World Wars and Tourism

With the arrival of the railway, a Hydropathic hotel, large villas, fine public parks - Crieff already became a fashionable holiday resort as the 20thC opened.

The Great War 1914-18 saw the death and maiming of a whole generation. 100's of local young men and women were killed.
 

The immediate years after saw an economic boom, but this was short lived and the Great Depression followed. In many ways Strathearn fared better than some areas with it's backbone of agriculture. In 1922 the Crieff Electric Supply Company began generating and provided some electric lighting locally.

The Second World War brought more death but it must be said, less that WWI. Many evacuees were moved to the safety of Strathearn and away from the cities. Schools expanded rapidly to cope with the influx of these children. Outside Comrie lies Cultybraggan Army Camp. This was one of the most secure prisoner of war camps during WWII housing nearly 4000 'high risk' Germans.

The fifties saw the last cattle markets in Crieff. An event which marked the end of centuries of 'trysts'.

1951 saw the end of passenger trains from Perth, through Crieff and Comrie to Lochearnhead. Rail buses operated for a while but in 1964 the line closed completely. A hospital, health clinic and supermarket now stand on the site of the old railway station and sidings. A main intercity line runs from Perth to Stirling on the southern edge of Strathearn with a station at Gleneagles. The A9, the main north-south road in Scotland and the A85, the main east-west road in the southern Highlands, both pass through Strathearn.

As the 21thC began, tourism and related service industries had become the main source of income and jobs in Strathearn.