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Tour
Perthshire

By
any standards Perthshire is one of the truly great old counties
of Scotland. In size it is the fourth largest of the old counties
in Scotland, comprising 1,595,804 acres. But size is not everything;
and despite having no extremely large city, it has a much larger
population than the other Scots counties which top it in size,
Inverness, Argyll and Ross and Cromarty. Yet it has no industrial
area, apart from the town of Perth itself. It has its great
mountain tracts, of course, including some of the most famous
scenery in the United Kingdom; but there is an enormous amount
of fertile, populous countryside, far more, probably, than is
generally realised, its great green straits, or wide open valleys,
its especial pride. Contrary, therefore, to frequent pronouncements,
the true glory of Perthshire is not its hills and lochs, however
fine, for in these it can be excelled by Argyll and Inverness-shire,
Ross or Sutherland; it is in its magnificent, age-old settled
lowlands, its characterful small towns and its unnumbered villages.
Especially the latter. Here are, probably, more ancient and
interesting small communities than anywhere else in Scotland.
And these communities are unfortunately generally bypassed by
the typical traveler.
Basically, Perthshire is the basin and catchment area of the
great River
Tay; although the south-west section, or Menteith (more
properly Monteith) as its name suggests, is the mounth of the
Teith, principal tributary of the Forth. But in the main, Perthshire's
innumerable and often splendid rivers reach the sea via the
silver Tay. The county has another basic feature, the great
Highland Fault, which runs across Scotland from the Gareloch
to the Tay, most of it in Perthshire. This, because in general
it marks the division between Highlands and Lowlands, is important.
The old county, therefore, has a split personality.
Owing to its great size and ancient lineage, Perthshire has
always been split up into large sub-provinces, with very distinct
characteristics and identities of their own, mainly themselves
ancient earldoms, Menteith, Strathearn, Gowrie, Atholl,
Breadalbane, each with its own subdivisions. These, all themselves
mighty areas, are the very stuff of Scotland's story, an integral
and vital part of Scotland's exciting past. Perthshire is, in
fact, a historically exciting county. Here, indeed, the past
can be studied at its earliest, as far as Scotland is concerned,
better than most; for it so happened that into Perthshire, Strathearn
in especial, came the early Christian missionaries of the Irish
Celtic Church, via Iona, the Brethren of Columba, to set up
their cells and churches in these lovely valleys. The greatest
concentration of early Celtic Church sites are here; also a
large number of those quite extraordinary Pictish sculptured
stones, with their symbols, things of splendid beauty and workmanship,
full of as yet unsolved mystery, which so give the lie to the
folly that the Picts were a race of savages, painting their
bodies and going about half naked. Quite clearly these Pictish
ancestors of ours, whom the Celtic Church missionaries Christianised,
were a highly developed and artistic people, with unique culture.
Perthshire is where they can best be studied, probably.
Each town, village and parish of the county is dealt with hereafter
in some detail. But perhaps some reference here to the ancient
basic divisions would be appropriate and revealing. Menteith
is the most southerly, a large area stretching from the Allan
Water to Loch Lomond, including the Doune, Callander and Trossachs districts; and of course the parish of Port of
Menteith itself and the Lake thereof, no significance about
that appellation of lake, despite the nonsense talked by some
about it being the only lake in Scotland. It was called Loch
of Menteith until well into the last century. The early Celtic
Earls of Menteith were a great force in Scotland, for their territory straddled
the waist of the country, and, moreover, held the line between
Highlands and Lowlands. Their principal castle was on the island
of Inch Talla, in the Loch of Menteith, where they kept up princely
state, with the Priory
of Inchmahome on the next islet; but when Murdoch Stewart,
Duke of Albany, James I's cousin, married the heiress in the
early I5th century, he found the island-fortress inconvenient,
and built a great new castle at Doune, which thereafter became
the capital of Menteith. On his execution, for treason, James
split up the earldom, as being too powerful for any one subject,
giving Doune and the eastern part to another branch of the Stewarts,
who still hold it, and the rest, with the earldom itself, to
the Grahams. Certain descendants of the Grahams, also, are still
landholders here, though the earldom itself was eventually suppressed
by Charles I in shameful fashion. Menteith is half Highland,
half Lowland, fertile, scenic, non-industrial, typical indeed
of the county as a whole. Being within easy reach of Edinburgh
and Glasgow, it is very and deservedly popular with the visitor
who has not time to 'do all the Highlands properly'.
