Castle Menzies – a Restored Clan Castle by the Tay
A few hours.
The route
Castle Menzies is a sixteenth-century tower house at Weem, standing at the foot of a wooded crag across the Tay from Aberfeldy, and it was saved from ruin and restored room by room by the Menzies Clan Society.
Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed here briefly on his way north in 1746. Afterwards, lunch is a few minutes away at the Watermill in Aberfeldy, a bookshop and café in an old oatmeal mill.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is The House at Dun Aluinn. Sleeps 18.
The day
Weem
A morning up and down the spiral stairs of a clan castle. Then across the Tay for soup and books by the stove in Aberfeldy.
About three hours
Castle Menzies
An attraction
Castle Menzies stands at Weem on the B846, just north of the Tay, with parking at the castle. From 3 April until late October it opens Monday to Thursday and on Saturdays from 10.30am, and on Sundays from 11am, with last entry at 4.30pm. It's shut on Fridays, and now and then for a private function, so ring before a long trip. Tickets for the castle are £14 for adults, or £16 with the walled garden, at the time of writing, and children under 16 go free with a paying adult. It's a Z-plan tower house, built with towers at opposite corners so its defenders could cover every wall, and the date 1571 is carved over the old entrance. Inside there are steep stone steps, spiral stairs, uneven floors and low doorways, and the ground floor has a film of the upper rooms for anyone who can't manage the stairs. Only guide dogs may go inside.
7 min by car
Aberfeldy Watermill Bookshop & Cafe
Lunch
Lunch is 7 minutes' drive over the Tay into Aberfeldy, at the Watermill on Mill Street, a bookshop in an old oatmeal mill. The café under the old beams does soup, light lunches and home baking, with a wood-burning stove, and dogs are welcome inside. It opens 9am to 5pm on weekdays and 10am to 5pm at weekends. Parking is free at Moness Terrace and Chapel Street.
If it rains
The castle rooms and the Watermill are both under a roof: a wet morning changes little.
