History 2

Thursday, 28 March 2013

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

There can be few places in Scotland as historically potent as Scone Palace. When you visit Scone Palace you are walking in the footsteps of Scotland’s ancient founding fathers, both pagan and Christian. It was an important religious gathering place of the Picts, and it was the site of an early Christian church.

Robert the Bruce was crowned at Scone in 1306 and the last coronation was of Charles II, when he accepted the Scottish crown in 1651. The place of coronation was called Caislean Credi, 'Hill of Credulity', which survives as the present Moot Hill.

The present owner, the 8th Earl of Mansfield, William David Murray, succeeded his father in 1971. He is married to Pamela, daughter of Wilfred Neill Foster, CBE. Lord Mansfield is also 13th Viscount Stormont and Lord Scone, 11th Lord Balvaird and Hereditary Keeper of Bruce’s Castle of Lochmaben. Lord Mansfield has three children. His eldest son, Alexander, by courtesy Viscount Stormont, is the heir.

Thursday, 2 February 2012

Dunkeld Cathedral and Rumbling Bridge, near Dunkeld

Rumbling Bridge, near Dunkeld

Dunkeld Cathedral

Saturday, 28 January 2012

History of Perth Theatre

Perth Theatre; 1900- Activity The foundation stone of Perth Theatre and Opera House was laid in 1899 and the theatre was opened the following year and run by J. H. Saville. Saville died in 1924, and the management of the theatre was transferred to his daughter, Winifred Saville. In 1935 the theatre was sold to Ernest Dence, father of Marjorie Dence, for the sum of £400. Marjorie Dence (d. 1966) and her business partner, David Steuart (1906-1992), promised to introduce a wider variety of productions and the theatre was re-opened in 1935 as a repertory theatre. In 1937, after the death of her father Marjorie Dence, became the sole proprietor of the theatre. 1938 saw the Company’s first command performance at Balmoral Castle, where they staged ‘The Fourth Wall’ by A. A. Milne in the presence of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. In 1941 Perth Theatre Company embarked upon its first tour of the rural Highlands. A second theatre was set up by Marjorie Dence at the Adam Smith Hall, Kirkcaldy, in 1946, and this marked the beginning of a twelve year association. 1959 saw the founding of the Perth Theatre Club. Marjorie Dence died in 1966 and the theatre building was left to the Scottish Arts Council. They in turn sold the theatre to Perth town council for a nominal sum. The actor Iain Cuthbertson (b. 1930) took up the newly-created post of theatre director in 1967 but left in 1968. Joan Knight (1924-1996) who had been at Perth Theatre fourteen years previously as a stage director, was appointed as artistic director in 1968. She retired in 1993 and was succeeded in turn by Andrew McKinnon, who held the post until 1996, and Michael Winter.