Strathearn is the next stratum of Perthshire northwards, and
even larger. As the name implies, it comprises the very wide
and fertile vale of the River Earn, from Lochearnhead right
down to the rivers confluence with the Tay estuary near Bridge
of Earn, with all its feeder glens and flanking territories. Crieff is its largest town, with the more ancient Auchterarder,
however, its capital. The sheer extent and rich fairness of
this magnificent strath has to be seen to be appreciated--and
nowhere is it better observed than from high on the north-facing
Ochil Hills that separate it from the River Forth plain, above
old Dunning or Forteviot.
From one of the side-road summits up there, on a clear day,
Strathearn is a splendid sight indeed, one of the finest in
the land--although seldom remarked upon. Some two hundred square
miles of Scotland's best is spread out below, great fields,
rich pastures, ancient parkland, rolling woodlands, villages,
castles and mansions innumerable, all flanking the noble, coiling
river, and all contained within the vast bowl of the hills,
the green Ochils to the south, the infinity of the Highland
giants to the north.
All this splendid heritage was the domain of another line of
Celtic earls. The Strathearn earldom, if slightly less strategically
placed, was much richer than that of Menteith; and for the same
reason, was finally incorporated into the Crown, so that, for
instance, one of Queen Victoria's sons was Duke of Connaught
and Strathearn. But the place was royal even before the earls,
for this was Fortrenn, the Pictish kingdom, with its capital
at Forteviot, in the parish church of which there are still
sculptured stones dating from that early period. The famous Dupplin
Cross found near by, too, is one of the finest early Christian
monuments in the country. At Forteviot was the palace of Angus
MacFergus (A.D. 731--61) of St. Andrew's Cross fame, and a long
succession of kings thereafter until Malcolm Canmore. Here died
the great Kenneth MacAlpine who, conquering the Picts, finally
united the Dalriadic Scots kingdom with that of the Picts to
form the Scotland we know today. Perhaps, because of these royal
origins, the Celtic Earls of Strathearn always styled themselves
'by the Indulgence of God'!
Gowrie is the next great division, and rather less easily delineated.
Indeed, not everyone even in Perthshire could tell you what
was in Gowrie and what was not. Many think of it merely as the Carse
of Gowrie, that level plain between the Sidlaws and the
Tay, between Perth and Dundee. But this is not to take into
account Blairgowrie, many miles to the north; nor the Gowrie
in the Stanley area; nor the fact that the seat and centre of
the Earls of Gowrie was at Ruthven, north-west of Perth. The
name merely means the Plain of the Wild Goats, which is not
much help. In fact, Gowrie seems really to have been all eastern
Perthshire, from the head of Strathmore and the flanking Grampians
down to the Tay estuary, including the western Sidlaws. The
city of Perth itself, therefore, is in Gowrie. Also the highly
important areas, in previous ages, of Scone, Dunsinane and Inchtuthill--all
of which indicates the enduring status of the area, from Roman
times onwards, The great family of Ruthven dominated most of
it, once, and in 1581 became Earls of Gowrie. The notorious
Gowrie Conspiracy, one of the murkiest incidents in Scots history,
is linked with their name, but they were the victims of it,
not the perpetrators. That shame belongs to James VI, who, owing
the young Earl 80,000 pounds, organised his murder, and that
of his brother, at Perth in 1600; and six weeks later, to clear
his own name, had the two dead bodies tried for treason in court
at Edinburgh, himself attending. The Murrays of Tullibardine,
who had aided the King in this sorry business, were rewarded
with large sections of Gowrie, especially in the Stormonth or
north-western area. Their representative, the Earl of Mansfield,
still holds sway hereabouts from Scone
Palace, his eldest son Lord Stormont.
