Auchterarder

Auchterarder

Auchterarder (/ɒxtərˈɑːrdər/; Scottish Gaelic: Uachdar Àrdair, meaning Upper Highland) is a town north of the Ochil Hills in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, and home to the Gleneagles Hotel. The 1+1⁄2-mile-long (2.5-kilometre) High Street of Auchterarder gave the town its popular name of "The Lang Toun" or Long Town.

The modern town is a shopping destination with a variety of independent shops and cafes.

The name "Auchterarder" derives from the Scottish Gaelic roots uachdar, àrd, and dobhar; it means ‘upland of high water.’

Auchterarder Castle stood to the north of the town in the area now known as Castleton. It is said to have been a hunting seat for King Malcolm Canmore in the 11th century and was visited by King Edward I in 1296. It was made ruinous in the 18th century and only fragments remained at the end of the 19th century.

In the Middle Ages, Auchterarder was known in Europe as 'the town of 100 drawbridges', a colourful description of the narrow bridges leading from the road level across wide gutters to the doorsteps of houses. The name appears in a charter of 1227 in a grant of land transaction to the Convent of Inchaffray. The Jacobite Earl of Mar's army torched the town on 25 January 1716.

Routes near Auchterarder

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