Dunkeld

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River Tay at Dunkeld Cathedral

Between Christmas and New Year we spent a few nights in the pretty Perthshire town of Dunkeld. John was just recovering from a Christmas cold and I started snuffling and sneezing on the journey, so it wasn’t our most energetic break ever but we enjoyed some gentle strolls around Dunkeld and along the Tay to its neighbour, Birnam.

Dunkeld Bridge
View from across the Tay

Dunkeld Cathedral was built between 1260 and 1501, and although the Choir is intact and still in use as a parish church the rest is ruined.

Dunkeld Cathedral
Dunkeld Cathedral

The Cathedral is surrounded by trees, including the Parent Larch or Mother Tree, the only survivor of five seedlings planted in 1738, the first larches in Britain. 14 million larches were planted from the seeds of these five trees!

Dunkeld Mother Tree
Dunkeld Mother Tree

On the other side of the Tay towards Birnam are more interesting trees. The Young Pretender (left below) is a sycamore with a girth of 8 metres, so-called because it looks of similar age to its neighbour, the Birnam Oak, but is much younger. The oak, now supported by wooden stilts, is said to be the last survivor of Birnam Wood, made famous by its role in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It’s girth is 7 metres.

Young Pretender
Birnam Oak

Another walk took us up a tributary of the Tay, the River Braan, with its waterfalls and cascades. This is Black Linn, including a short clip of water pouring over it. Such power!

Money tree
Bridge over Black Linn
Black Linn
Bridge over Black Linn
Black Linn

And here we are at Rumbling Bridge, looking happy despite our colds.

John at Rumbling Bridge
Anabel at Rumbling Bridge

Overall, this was a lovely short break before we returned home to celebrate Hogmanay.

Scotland, UK , ,

59 Comments »

  2. Dunked is a lovely place; it’s so nice to see it again(even virtually). One of my cousins has opened a bakery in Birnam — the Little Birnam Kitchen. I’ve only seen the breads and other goodies on Instagram (and had glowing reports from other cousins), but it all looks delicious.

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  4. Dunkeld looks like a charming place to visit although I wouldn’t want to be dunked in Black Linn. Beautiful but raging cold! And speaking of colds, glad you managed to overcome both of yours with a smile.

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  5. Annabell and I took the children there on our “Cathedral Trip” before we left Scotland. Since the children were very young (one in a stroller) we didn’t do a lot of wandering around. We visited the Cathedral, of course and spent some time with the children on that grass by the River Tay

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  7. Looks like the perfect getaway for a few days. So pretty, especially that view across the water. Watching your video was perfect as we sit here in Sri Lanka in absolutely sweltering heat, it made us feel cooler and the sound effect is particularly soothing.

    Lovely walk and in particular that old stone bridge. So aesthetically pleasing.

    Peta

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  10. Looks like an excellent break in Dunkeld despite the colds and snuffles. At least the sun is shining. Fascinating information about the trees – I thought Birnam Wood sounded familiar. I did study Macbeth extensively at school from memory at O level rather than A level (showing my age here I know they’re called something completely different now)!

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  12. When I saw the title of your post, I assumed (for some reason) that “Dunkeld” was one of those funny words you introduce us to now and then.

    I think I’m going to create a definition for Dunkled:

    The state of finding yourself ill while traveling.

    Example of usage: “I was dunkled but, since we already purchased our tickets, we chose to carry on with our plans.”

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  15. Nice post. Dunkeld looks lovely. Have been hoping to get there for years but still haven’t got round to it. Hopefully soon.

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