Board of Ordnance Drawings.

Gowrie House.

According to the Gazeteers, Earl Gowrie's Palace stood on the site now occupied by the County Buildings, and was surrounded by a garden. Built in 1520 by the Countess of Huntly, afterwards purchased by Lord Ruthven, it passed, after the murder of the Earl of Gowrie, into the possession of the City of Perth, which City in 1746 presented it to the Duke of Cumberland. The Duke of Cumberland sold it to the Government, and it was used for many years as Artillery Barracks. Finally it was re-sold to the City, when it was demolished, and its materials sold for about #600, to make room for the present County Buildings. The last fragment, it is said, disappeared in 1865.

(Undated) information in NMRS.