Aberfeldy, Perth and Kinross
Encyclopedia
Aberfeldy is a burgh
in Perth and Kinross
, Scotland
, on the River Tay
. A small market town, Aberfeldy is located in Highland Perthshire and houses a population of about 1,895, as of the 2001 census. It is also mentioned in a well-known poem by Robert Burns
.
Beyond its association with Burns, who mentioned Aberfeldy in his poem The Birks of Aberfeldy
, the town is known for "Wade's Bridge", built in 1733 and designed by architect William Adam, father of the more famous Robert Adam
. General Wade considered this bridge to be his greatest accomplishment. Aberfeldy is also mentioned in the traditional Loch Tay Boat Song.
The town also includes a memorial to the Black Watch
, an 18-hole golf course, a children's park, and a town square that features stores, restaurants and art galleries. In 2002, Aberfeldy was granted Fairtrade Town
status, which was renewed by the Fairtrade Foundation on 15 December 2003.
The Aberfeldy Footbridge over the River Tay was the world's first bridge constructed entirely of composite materials. It connects two holes of the town's golf course on either side of the River Tay.
Breadalbane Cricket Club, founded in 1869, play home matches at Victoria Park in Aberfeldy. The team are the Perthshire Cup Winners for 2007 and 2008, and Strathmore Cricket Union Division One Champions in 2006 and 2008.
Aberfeldy is situated in the Tay Valley on the upper reaches of the River Tay, which begins up-valley from Aberfeldy at Loch Tay
and carries on south and east from Aberfeldy until it discharges at its estuary east of Perth
at the Firth of Tay
. Lying in a u-shaped valley common to Scotland's glaciated landscape, the terrain in and around Aberfeldy is gently undulating. Farming and agriculture border the town in the valley's floor. Areas further outside of Aberfeldy (particularly to the north and west) give way to the extensive Grampian Mountains, with scenic peaks such as Creag Odhar
, Farragon (780m), Schiehallion
(1083m), Ben Lawers
(1214m) and Sron Mhor punctuating the landscape.
Aberfeldy lies at the intersection of two A roads, the A826 to Crieff
and the A827, which leads east and south towards the main A9 trunk road. Aberfeldy is easily reached from southern locations by taking the A9 to the Ballinluig exit, then the A827 to get to the town. Owing to its location off the A9 trunk road, Aberfeldy is less geared toward tourists than its cousin Pitlochry
.
The entrance to the Birks of Aberfeldy – a well known gorge and scenic walk – lies on the southern outskirts of Aberfeldy on the A826. The Birks is classified as a "Site of Special Scientific Interest" and contains many varieties of flora and fauna, some of which are protected.
Glen Lyon
, widely regarded as one of Scotland's most stunning and least-visited valleys, lies about 8 kilometers from the outskirts of Aberfeldy. Evidence of fort construction by Roman legions several thousand years ago exists to this day, further evidence of the region's historical as well as geographical relevance. At the mouth of Glen Lyon lies the village of Fortingall
, legendary birth place of Pontius Pilate
and home to the Fortingall Yew Tree, reputed to be more than 5,000 years old (though recent research suggests its age to be closer to 2,000).
Aberfeldy Parish Church meets in the former Breadalbane Church building in Taybridge Road, which was the first new building of the Free Church after the Disruption in 1843. It reunited with the former parish church, St Andrew's in Crieff Road, built in 1884, and for a while was used as halls for the united congregation, until 2005 when the Crieff Road building was closed and a modern interior and suite of halls was added to the Taybridge Road building, providing excellent facilities for adult and youth work. There is also a Roman Catholic Church in Home Street. The buildings formerly used as Congregational, Free, and Episcopal churches are now all used for other purposes.
Aberfeldy does not have a theatre or a music hall. The nearest venues are the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, the Perth Theatre or the Perth Concert Hall. The new Community School will have an auditorium though. Neither is there a cinema in Aberfeldy. The Birks Cinema, built in the very heart of the town in 1939 in a late Art Deco
style, closed in the early 1980s for lack of business. It then turned into an amusement hall, for which purpose the entire interior was demolished. The amusement hall closed in 2004 and the building stands as an empty shell ever since. In 2009 it was bought by the "Friends of the Birks" with a grant from the Scottish Government’s Town Centre Regeneration Fund. It is hoped that enough money can be raised to reopen it as a new 92-seat cinema and café-bar. The patron of the project is the actor Alan Cumming
, who was born in the town.
