Perth Civic Trust

12/04/2026

Our Perth and the Jacobites guided walk today was a great success. Sabrina Willekens presented a wonderful sequence of historic accounts interspersed with real human stories.

10/04/2026

Two years, two rebellions. The Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745 both involved an assembly of Jacobite forces on the North Inch of Perth.
The muster of 1715 followed the inconclusive battle of Sherrifmuir. James VII “The Old Pretender” arrived in Perth in December 1715 where he reviewed his troops 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”.
Bonnie Prince Charlie entered Perth 30 years later on 3rd September 1745. He reviewed his troops on the North Inch on 7th September 1745 and declared that with training they would make excellent soldiers. The army left Perth on Wednesday the 11th September 1745.

Find out more on our guided walk with Sabrina Willekens this Sunday. Places are still available for the 11am walk.
https://www.facebook.com/events/937161642119842

07/04/2026

Did you know that Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed at the Salutation Hotel in Perth in 1745? After the defeat at Culloden a year later, Jacobite sympathisers were hunted down like the unfortunate Colone Alexander Bower mentioned on the plaque in South Street.
Find out more on our guided walk with Sabrina Willekens this Sunday. Places are still available for the 11am walk.
https://www.facebook.com/events/937161642119842

03/04/2026

Our ‘Perth and the Jacobite’s’ walk will now run at both 11am and 2pm on Sunday 12 April. The 2pm slot is sold out but tickets for 11am are now available at Perthshire Box Office.

28/01/2026

We at Perth Civic Trust have found the A K Bell Library to be a fantastic resource for facts and photos of our historic buildings. The staff are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful.

👨‍👩‍👧 Join us for "Jump into Libraries" this Spring and discover everything your local library has to offer! Chat with our staff about upcoming activities, regular sessions, and online resources like . Learn about our fantastic e-resources, including , , and . Explore all that the Perthshire Seed Library has to offer and much more. 😍 Come find more reasons to love your library!

We'll have sessions at the following libraries:

📅 Feb 12 - North Inch Community Library
📅 Feb 13 - Loch Leven Community Library
📅 Feb 14 - Alyth Library
📅 Feb 26 - Blairgowrie Library
📅 Mar 14 - AK Bell Library

Details of all sessions can be found here 👉 https://buff.ly/Ma5rydg

28/01/2026

You can see this plaque at 3 Watergate and read about it on our website www.perthcivictrust.org.uk

Jessie Mann (1805-1867) is acknowledged as the first female photographer in Scotland and is one of our Perth Women on Wikipedia. She was assistant to David Octavius Hill and his partner Robert Adamson at his studio in Edinburgh, where she processed and printed photographs. She is considered to have taken a portrait of King Frederick II of Saxony that is now in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

She and Hill grew up as neighbours in Watergate, Perth and are now commemorated with blue plaques thanks to Perth Civic Trust.
We noticed that, while Jessie had her own Wikipedia page, she wasn't even mentioned in Hill's article. So we fixed that! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Octavius_Hill

Photo of Jessie by David Octavius Hill - Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48771003

30/11/2025

We unveiled our third Perth Civic Trust blue plaque today in Princes Street at the site of the studio built by early photographer Magnus Jackson. Our chairman Willie Wilson spoke of Magnus Jackson's importance in documenting Perth and its people in the 19th century. He was assisted by Bill Montgomery of the Guildry Incorporation and building owner John McEwan who showed us old photographs and documents related to historic buildings in Perth. Also in attendance were Councillors Andy Chan and Iain MacPherson, Wol Gilbraith and Jimmy Herd of Perthshire Photographic Society, Sabrina Willekens of Perth Museum and Pavo Interpretation, and Ian Cameron, Sue Hendry, Roben Antoniewicz and Mike Bell of Perth Civic Trust.

24/11/2025

Roben Antoniewicz of Perth Civic Trust was on hand to see the recent unearthing of the time capsule buried in 1908 at the founding of Balhousie School in Perth. The school is being demolished after a recent tragic fire. Along with Craig Leitham of the A K Bell Archives and Barney Black from “Once upon a Time in the Muirton”, Roben was one of those who alerted the contractors to the existence of the time capsule from newspaper archives.
Photo by Roben Antoniewicz.

20/07/2025

Our guided walk today led by Sabrina Willekens was a great success.

29/06/2025

First two Perth Civic Trust Blue Plaques were unveiled today in Watergate. More details at www.perthcivictrust.org.uk

03/05/2025

Perth Civic Trust are delighted to announce that we have received planning permission to erect the first two of our new Perth Blue Plaques. The first photo is an artist's impression of how they will look.
They will soon be fixed at 3 Watergate in one of Perth's most historic streets. Although it is something of a backwater now, we need to remember that Tay Street did not exist until 1870-1875. For most of Perth's history Watergate was the main street along the River Tay with the land sloping down from it to the river bank.
The first plaque concerns the early photographer Jessie Mann, considered to be Scotland's first female photographer. Her birthplace, now demolished, was opposite 3 Watergate where David Octavius Hill was born three years earlier. Hill was educated at Perth Academy then studied painting in Edinburgh. Mann also moved to Edinburgh and became assistant to Hill and his partner Robert Adamson at their studio in Rock House. There is evidence that she took photographic portraits in 1843 and 1844, making her one of the first women ever to become involved in the new medium of photography. Hill and Adamson took many of the earliest photographs in Scotland and their work has featured in national exhibitions. Jessie Mann was included in the Tate Britain exhibition 'Painting with Light' in 2016.
We are proud that these pioneering photographers are now to be commemorated in their birthplace.