Description: The history of the Perthshire village of Murthly, and Gellyburn, and of Murthly Castle, once home to Sir William Drummond Stewart and the buffalo he brought back from America, visited and painted by Sir John Everett Millais, site of the Perth & District Lunatic Asylum
buffalo (1208) murthly (4) lunatic asylum (3) murthly castle (2) gellyburn (1) murthly & strathbraan estates (1) thornie muir (1) muir of thorn (1) byres of murthly (1) sir william drummond stewart (1)
It's a small area, really. Squeezed between the River Tay and Birnam Hill: bounded to the east by Airntully; and to the west by Birnam. Yet so rich in history and folklore.
The village was born, they say, of steam fever and madness . In the early 1800s, Britain was in a frenzy of speculation, and honest investment, when everywhere had to be connected by rail, seemingly all at once. The Perth and Dunkeld Railway opened in 1856 (although there was an attempt as early as 1835) and with its station put Murthly on a timetable; and thus on the only map that mattered.
Then in 1860 the Commissioners in Lunacy settled on a 60 acre site close to the station for Perthshire's new-model Asylum for Pauper Lunatics. Two hundred of them plus staff.