Editing Crieff (section)

==History==
For centuries Highlanders came to Crieff to sell their black cattle, whose meat and hides were sought by the growing urban populations in Lowland Scotland and the north of England. The town acted as a gathering point for the [[Michaelmas]] cattle sale held during the "October Tryst" each year, when the surrounding fields and hillsides would be black with some 30,000 cattle, some from as far away as [[Caithness]] and the [[Outer Hebrides]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87MHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA59|title=The beauties of upper Strathearn. Crieff, with six excursions around it |year= 1860|page=59|publisher=George McCulloch}}</ref>

[[Rob Roy MacGregor]] and his followers visited Crieff in October 1714: they gathered in Crieff for the October Tryst. They marched to Crieff Town Square and, in front of the gathering crowd, sang Jacobite songs and drank [[loyal toast]]s to their uncrowned [[James Francis Edward Stuart|King James VIII]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5eo44UNyHG4C&pg=PA96|title=The History of Rob Roy|first= Alexander Hasties|last= Millar |year=1883|page=96|publisher=J. Leng}}</ref>

In 1716, 350 Highlanders returning from the [[Battle of Sheriffmuir]] burned most of Crieff to the ground. In 1731, [[James Drummond, 3rd Duke of Perth]], laid out the town's central James Square and established a textile industry with a flax factory. In the 1745 rising, the Highlanders were itching to fire the town again and were reported as saying "she shoud be a braw toun gin she haed anither sing". It was saved by the Duke of Perth, a friend and supporter of Prince Charles. In February 1746, the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] army was quartered in and around the town, with Prince [[Charles Edward Stuart]] holding his final war council in the old ''Drummond Arms Inn'' in James Square, located behind the present abandoned hotel building in Hill Street.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://openplaques.org/plaques/42593|title=The Drummond Arms |publisher=Open Plaques|access-date=30 September 2022}}</ref>

By the late 18th century, the hanging tree used by the [[Earl of Strathearn|Earls of Strathearn]] to punish criminals had been replaced by a wooden structure in an area called Gallowhaugh, now Gallowhill, at the bottom of Burrell Street. What is now Ford Road was Gallowford Road which led down past the gallows to the crossing point over the [[River Earn]]. [[Walter Scott|Sir Walter Scott]], visiting Crieff in 1796, saw the gallows as "Gallowsford".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87MHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA66|title=The beauties of upper Strathearn. Crieff, with six excursions around it |year= 1860|page=66|publisher=George McCulloch}}</ref>

[[Crieff Town Hall]] was completed in 1850.<ref>{{Historic Environment Scotland|desc=Town Hall, High Street, Crieff|num=LB23484| access-date=30 September 2022}}</ref> In the 19th century, Crieff became a fashionable destination for tourists visiting the Highlands and a country retreat for wealthy businessmen from Edinburgh, Glasgow and beyond. Many such visitors attended the Crieff hydropathic establishment, now the [[Crieff Hydro]], which opened in 1868.<ref name="BradleyDupreeDurie">{{citation |last1=Bradley |first1=James |last2=Dupree |first2= Mageurite |last3=Durie |first3=Alastair |title=Taking the Water Cure: The Hydropathic Movement in Scotland, 1840–1940 |journal=Business and Economic History |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=426–437 |year=1997 |url=http://www.h-net.org/~business/bhcweb/publications/BEHprint/v026n2/p0426-p0437.pdf |access-date=17 November 2009}}</ref> 

Crieff was once served by [[Crieff railway station]], which linked the town to Perth, [[Comrie, Perth and Kinross|Comrie]] and [[Gleneagles, Scotland|Gleneagles]]. The station was opened in 1856 by the [[Crieff Junction Railway]] but was closed in 1964 by [[British Railways]] as part of the [[Beeching Axe|Beeching cuts]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Butt|first=R.&nbsp;V.&nbsp;J.|title=The Directory of Railway Stations|year=1995|publisher=Patrick Stephens Ltd|location=Yeovil|isbn=1-85260-508-1|id=R508|page=71}}</ref>