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Castles
in Perthshire.

It’s 01:43 in Perthshire.
Perthshire

Palaces, castles and clan seats.

Perthshire's castles span the whole of Scotland's story. There's the palace beside the hill where Scotland's kings were crowned, a gleaming white castle that's still the seat of a Highland duke, and the stronghold of a clan near the Tay. You'll also find tower houses on the edge of Perth and, across the water of Loch Leven, the island castle that once held Mary Queen of Scots. Many have gardens, woodland walks and tearooms to make a day of it. Check the opening times, as several close over the winter.

Huntingtower Castle→
Castle Menzies→
Drummond Castle Gardens→
Scone Palace→
The Black Watch Castle & Museum→
Blair Castle→
Autumn9 minutes ago

What Huntingtower Castle looks like in autumn.

Two fifteenth-century tower houses on the edge of Perth, joined into one, where James VI was held for ten months in the Ruthven Raid of 1582.

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LunchJust nowPerthshireEffie's of Perth900 yardsPerthCoffee and Things0.6 milesPerthThe Rose House0.6 miles

Lunch near The Black Watch Castle & Museum.

The three good places closest to it: Effie's of Perth, Coffee and Things and The Rose House.

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Did you knowJust now

An earl of Drummond set out to plant an avenue of trees running twenty miles from his garden at Drummond Castle, near Crieff, all the way to Perth.

Drummond Castle, in Perthshire, went up on its rocky outcrop around 1490, and the garden below it was transformed between 1630 and 1636 by the 2nd Earl, a Privy Councillor to James VI and Charles I; the sundial at its centre was set up in 1630. Towards the end of that century the 4th Earl began something a good deal larger: four rows of trees, from the castle to Perth. One of the gardeners working here at the time was John Reid, who went on to write The Scots Gard'ner in 1683, the first Scottish gardening book.

See Drummond Castle Gardens · Perthshire
From our guideJust now

Scone Palace.

Macbeth, Robert the Bruce and Charles II were all crowned at this historic five-star attraction across the River Tay from Perth. Pronounced ‘Scoon’ – but you knew that – the remarkable ivy-clad palace has been rebuilt since it was originally constructed, yet still speaks of a hugely momentous past. See where the famous Stone of Scone once stood, tour the opulent interior, and enjoy the 100 acres of gardens (kids will love the ‘tartan’ maze).

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Castle of the dayJust now

Drummond Castle Gardens.

A formal garden near Crieff, first laid out in 1630 below Drummond Castle, its Italian parterre centred on a sundial by the King's master mason, open in summer.

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From the magazineJust now

When Robert Pooley, father of the interior designer Katharine Pooley, first saw Forter Castle in Glenisla, Perthshire, it was a complete ruin with trees growing among its blackened walls.

The 16th-century castle was restored to its original layout, and Katharine oversaw the design of its rooms, which stay authentic while adding plenty of 21st-century comforts. Look up in the Great Hall and you will see an ornate ceiling that took 30 days to paint by hand. The bedrooms have four-poster beds, stone fireplaces and carefully chosen family heirlooms, which give each one a character of its own. Today the castle is rented out for special occasions as a whole, and weddings can be held in its basement chapel.

Read the full story in Issue 5
From our guideJust now

Blair Castle.

A whitewashed colossus on a wide, forested estate on the edge of the village of Blair Atholl, this sumptuous castle is one of Perthshire’s – if not Scotland’s – must-sees. Its baronial interior, adapted over the course some 750 years, conjures a stirring vision of how the other half lived in centuries gone by. Mary Queen of Scots and Bonnie Prince Charlie both came calling.

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Did you knowJust now

The capercaillie, the biggest of all grouse, died out in Scotland in 1785 and was brought back at Taymouth Castle in Perthshire in 1837.

A male can weigh up to 4 kilograms, and its Gaelic name, capull-choille, means horse of the woods, after the drum roll in its display song. It was Lord Breadalbane who reintroduced it, and every capercaillie in Scotland today comes from Swedish stock. Sadly the bird is in trouble again: a survey in 2021 and 2022 estimated just 532 left, the lowest since records began, and the RSPB warns it could die out for a second time. It breeds in the native pinewoods, and visitors are asked not to go looking for it, because it is easily disturbed.

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QuizJust now

Who was the last king to be made King of Scots on the Stone of Destiny at Scone?

Did you knowJust now

The gap between the two towers of Huntingtower Castle, near Perth, is still called the Maiden's Leap, after a girl said to have jumped it.

The castle began as two separate tower houses, built about three metres apart, and they were only linked in the 1600s. The legend says Dorothea, daughter of the first Earl of Gowrie, was visiting her sweetheart in the other tower when she heard her mother coming, and leapt the 9 feet 4 inches between the tower tops to get back. Her mother found her safely in her own bed that night, though the couple eloped the next day. Inside the east tower is a painted wooden ceiling from about 1540, believed to be the earliest of its kind to survive substantially in Scotland.

See Huntingtower Castle · Perthshire

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