Perth and Perthshire

Things to do in Perth and Perthshire

Twelve picks, starting in the city and working north and west into the county, with drive times from Perth. Prices and hours were checked on the operators' own sites in August 2026; they change every spring, so treat them as a guide.

1. Perth Museum and the Stone of Destiny

The Stone of Destiny, on which Scottish kings were crowned at Scone until Edward I took it to Westminster in 1296, came home to Perthshire in 2024 and sits in a purpose-built chamber in the new Perth Museum on St John's Place. You see it in a ten-minute timed experience with a light-and-sound telling of its story, and it is free. The rest of the museum is free too: Pictish carved stones, the Carpow logboat, and the story of a city that was once Scotland's capital. Allow ninety minutes.

Practical: Free; donations welcome. Stone of Destiny slots run every ten minutes from 10.10am (11.10am on Sunday), booked at the front desk on the day; groups of ten or more book online three weeks ahead. Last admission to the Stone is 4.40pm Monday to Saturday, 6.40pm on Thursday and 3.40pm on Sunday. Summer hours 10am to 5pm (Thursday to 7pm, Sunday 11am to 4pm). Bag checks, and no large bags. Checked August 2026.

2. Scone Palace

Ten minutes north of the city, the palace on the site of the abbey where Macbeth, Robert the Bruce and Charles II were crowned, still the home of the Earls of Mansfield. The state rooms have the porcelain and the ivories, but the point is Moot Hill outside, the crowning place with its little chapel and a replica of the Stone, and a hundred acres of grounds with peacocks, a star-shaped maze, the pinetum and the Douglas fir grown from seed sent home by David Douglas, who was a gardener here. A half day.

Practical: Open daily from 1 April to 31 October, 10am to 5.30pm, last entry 4pm. Palace and gardens £19.75 adult, £13.50 child, £59.75 for a family of two adults and two children; gardens only £14 adult, £8.50 child, £40.75 family. Checked August 2026.

3. Kinnoull Hill and the city on foot

Perth is a walking city: the two Inches (the big riverside parks), the Georgian streets around St John's Kirk, the Fair Maid's House, the Fergusson Gallery in the old waterworks, and the Black Watch Castle and Museum at the top of the North Inch. Then cross the Tay and climb Kinnoull Hill, where the folly on the cliff edge looks down the river to Dundee and up to the Highlands; an hour from the car park. Branklyn Garden, a National Trust for Scotland garden of Himalayan plants on the same side of the river, is the gentler hour.

4. The Hermitage and Dunkeld

Twenty minutes up the A9, the Hermitage is a 200-year-old pleasure ground of Douglas firs (one of them is among the tallest trees in Britain) along the River Braan, with Ossian's Hall, a folly built over the Black Linn waterfall so that the water roars under your feet, fifteen minutes' walk from the car park. Salmon leap the falls in autumn. Dunkeld across the river is the prettiest small town in Perthshire, with the half-ruined cathedral on the Tay, a good main street of cafés and independent shops, and the Birnam Oak, the last of Macbeth's wood, a short walk away.

Practical: The Hermitage is free and open all year; parking is £5 for non-members of the National Trust for Scotland. Dunkeld and Birnam station is on the Highland line. Checked August 2026.

5. Pitlochry and the salmon ladder

Pitlochry, 35 minutes north, is the Victorian resort town of Perthshire, and the dam at the foot of Loch Faskally has a fish ladder with a viewing window where you can watch salmon climbing past the turbines from spring to autumn; the visitor centre is free and open daily from 10am to 4.30pm, with a two-hour parking limit. The Festival Theatre across the river runs through the summer, the Explorers Garden beside it celebrates the Scottish plant hunters, and the Enchanted Forest in October lights up the woods at Faskally for a month. Edradour and Blair Athol distilleries are both in the town.

6. Killiecrankie and Blair Castle

Just north of Pitlochry, the Pass of Killiecrankie is a wooded gorge with the Soldier's Leap, where a redcoat jumped the river to escape the Jacobites in 1689, and a National Trust for Scotland visitor centre. Seven miles on, Blair Castle at Blair Atholl is the white turreted seat of the Dukes of Atholl, with thirty rooms open, the Hercules Garden and the Atholl Highlanders, the only private army in Europe, who parade in late May.

Practical: Blair Castle is open 10am to 5pm with last entry at 3.45pm, through to the end of October; it closes early on 5, 28 and 29 October 2026 for events. House and gardens £20 adult, £17.50 senior, £12.50 child (5 to 16), under-5s free, £57 for two adults and two children; gardens only up to £10. Killiecrankie visitor centre is free with a parking charge for non-members. Checked August 2026.

7. Loch Tay and the Crannog Centre

Fifty minutes west, Loch Tay is fifteen miles of water under Ben Lawers, with Kenmore at the east end and Killin and the Falls of Dochart at the west. The Scottish Crannog Centre, which burned down in 2021, reopened in 2024 on a new site at Dalerb on the north shore, with an Iron Age village to walk through, a museum of the finds from the loch bed and, finished in 2026, the first of the new crannogs standing out over the water. Ben Lawers itself, at 1,214 metres, is the highest mountain in the southern Highlands and a serious day from the National Trust for Scotland car park above Loch Tay.

