Cateran Ecomuseum

A woodland walk along part of the Highland Boundary Fault. The Den (‘narrow valley’ or ‘gorge’) o’ Alyth is a wooded glen through which the Alyth Burn runs. Part of the geography of the Highland Boundary Fault, it lies on the outskirts of...

A 12th century Royal Hunting Reserve. As you travel from the Bamff Estate towards Bridge of Cally and Blairgowrie, either as a walker along the Cateran Trail or by cycling or driving the single track road, you will pass through undulating...

A hidden treasure from pre-history. This small Four Poster stone circle, so called because of the prominent upright stones that feature in each corner of a rectangle, is beautifully set on the north-eastern shoulder of a low hill. One of the stones...

The leading entrance to the Highland Glens. Bridge of Cally is small village just north of Blairgowrie through which the Cateran Trail runs. The village sits at the junction of the glens Glenshee and Strathardle where they combine to form a third,...

A Neolithic of Bronze Age Monolith. Also known as Stylemouth, this single standing stone, some 2m in height and  of Neolithic or Bronze Age date can more often than not be seen with cattle using it as a rubbing post! A scheduled monument, it may...

An important community Church. Dedicated in 1899, St Michael and All Angels’ Episcopal Church is a simple but picturesque building designed by the Rev William Sugden. On the roof sits an iron clad flèche containing a fine bell, the maker...

The ancient heart of Strathardle Glen. Located in Strathardle, 13 miles north-west of Blairgowrie, Kirkmichael village dates back over 1,000 years and was once an important market in the cattle trade between the Highlands and Lowlands, with various...

An ancient well. The old roadside water well opposite the church is fed by an underground spring which never runs dry. The ice cold water has an excellent clean sharp taste and is completely drinkable.

A forgotten corner linked to the Black Death. There is a corner of Kirkmichael Parish churchyard where, despite the lack of space, there are no marked graves. This is because in 1350 AD, a terrible plague, the Galor Mor, better known as the Black...

A memorial to Scotland’s first missionary to India. Born in the parish of Moulin in 1806, Alexander Duff was first educated in what is now the Kirkmichael Session House. He boarded with the brilliant teacher Mr Macdougall, returning home to...

An important site in the 1715 Jacobite Rising. A large area of open ground on the west bank of the River Ardle, just south of the Kirkmichael village, is known as the Bannerfield. It was here in September 1715 that John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar...

Memorial to a prominent local man. James Small was an important 19th century Scottish Laird from Kirkmichael. As well as the local estate of Dirnanean, Mr Small owned as much as 20,000 acres of land in the surrounding area and played a prominent...

Remains of a Pictish home. Careful scrutiny of the very tussocky ground on this site still reveals the outline of a Pictish Longhouse called a Pitcarmick House. Archaeologists surveying North East Perthshire in the 1980’s identified a series of...

One of the Ecomuseum’s most prominent landmarks with superb summit views. Mount Blair’ sweeping, symmetrical cone, 744 metres high, is located between Glenshee and Glen Isla. On a clear day you have a 360 degree view encompassing...

A fine example of a late medieval Tower House. Forter Castle was built by the Ogilvys of Airlie as a fortified house in 1560. Such ‘Tower Houses’ as they are known, were intended primarily as dwellings, but constructed so that they could be made...

Thrown by a Giant? Away back in the dim and distant ages of mythology a giant named Colly Camb was reputed to have resided among the rocks on the south side of Mount Blair, where his place of abode, or “Hole,” still bears his name. Some...

Built by Public Subscription in 1836. Brewlands Bridge (or Claypots Bridge) was built by public subscription in 1836. The subscriptions give a fascinating insight into the relative considered worth of the land and occupants in Glenisla at that...

A tranquil sanctuary for wild birds. The beautiful inland Loch of Lintrathen has supplied the city of Dundee with water since 1875. Water is fed down from the Backwater Reservoir 4km to the north, leaving the Loch through sluices at Bridgend of...

A Victorian Shooting Lodge. Balintore Castle was commissioned by David Lyon MP (1794-1872) as a shooting lodge for the elite of Victorian society. Built in the late mid to late 1800’s, it was designed by architect William Burns, who’s other work...

An historic 12thc Churchyard. The medieval church of Kingoldrum (no longer in ecclesiastical use) first comes on record in 1178 and in 1211-4 it was given to Arbroath Abbey by William The Lion. It was dedicated to St Medan (about whom little is...

A fragment of a Medieval Castle incorporated into a 19thc farmhouse. Balfour Mains Farmhouse and Castle has particular interest as a very rare example of a 19th century farmhouse built onto the side of a 16th-century tower. This highly unusual...

A beautiful bird watching site. This nature reserve, run by the RSPB, is open daily from dawn to dusk. Its shallow loch is situated in a natural basin surrounded by farmland and attracts all types of wildlife. One favourite summer visitor is the...

Site of one of the largest Roman Forts in Britain. This Roman fort is at Cardean, on the border between Angus and Perthshire very close to Meigle. It seems to have had a single period of occupation during the Flavian period (AD69-96) and was...

A wonderfully preserved 16thc or 17thc bridge. This bridge, visible from the current road bridge, lies precisely on the Roman Road crossing of the Dean Water, adjacent to the Roman fort of Cardean. Nine feet wide, the bridge comprises of two...

The final resting place of King Arthur’s Queen? This burial mound could well be prehistoric in date but almost certainly represents the earliest phase of Pictish burial on this site, either as a new cairn or as a re-used prehistoric one.It...

One of the most important collections of early medieval sculpture in Western Europe. Displayed in the old schoolhouse at Meigle, this magnificent collection of carved stones dates from the late 700s to the late 900s. The stones were all found in...

The story behind the word Cateran. ‘Cateran’ derives from the Gaelic word ceatharn meaning ‘warrior’, but usually one that is lightly armed. The term was originally given to a band of fighting men of a Scottish Highland clan but in the...