Huntingtower and Ruthvenfield is a village in

Perthshire Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, on the River Almond, northwest of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. Bleaching, the chief industry, dated from 1774, when the bleaching-field was formed. By means of an old aqueduct, said to have been built by the Romans, it was provided with water from the River Almond, the properties of which rendered it especially suited for bleaching. Bleaching (by chemicals under cover, not with bleach fields) continued Huntingtower until 1981.

Huntingtower Castle Huntingtower Castle, once known as Ruthven Castle or the Place of Ruthven, is located near the village of Huntingtower beside the A85 and near the A9, about 5 km NW of the centre of Perth, Perth and Kinross, in central Scotland, on the main ...

, a once formidable structure, was the scene of the

Raid of Ruthven The Raid of Ruthven, the kidnapping of King James VI of Scotland, was a political conspiracy in Scotland which took place on 23 August 1582."Ruthven, William", by T. F. Henderson, in ''Dictionary of National Biography'', Volume 50 (Smith, Elder, ...

(pron. Rivven), when the

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

lords, headed by William, 4th Lord Ruthven and 1st Earl of Gowrie (c.1541–1584), kidnapped the boy-king James VI, on 22 August 1582. The earl's sons were slain in the attempt (known as the Gowrie conspiracy) to capture James VI (1600), consequent on which the Scots parliament ordered the name of Ruthven to be abolished, and the barony to be known in future as Huntingtower. The Ruthven name and reputation was re-established in 1651, by Sir Thomas Ruthven, for service to the Crown. The source of the -long Perth Lade is just west of the village, at Low's Work weir on the River Almond.

Notable persons

George Turnbull was brought up in Huntingtower. He was the Chief Engineer building the first major

Indian railway Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fourth largest national railway ...

in the 1850s.''George Turnbull, C.E.'' 437-page memoirs published privately 1893, scanned copy held in the British Library, London on compact disk since 2007

References

{{authority control Villages in Perth and Kinross