Earthquake recorded in Perthshire

Locals in Perthshire got an abrupt early morning wake up call last week after an earthquake rocked the area for the fifth time in a month.

The 2.3 magnitude tremor was recorded by the British Geological Society (BGS) near Blackford, where residents reported feeling the trembling affect.

The tremor struck at 5.54am last Monday at a depth of 2km.

“Reports described:‘heard the roof tiles rattle’,‘bookcase rattled and heard a rumble and bang’, ‘thought car had crashed into building’and‘heard and felt a trembling and rumbling’,”said the BGS.

It was also felt in Auchterarder and Glendevon, with all reports coming from within around five miles of the epicentre.

Tennis star Andy Murray and wife Kim’s hotel, Cromlix, is just two miles away, but a spokeswoman said it did not feel the quake.

The epicentre was 17 miles from Comrie, said to be the earthquake capital of the UK and is sometimes referred to as the Shaky Toun.

The town is subject to more intense tremors than anywhere else in the UK.

The Highland Boundary Fault passes Strathearn, south of Comrie, and is said to be the cause of the quakes.

But the epicentres tend to lie north of the village.

There were also earthquakes in the area on September 14 and the two previous day.

On September 2, a 1.3 magnitude quake was felt by several residents who reported“a weak to moderate shaking”.

In June, Comrie was rocked by an earthquake, with locals claiming it sounded“like an explosion”as it was hit with the 2.2 magnitude quake.

More than 30 reports were made by residents.

Earthquakes were recorded in Perthshire as far back as 1597, and in Comrie in 1788.

The largest known Scottish earthquake occurred near Loch Awe in 1880, with a magnitude of 5.2.