Aberfeldy is the location of the poem "The Birks of Aberfeldy" by Robert Burns
:
In 2001, the author JK Rowling purchased the nearby 19th-century Killiechassie House
, on the banks of the River Tay.
Dalradian geological formations in the Highlands north of Aberfeldy contain substantial deposits of the mineral baryte, which is mostly used as a weighting agent for drilling fluids to prevent blow-outs in oil and gas exploration wells. There are three locations with exploitable quantities of it. The Foss Mine, some 4 miles NW of Aberfeldy at 56°40′1.47"N 3°56′5.21"W has been operational since 1984 and production averages 50,000 tonnes per annum. So far some 525,000 tonnes have been extracted there by M-I SWACO. In 1990, a locally based company began opencast extraction near the summit of Ben Eagach, 4 miles due north of Aberfeldy. Approximately 25,000 tonnes were mined from a series of small pits which have now been abandoned.
The largest formation, containing a 7.5 million ton reserve is at Duntanlich, some 6 miles due north of Aberfeldy, just south of the shores of Loch Tummel
. In 1994 an application by MI Great Britain Ltd to mine the deposits was turned down. In 2000, M I Drilling Fluids UK unfolded new plans to establish a supermine at Duntanlich to take six million tonnes from the deposit over the next 30 years) and began preliminary talks with Perth & Kinross Council and Scottish Natural Heritage
. However the site is in plain view from the Queen's View on the northern side of Loch Tummel and the weighing of economic and job considerations against conservation and planning concerns and the interests of the tourism sector has so far prevented a decision on exploitation.
Burgh
A burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland and Northern England, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United...
in Perth and Kinross
Perth and Kinross
Perth and Kinross is one of 32 council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee City, Fife, Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Argyll and Bute and Highland council areas. Perth is the administrative centre...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, on the River Tay
River Tay
The River Tay is the longest river in Scotland and the seventh-longest in the United Kingdom. The Tay originates in western Scotland on the slopes of Ben Lui , then flows easterly across the Highlands, through Loch Dochhart, Loch Lubhair and Loch Tay, then continues east through Strathtay , in...
. A small market town, Aberfeldy is located in Highland Perthshire and houses a population of about 1,895, as of the 2001 census. It is also mentioned in a well-known poem by Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
.
Beyond its association with Burns, who mentioned Aberfeldy in his poem The Birks of Aberfeldy
The Birks of Aberfeldy
"The Birks of Aberfeldy" is a song lyric written for a pre-existing melody in 1787 by Robert Burns. He was inspired to write it by the Falls of Moness and the birch trees of Aberfeldy during a tour of the Scottish Highlands with his friend William Nicol....
, the town is known for "Wade's Bridge", built in 1733 and designed by architect William Adam, father of the more famous Robert Adam
Robert Adam
Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...
. General Wade considered this bridge to be his greatest accomplishment. Aberfeldy is also mentioned in the traditional Loch Tay Boat Song.
The town also includes a memorial to the Black Watch
Black Watch
The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The unit's traditional colours were retired in 2011 in a ceremony led by Queen Elizabeth II....
, an 18-hole golf course, a children's park, and a town square that features stores, restaurants and art galleries. In 2002, Aberfeldy was granted Fairtrade Town
Fairtrade Town
Fairtrade Town is a status awarded by a recognized Fairtrade certification body describing an area which is committed to the promotion of Fairtrade certified goods...
status, which was renewed by the Fairtrade Foundation on 15 December 2003.
The Aberfeldy Footbridge over the River Tay was the world's first bridge constructed entirely of composite materials. It connects two holes of the town's golf course on either side of the River Tay.
