PERTH
Perth is a town and former royal burgh in central Scotland. Sitting on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative headquarters of Perth and Kinross council area. According to the 2001 census, its population is 43,450. Perth was a large burgh prior to 1975, and the county town of the county of Perthshire.
The name Perth has hence been used for a number of other settlements around the world. The most notable of these is Perth, Western Australia — named such at the wish of Sir George Murray, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, who was born in Perth. Perth is popularly referred to as The Fair City, although per a redefinition of city status in the United Kingdom (see below), it is no longer officially classed as a city, one of only three places in the UK to have been declassified as a city.
The River Tay (Gaelic: Tatha) originates in the Highlands and flows down through Strathtay (see Strath), in the centre of Scotland, through Perth and into the Firth of Tay, south of Dundee. It is the longest river in Scotland and the seventh-longest in the United Kingdom. It is the largest river in the UK by volume of discharge. Its catchment is approximately 2000 square miles (the Tweed's is 1,500 square miles (3,900 km2) and the Spey's is 1097 square miles).