Practical: The Crannog Centre is open daily in season from 10am to 6pm, with the last guided museum tour at 4pm and the café from 9.30am. £16.50 adult, £13.75 concession, £11 child (under 16), under-5s free, £44 for two adults and two children; dogs welcome; parking on site at Dalerb, with more in Kenmore a short walk away. Checked August 2026.

8. The distilleries

Perthshire has four you can tour within an hour of the city, and they are very different. Glenturret at Crieff says it is Scotland's oldest working distillery, dating itself to 1763, and has the Lalique restaurant with two Michelin stars. Dewar's Aberfeldy Distillery is the polished visitor centre of a famous blend. Edradour at Pitlochry is one of the smallest, all white walls and red doors in a glen, and Blair Athol is the town's other one. Whoever is driving stays on the coffee, because the Scottish limit is lower than England's. Our drink lover's guide to Perth has the city's bars and the tours.

Practical: Glenturret's distillery tour is £20 for an hour, daily, with the whisky maker's experience at £125. Dewar's Aberfeldy Experience is from £25 for 90 minutes with two drams, or a 30-minute tasting and stories from £17; open Monday to Saturday 10am to 6pm and Sunday noon to 4pm from April to October, shorter hours and no Sundays in winter. Checked August 2026.

9. Crieff and Strathearn

Half an hour west, Crieff is the market town at the foot of the Highlands with the Crieff Hydro, the oldest spa hotel in Scotland, above it, and Strathearn running west to Comrie and St Fillans on Loch Earn. Drummond Castle Gardens outside the town are the grandest formal gardens in Scotland, open from late spring. Gleneagles, with its three championship courses, is fifteen minutes south, and our golf stays guide covers it.

10. On the water

The Tay is Scotland's biggest river and Perthshire uses it. Willowgate Activity Centre on the river outside Perth does kayaking, paddleboarding and open-water swimming, and has a café; Nae Limits at Ballinluig near Pitlochry runs white-water rafting on the Tay and the Tummel, canyoning and cliff jumping; and Packrafting Scotland at Dunkeld takes you down the river in an inflatable boat you carry in on your back. In Your Element covers Loch Tay. For a wet day with children, Perth Leisure Pool has the flumes.

11. Autumn colour

October is the month Perthshire is built for. The beeches at the Hermitage, the larches along Loch Tummel from the Queen's View, the Faskally woods at Pitlochry lit up for the Enchanted Forest, the oaks at Dunkeld and the maples at Branklyn and Scone are the reason the county calls itself Big Tree Country, and the salmon are leaping while the leaves fall. Book the cabins for October a season ahead. The pumpkin farms are open at the same time.

12. The Rob Roy Way and the gentle hills

Perthshire's walking is friendlier than the Highlands proper. The Rob Roy Way runs from Drymen to Pitlochry through Callander, Killin and Aberfeldy over a week, and the day sections along Loch Tay and the Tay valley are the best of it. Birnam Hill above Dunkeld, Ben Vrackie above Pitlochry (a proper hill at 841 metres) and the Knock above Crieff are the short climbs with the big views, and Faskally Woods and the Birks of Aberfeldy are the flat ones with waterfalls.

Where to eat

In the city, Deans on Kinnoull Street is the modern Scottish restaurant for a proper dinner, and North Port, tucked beside Perth Theatre in the oldest part of town, is the cosy independent with a short seasonal menu. The Bistro at the Black Watch in the castle grounds on the North Inch does breakfast and lunch after the museum, and the Willowgate Café is the riverside stop outside town. In the county, Dunkeld and Pitlochry have the cafés and Crieff has the Hydro. See all places to eat in Perthshire.

Getting there and around

Perth is the crossroads of Scotland, which is its whole history: the A9 north, the M90 south to Edinburgh, the A85 west to Crieff and the A90 east to Dundee all meet here, and the railway does the same, with direct trains from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness. The Highland line north stops at Dunkeld and Birnam, Pitlochry and Blair Atholl, so the A9 corridor works without a car; Loch Tay, Crieff and the glens do not.

Drive times are for normal traffic in August 2026; train times are typical direct services. Check for the day you travel.

Parking in Perth is easy by Scottish city standards, with big car parks by the river and the station. In the county, the National Trust for Scotland car parks at the Hermitage and Killiecrankie charge non-members, and Kenmore and Pitlochry fill on October weekends.

When to visit

October, and we mean it: the colour along the Tay, the Tummel and the Braan is the finest in Scotland, the Enchanted Forest runs through the month, and the salmon are leaping at the Hermitage and the Pitlochry ladder. Book early. May and June are the second choice, with the rhododendrons at Branklyn and Scone, the rivers full and the roads quiet. Summer is pleasant rather than crowded, apart from the A9 on a Friday. Winter closes Scone and Blair Castle and most of the cabins come into their own, with log burners and the Highland line still running; Perth's Christmas lights switch-on and the Christmas markets fill the city in late November.

Day trips and nearby

Dundee and the V&A are 25 minutes east, and Stirling and its castle 40 minutes south-west. St Andrews and the Fife coast are an hour. North, Aviemore and the Cairngorms are ninety minutes up the A9, and Inverness a little over two hours. West through Crieff and Loch Earn, the Trossachs and Loch Lomond are an hour and a half. Perth is a UNESCO Creative City of Craft and Folk Art, one of the stops on our UNESCO trail, and Crieff features in Scotland through literature. Our two-day guide to Perth plans a weekend in the city itself.