Breadalbane Cricket Club, founded in 1869, play home matches at Victoria Park in Aberfeldy. The team are the Perthshire Cup Winners for 2007 and 2008, and Strathmore Cricket Union Division One Champions in 2006 and 2008.
Geography
Aberfeldy is situated in the Tay Valley on the upper reaches of the River Tay, which begins up-valley from Aberfeldy at Loch Tay
Loch Tay
Loch Tay is a freshwater loch in the central highlands of Scotland, in the district of Perthshire.It is a long narrow loch of around 14 miles long, and typically around 1 to 1½ miles wide, following the line of the valley from the south west to north east...
and carries on south and east from Aberfeldy until it discharges at its estuary east of Perth
Perth, Scotland
Perth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...
at the Firth of Tay
Firth of Tay
The Firth of Tay is a firth in Scotland between the council areas of Fife, Perth and Kinross, the City of Dundee and Angus, into which Scotland's largest river in terms of flow, the River Tay, empties....
. Lying in a u-shaped valley common to Scotland's glaciated landscape, the terrain in and around Aberfeldy is gently undulating. Farming and agriculture border the town in the valley's floor. Areas further outside of Aberfeldy (particularly to the north and west) give way to the extensive Grampian Mountains, with scenic peaks such as Creag Odhar
Creag Odhar
Creag Odhar is a rocky mountain peak in the southern Highlands of Scotland, in Perthshire north of Aberfeldy. The name is Gaelic, from creag, meaning "crag" or "peak", and odhar, meaning "gray". It rises above sea level....
, Farragon (780m), Schiehallion
Schiehallion
Schiehallion is a prominent mountain in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Schiehallion has a rich botanical life, interesting archaeology, and a unique place in scientific history for an 18th-century experiment in 'weighing the world'...
(1083m), Ben Lawers
Ben Lawers
Ben Lawers is one of the highest mountains in the southern part of the Scottish Highlands. It lies to the north side of Loch Tay, and is the highest point of a long ridge that includes seven Munros. Ben Lawers was long thought to be over 4,000 ft in height; accurate measurement in the 1870s...
(1214m) and Sron Mhor punctuating the landscape.
Aberfeldy lies at the intersection of two A roads, the A826 to Crieff
Crieff
Crieff is a market town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It lies on the A85 road between Perth and Crianlarich and also lies on the A822 between Greenloaning and Aberfeldy. The A822 joins onto the A823 which leads to Dunfermline....
and the A827, which leads east and south towards the main A9 trunk road. Aberfeldy is easily reached from southern locations by taking the A9 to the Ballinluig exit, then the A827 to get to the town. Owing to its location off the A9 trunk road, Aberfeldy is less geared toward tourists than its cousin Pitlochry
Pitlochry
Pitlochry , is a burgh in the council area of Perth and Kinross, Scotland, lying on the River Tummel. Its population according to the 2001 census was 2,564....
.
The entrance to the Birks of Aberfeldy – a well known gorge and scenic walk – lies on the southern outskirts of Aberfeldy on the A826. The Birks is classified as a "Site of Special Scientific Interest" and contains many varieties of flora and fauna, some of which are protected.
Glen Lyon
Glen Lyon
Glen Lyon may refer to:*Glen Lyon, Scotland , a glen in the Perth and Kinross area of Scotland*Glen Lyon, Pennsylvania, a U.S. village named after the Scottish glen...
, widely regarded as one of Scotland's most stunning and least-visited valleys, lies about 8 kilometers from the outskirts of Aberfeldy. Evidence of fort construction by Roman legions several thousand years ago exists to this day, further evidence of the region's historical as well as geographical relevance. At the mouth of Glen Lyon lies the village of Fortingall
Fortingall
Fortingall is a small village in highland Perthshire, Scotland, in the glen of the River Lyon. Place-name Gaelic Fartairchill, 'church at the foot' . Its nearest sizable neighbours are Aberfeldy and Kenmore.According to legend it was the birthplace of Pontius Pilate...
, legendary birth place of Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...
and home to the Fortingall Yew Tree, reputed to be more than 5,000 years old (though recent research suggests its age to be closer to 2,000).
