From Issue Eleven of Hidden Scotland Magazine

A weekend exploring Aberfeldy

A local’s guide to a long weekend in Highland Perthshire’s Aberfeldy.

Words by Zanna Wilson with Rachel Rowley · Photographs by Laura Tiliman & Simon Hird

Printed in Issue Eleven of Hidden Scotland Magazine, Autumn and Winter 2025–26.

As an Aberfeldy local, artist Zanna Wilson knows the town well. Here she reveals her personal picks – the best walks, cultural spots, and those special places where locals eat, drink and find inspiration.

Meet your local guide

Zanna Wilson

Zanna Wilson, award-winning artist and gallerist, was born in Portsmouth in 1978 to Scottish parents. She has spent her adult life living and working in Scotland, and is now based in rural Perthshire, where she maintains a studio and has run The Watermill Gallery since 2021. The gallery recently moved from its established home at the top of The Watermill Bookshop and Café to a new venue next door in The Old Mill. From this base, she travels widely across the country – most often west to the Scottish Isles, though the far north continues to draw her in. Zanna is deeply inspired by the unique light, texture and atmosphere of Scotland’s varied landscapes. This passion is vividly reflected in her work, which is recognised for its rich expressive energy and emotional depth.

How long have you lived in Aberfeldy, and what brought you here?: Seventeen years. I moved in 2008 when I was expecting my first child, Hester, and my second daughter, Ursie, was also born here. My husband, Patrick, is from Aberfeldy, and my father-in-law, local academic Henry Steuart Fothringham, has lived here since he was 21. Scotland has always felt very familiar to me – my mother grew up in Sutherland – so Edinburgh was an obvious choice for university. I haven’t really left Scotland since 1997, apart from one year in Madrid, where I studied History of Art with Spanish.

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