Scotland Kind Gallows of Crieff
For centuries Highlanders had come to Crieff as a selling point it being a natural division between the Lowlands and the Highlands. As such it became a prototype wild west town and with the throng of humanity that gathered there so did crime. The killings that followed were punished at the the gallows for which Crieff became famous throughout Europe.
By the eighteent century the oiginal hanging tree had been replaced by a formal gallows at Gallowhill on the outskirts of town in a place that was clearly visible to travelling Highlanders. The remains of the gallows are held in Perth Museum and they show that six people could be hanged at any one time.
Walter Scott wrote about them in Rob Roy.
The town itself was largely Presytarian and anti Jacobite so it was of little surprise that the town was torched during the first Jacobite rebellion of 1715 and in 1745 the town's support for the Jacobite cause was very limited.
The gallows acquired the term "kind" as a result of the drop being somewhat longer than was usually the case and death would thus result more quickly.
If you require further information on this item you can contact us in a number of ways. Click here to see our contact information.
Id:981 Q:0