Education, culture and the arts
Aberfeldy has a brand new primary and secondary school called Breadalbane Academy that opened in December 2010. Breadalbane Academy has a wide catchment area throughout Perthshire, including areas such as Killin, Acharn, Kenmore, Dunkeld, Birnam, Bankfoot and Pitlochry. At one time secondary pupils from remoter areas stayed in school hostels in Aberfeldy, but with better roads and depopulation of many remote areas, the hostels were closed at the end of the 20th century. A new school building was erected for opening at the end of 2010Aberfeldy Parish Church meets in the former Breadalbane Church building in Taybridge Road, which was the first new building of the Free Church after the Disruption in 1843. It reunited with the former parish church, St Andrew's in Crieff Road, built in 1884, and for a while was used as halls for the united congregation, until 2005 when the Crieff Road building was closed and a modern interior and suite of halls was added to the Taybridge Road building, providing excellent facilities for adult and youth work. There is also a Roman Catholic Church in Home Street. The buildings formerly used as Congregational, Free, and Episcopal churches are now all used for other purposes.
Aberfeldy does not have a theatre or a music hall. The nearest venues are the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, the Perth Theatre or the Perth Concert Hall. The new Community School will have an auditorium though. Neither is there a cinema in Aberfeldy. The Birks Cinema, built in the very heart of the town in 1939 in a late Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
style, closed in the early 1980s for lack of business. It then turned into an amusement hall, for which purpose the entire interior was demolished. The amusement hall closed in 2004 and the building stands as an empty shell ever since. In 2009 it was bought by the "Friends of the Birks" with a grant from the Scottish Government’s Town Centre Regeneration Fund. It is hoped that enough money can be raised to reopen it as a new 92-seat cinema and café-bar. The patron of the project is the actor Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...
, who was born in the town.
Aberfeldy is the location of the poem "The Birks of Aberfeldy" by Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
:
In 2001, the author JK Rowling purchased the nearby 19th-century Killiechassie House
Killiechassie House
Killiechassie House is a 19th century Estate house, situated on the banks of the River Tay, near Aberfeldy, in Perth and Kinross. The current owner of the house is J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, who purchased it in November 2001 for the sum of approximately £600,000...
, on the banks of the River Tay.
Baryte mining
The PrecambrianPrecambrian
The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...
Dalradian geological formations in the Highlands north of Aberfeldy contain substantial deposits of the mineral baryte, which is mostly used as a weighting agent for drilling fluids to prevent blow-outs in oil and gas exploration wells. There are three locations with exploitable quantities of it. The Foss Mine, some 4 miles NW of Aberfeldy at 56°40′1.47"N 3°56′5.21"W has been operational since 1984 and production averages 50,000 tonnes per annum. So far some 525,000 tonnes have been extracted there by M-I SWACO. In 1990, a locally based company began opencast extraction near the summit of Ben Eagach, 4 miles due north of Aberfeldy. Approximately 25,000 tonnes were mined from a series of small pits which have now been abandoned.
The largest formation, containing a 7.5 million ton reserve is at Duntanlich, some 6 miles due north of Aberfeldy, just south of the shores of Loch Tummel
Loch Tummel
Loch Tummel is a long, narrow loch, 7 kilometres north west of Pitlochry in Perth and Kinross, Scotland .-Geography:The loch is approximately 11 kilometres long from east to west, and is just under 1 kilometre wide...
. In 1994 an application by MI Great Britain Ltd to mine the deposits was turned down. In 2000, M I Drilling Fluids UK unfolded new plans to establish a supermine at Duntanlich to take six million tonnes from the deposit over the next 30 years) and began preliminary talks with Perth & Kinross Council and Scottish Natural Heritage
Scottish Natural Heritage
Scottish Natural Heritage is a Scottish public body. It is responsible for Scotland's natural heritage, especially its natural, genetic and scenic diversity. It advises the Scottish Government and acts as a government agent in the delivery of conservation designations, i.e...
. However the site is in plain view from the Queen's View on the northern side of Loch Tummel and the weighing of economic and job considerations against conservation and planning concerns and the interests of the tourism sector has so far prevented a decision on exploitation.