The Highland Perthshire area contains world renowned scenery including the famous Scottish mountain peaks of Schiehallion (1083m), Ben Lawers (1214m) and Ben Vrackie (841m). Hill waking in the Perthshire hills is a pleasurable midge free experience and where, due to its sheltering from the prevailing west wind, the weather quality is significantly better than areas further to the west of the country. Equally beautiful are the soft wooded lower lying straths and glens which contain the River Tay, River Tummel, River Garry, and River Lyon as well as Loch Tay, Loch Tummel and Loch Rannoch. These rivers hold a peculiar place in the history of Highland Perthshire. Poets and writers have derived their inspiration and they have determined the settlement of the populations and the march of civilisation. On their banks and those of the lochs the chief commercial towns and villages are situated and have an important influence on the agriculture and social development of our area. Aberfeldy and Dunkeld/Birnam on the Tay and Pitlochry on the River Tummel are the largest traditional historic Scottish market towns but there are over 40 other charming villages in the area each with its own delightful characteristics.
Robert Burns praised the beauty of the Tay and flowing from Loch Tay at Kenmore and wrote one of his finest lyrics beside its most lovely tributary, the Moness Burn which flows through the Birks of Aberfeldy.
In indeed it was the out washings from this deep cavern created in the southern hillside above Aberfeldy, over millions of years, that formed the sand and rounded shingle raised beaches on which much of the town and its golf course currently sits and causes the River Tay to meander to the north side of the valley.
The name the Tay bears is a primitive one, being derived from the root aa which signifies running water and was applied wherever primitive tribes quenched their thirst and afforded them a resting place; for example the Thames, Taw, Tamar, Tagus, Tiber or the Aar in Switzerland.
Over time, following the ice age, the Tay has distributed the chaos of glacial soils and boulder clay debris into natural forms of order and beauty, eventually the area becoming a patchwork of brushwood and stately timber, its banks clothed with verdure, fostering conditions favourable to human life. From the earliest times when mankind passed from huntsman to farmer, the Tay valley afforded its fertile soils, genial climate and moderate comfortable conditions enabling man to forego the harshness, bleakness and inhospitable climates of more northern and westernareas. The struggle for existence around the Tay was less demanding, allowing more leisure for the cultivation of the arts of life.
