Birnam

View Photos

Add to List

Introduction

Birnam owes its existence to the railway. The line from Perth arrived in 1856 and a Victorian resort village grew up around the station, on the south bank of the Tay opposite the much older Dunkeld. Its name was already famous by then. Shakespeare put Birnam Wood into Macbeth, and the Birnam Oak still stands on the riverbank, a gnarled survivor said to be the last remnant of that ancient forest. It's a ten-minute walk from the village centre and worth every step.

The other literary connection is Beatrix Potter, who spent her childhood summers at nearby Dalguise and wrote the letter that became The Tale of Peter Rabbit while staying in the area in 1893. Birnam Arts, the village's arts and conference centre, tells that story through its Beatrix Potter exhibition and garden trail, alongside a year-round programme of music, theatre and monthly exhibitions. The Birnam Hotel, the village's landmark baronial pile, is being restored by the independent team behind The Taybank in Dunkeld, and its pop-up pub, The Birnam Inn, is already pouring Scottish beers and serving seasonal pies in the old stables at weekends.

Location

Birnam sits just off the A9 in Highland Perthshire, about 15 miles north of Perth and 12 miles south of Pitlochry, on the south bank of the Tay. Dunkeld is directly across the river via Thomas Telford's 1809 bridge, and the two villages function as one destination, with a walk between them taking a few minutes. Dunkeld & Birnam station is on the Highland Main Line, with direct trains from Perth, Edinburgh and Inverness, which makes Birnam one of the easier Highland Perthshire bases to reach without a car.

What's nearby

Dunkeld is over the bridge, with its half-ruined cathedral on the riverbank, a good run of independent shops and cafés, and The Taybank's music sessions. The Hermitage, a mile or so west, is a National Trust for Scotland woodland walk past some of Britain's tallest Douglas firs to Ossian's Hall, a folly above the Black Linn Falls. Loch of the Lowes, two miles east, is a Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve where ospreys nest between spring and late summer. Birnam Hill rises behind the village for a stiffer climb with wide Tay valley views, and Pitlochry, with its Festival Theatre and salmon ladder, is 20 minutes up the A9.