The northern parts of Perthshire are divided between Breadalbane
and Atholl, huge tracts both, and largely mountainside. Breadalbane
is the more westerly, stretching from the edge of Argyll, at
Strathfillan, Mamlorn and Moor of Rannoch right across the country
to Glen Almond, Aberfeldy and Strathtay, braid Alban indeed, the very geographical centre
of Scotland. It measures almost a thousand square miles, 33
by 31 miles, according to the gazetteer, and is basically the
basin of the upper Tay, including the great Loch of that name
and all the catchment area. Aberfeldy is sometimes claimed as
its capital; certainly it is the largest town and only burgh.
But Kuhn, at the other end of Loch Tay, has the better claim,
as the original centre, where the Campbell lords had their main
seat, at Finlarig
Castle. Strangely, although the name is ancient and the
area an entity from early times, there were no great Celtic
earls or mormaers here. It was not until 1681 that the 11th
Campbell of Glenorchy, having by then got rid of the MacGregors
who anciently lorded it hereabouts, got himself created Earl
of Breadalbane, and by peculiar means. His successors became
almost the greatest landowners in Scotland, being able, at one
time, to ride from the Atlantic shores to the North Sea on their
own land, or so it is said. These territories include some of
the most renowned scenery in the Central Highlands, from Glen
Ogle to the Tarmachans, from Glen Dochart to Glen
Lyon.
Finally there is great Atholl, another 500 square miles, celebrated
in song and story, even for a special drink compounded of whisky,
eggs and honey, called Atholl Brose, its duke the proud possessor
of the only private army still left in these islands, The Atholl
Highlanders. Everybody knows Dunkeld, Pitlochry, Killiecrankie and of course Blair
Atholl, are amongst the most popular tourist areas of the
land. Not so well known, however, are the great stretches of
Strathardle, of Tilt and Tarf and Edendon, of Errochty and Fincastle,
of Craiganour and Talla Bheith, mainly far from roads. Atholl
was always a semi-royal territory. Indeed it is claimed that
there were once Kings of Atholl. But less misty is the fame
of Madadh, grandson of King Duncan, Earl of Atholl, whose own
grandson Henry, dying in 1210, left only a legitimate daughter,
though his illegitimate son, Conon, was the forebear of the
Robertsons of Clan Donnachaidh who, next to the earls, were
the greatest landholders in Atholl. The Crown bestowed the earldom
on one of the sons of Robert III, the second of the Stewart
kings, and for long the Stewarts lorded it here. Then, in the
early 17th century, the 2nd Murray Earl of Tullibardine married
the Stewart heiress, and got Atholl, and have held it ever since,
becoming marquises thereof in 1676 and dukes in 1703. Their
castle at Blair is a treasure-house, one of the most magnificent
in Scotland, with no fewer than 32 rooms, filled with objects
of value and interest, open to the public.
The last of Atholl is the lumpish mountain, the Sow thereof,
facing the Boar of Badenoch at the Pass of Drumochter, and thereafter
we are in Inverness-shire. Perthshire therefore is more like
half a dozen counties than one, and even so, great semi-subdivisions
such as Strathallan, Strathbraan, Strathardle, Rannoch, Glen
Shee, Stormont and Mamlorn, have scarcely been mentioned, if
at all.
Obviously this could not be an industrial county. But Perthshire
contributes much to the national economy. Its farms are legion,
and many of them in the southern half are rich indeed and highly
productive. Fruit-growing, especially in Gowrie, is widespread
and profitable. In the Highland parts hydro-electricity is developed
on a huge scale, indeed it was here that the first schemes commenced,
in the Grampian projects. Forestry has become an ever more important
feature of the scene, and a very large area is now under commercial
timber. And tourism, of course, flourishes here on a larger
and more organised scale than anywhere else in Scotland.
Sir Walter Scott, that fervent Borderer, yet said: "If an intelligent
stranger were asked to describe the most varied and most beautiful
province in Scotland, it is probable that he would name the
County of Perth." The present day visitor would find no fault
with that statement.
Perthshire, and Kinross, are ideally situated for base locations
from which to tour much of Scotland. If you would like to visit
this area as part of a highly personalized small group tour
of my native Scotland please e-mail me:
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