one of the seats
of the Scottish Kings and the residence of King Malcolm Canmore, who
granted the Common Muir to the neighbouring burgh. The Barony was
originally a Crown possession. Being situated on the road from the
Royal Palaces of Scone and Forteviot to Stirling, and the principal
manor place of a Barony belonging to the Crown, there is every
probability that the tradition of its having been a royal palace is
correct, and that the warlike Malcolm and the sainted Margaret abode
within its walls.

Auchterarder was one of the Royal Burghs of Scotland. It may be said
that no charter of erection is in existence, but its absence is
explained by the fact that the proximity of a royal seat gave the
neighbouring town the status of a Royal Burgh. Whether or not
Auchterarder got a charter of erection from the Sovereign, no doubt can
exist that at a very early period it was one of the Royal Burghs of
Scotland. In the charter of William, the son of Malise, of the lands
within or outside the town of Auchterarder, still known as the Abbey
lands, granted to the Canons of Inchaffray, which lands he had bought
from John, the son of Baltin, he not only appended his own seal to the
writing, but, for greater security and fuller evidence, procured to be
appended thereto the common seal of the Burgh of Auchterarder.

The Barony of Auchterarder remained Crown property until the time of
King Robert the Bruce. King Alexander II., by charter, dated at Cluny,
the 13th day of August, in the eleventh year of his reign (1227),
granted to the Canons of the Abbey of Inchaffray the teind of his
duties of Auchterarder to be drawn yearly by the hands of his tacksmen
and bailies of Auchterarder.

In 1296, Edward I. invaded Scotland with 5000 armed horse and 30,000
footmen. He passed the River Tweed on 28th March, and continued his
progress until 24th April, when he routed the Scots at Dunbar with
great slaughter. He continued his triumphant progress northwards,
resting at various places. We are told that "on the Thursday he went
to Stirling, and they who were within the Castle fled, and none
remained but the porter, who surrendered the Castle, and there came the
Earl of Strathearn 'to the peace,' and there tarried the King five
days. On the Wednesday before the Feast of St. John (20th June) the
King passed the Scottish sea, and lay at Auchterarder, his Castle; on
the Thursday, at St. John of Perth, a good town, and there abode
Friday, Sa