Dunkeld

Dunkeld stands on the north bank of the Tay, where the wooded hills of Perthshire open towards the Highlands. The relics of Saint Columba, brought here from Iona in the ninth century, gave its monastery a place at the heart of Scottish religious life. A bishop's cathedral rose beside the river, while the meeting of cattle-droving routes helped sustain the town's market. Brewing, tanning and weaving gave Dunkeld a livelihood beyond the cathedral precinct.

Religious conflict repeatedly scarred the town. The cathedral was stripped during the Reformation of 1560, though its choir was later roofed again for parish worship. In 1689, Cameronian troops held Dunkeld against a Jacobite attack, and the fighting left much of the town burned. Rebuilding restored its role as a market and crossing place. Thomas Telford's stone bridge, completed in 1809, improved passage over the Tay and drew the town's main thoroughfare towards the new crossing.