Aberfeldy And Glenlyon To Dunkeld And Scone
From Coast to Coast
ROUTE LENGTH: 34 MILES
By Road
Take the A826 South from Aberfeldy, turning left onto the A822 along Strath Braan to Dunkeld.
From Dunkeld follow the A9 to Perth, crossing over the Tay there to turn north on the A93 and follow signs for Scone.
By Cycle
Follow NCN 7 & 77, coming into Dunkeld through the trees along the riverside.
From Dunkeld continue south on NCN 77 to reach Perth. A cycle/pedestrian crossing of the Tay is planned to reach Scone. Until then cyclists will have to use the main road.
By Foot
From Dunkeld there is a riverside walk of 2 miles using NCN 77.
By Public Transport
There are railway stations at Pitlochry, Dunkeld and Perth.
A bus can be taken from Aberfeldy to Perth, and from Perth to Old Scone.
To check times go to Traveline Scotland and click on Plan your Journey on left side of page.
Journey Links
Scotland’s ancient kingdom was formed around these places. Picts and Scots were symbolically united by moving Columba’s relics at Dunkeld, after the Viking onslaught on Iona.We have followed the spread of Scots influence with Adomnan through Glenlyon. The journey to Dunkeld traverses a landscape saturated with the legends of Finn and Ossian, which are celebrated at the Hermitage in Strathbraan. Dunkeld Cathedral sits in a beautiful bend of the River Tay amidst gracious parks and woodland. It seems perfectly in place and its scale reminds us of its importance as the capital of Christianity in the southern Highlands. The attractive village spills down from the former Cathedral Close to the bridge over the Tay. Birnam, a little downriver, is also very attractive and associated with Shakespeare’s Macbeth (‘Till Birnam Wood will come to Dunsinane’) and Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit.
At the Mound or Moot of Scone, the Kings of Scots were inaugurated upon the Stone of Destiny, which was reputed to have been Jacob’s pillow, coming from Palestine to Argyll by way of Ireland, and finally to Scone when the Picts and Scots united. The Abbey here was ransacked during the Scottish Reformation, and absorbed into an aristocratic estate of what is now called Scone Palace.
The remains of Scone Abbey are in the grounds of Scone Palace, but the plain stone reputed to be the ancient coronation stone is in Edinburgh Castle having been returned after a seven hundred year sojourn under the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey in London. Some say that the original stone is still buried where the monks concealed it in Perthshire, as Edward I’s troops came to seaize Scotland’s precious symbol of nationhood.