We’ve been to Dunkeld many times but had never noticed this statue before last November. Mind you it’s on the Birnam side of the River Tay which we don’t often frequent. It also seems to have been commissioned reasonably recently.

Information plaque:-

Gow was apparently the most famous Scottish fiddler of the eighteenth century.

He was even painted by Sir Henry Raeburn:-

We took a trip up to Dunkeld last November. I had previously noticed out of the corner of my eye a ruined church in the village of Bankfoot just off the A 9. This time we took the opportunity to pop into the village for a look.

It was apparently Auchtergaven and Moneydie Parish Church.

There were lots of signs warning that the area wasn’t safe to enter.

Speaking to a local we were told that the church had been reasonably intact until a few months before when sparks from a garden bonfire had drifted onto its roof and set it alight. Shame. I suppose it will have to be demolished now.

Dunkeld is a village/town on the River Tay ten or so miles north of Perth. The bridge there which links Dunkeld to Birnam was built by Thomas Telford.

River Tay looking south from Telford’s bridge:-

This is a view of Telford’s bridge from the Birnam side of the river:-

And from the grounds of the town’s historic cathedral:-

The Cathedral was for a time closed to visitors but in 2018 we had a peek inside. Cathedral altar and stained glass windows:-

Just to the left in the photo above lies a memorial to the officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the Scottish Horse who gave their lives in the two Great Wars. “1914 -1918, Gallipoli, Egypt, Macedonia, France. 1939 – 1945, North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany.”

Below that are the words, “The souls of the righteous are in the hands of god. There shall…” the rest is obscured by the Roll of Honour. A barrier prevented me from getting any closer:-

In the square in Dunkeld itself is a memorial to the men of the Scottish Horse who died in the Boer War. I have previously mentioned it here.

This has only fairly recently been erected in memory of those who died in the Battle of Dunkeld, 1689, in the first of the Jacobite risings.

Battle of Dunkeld Information Board:-

Further to my post about the War Memorials on Edinburgh Castle Esplanade one of which was for the men of the Scottish horse the last time I was in Dunkeld I noticed this memorial on one of the walls in the town square:-

Again it commemorates the South African War (Second Boer War.)

This is the Royal School of Dunkeld, established in 1567. Its present building, situated across the River Tay from Dunkeld itself in what is known as Little Dunkeld and which adjoins Birnam, was constructed in 1930 and shows some Deco features. (The church to the right is Little Dunkeld Kirk.)

Dunkeld War Memorial is in the immaculately Scottish shape of a cairn. It commemorates the dead of Dunkeld and Little Dunkeld (and I assume Birnam.) It’s set on a hill above the road into Dunkeld, just off the A9.

The photo below gives more of the effect from the road (and from Thomas Telford’s bridge over the Tay which leads you into Dunkeld itself.)

There are three plaques. One for the Great War:-

Below that is a plaque for WW2 and a solitary name for Northern Ireland.