Popularity of racecourse 100 years ago
The pictures give an insight to what the racecourse was like in the early part of the 20th century A snapshot of Perth Racecourse has been unearthed showing life at the track over 100 years ago.
Photographs showing a race meeting from 1908 have been unveiled to the public, in the same week thousands of racing fans descended on the course.
The photographs, which were printed in the September 30, 1908 edition of a publication called The World - A Journal for Men and Women, feature some of the local Scottish gentry visiting the Perthshire race course, which is located on Scone Estates, to enjoy a day of horse racing fixtures, a ‘flutter’and socialising.
The racecourse we see today is the same one which opened, along with the main grandstand, that same year in 1908 after the races took place previously on the North Inch in Perth.
Local race-goers featured in the photographs include the Earl of Kinnoull, Colonel Malcolm Drummond of Megginch, the Earl of Leven and Melville, the Earl of Rothes and Lady Moncreiffe.
Lady Mansfield of Scone Palace said: “While in 2018, the visiting racing enthusiasts travel from further afield, the venue itself, on the Scone Estates, is remarkably similar to the 1908 version.
“The races are still as atmospheric, fun, competitive and sociable as they were over a century ago.
“It is wonderful to see how Perth Racecourse and its popular days out endure and continue to reach new audiences from across Scotland and beyond.”