Monday 27 April 2026 - Branklyn Gardens and Kinnoull Hill

We've visited Branklyn Gardens in Perth before. They are a special place. Many of the plants originated in the Himalaya and the Alps, and were introduced here by the Renton family from the 1920s to their death in the 1960s. Now successfully managed by the National Trust, the gardens are thriving. Here are just a few of the photos from my camera. More will follow in due course. (See the bottom of this posting.)

After an hour in the sunny garden, coffee and scones outside the café were most welcome. 

Just outside the garden, a sign advertising 'Kinnoull Hill 2.5km' couldn't be resisted, so we set off on a well maintained trail through sunlit woodland.

A tower came into view at the top of a cliff. We would reach that later.

Far below, the River Tay and the M90 motorway flowed side by side.

The summit of Kinnoull Hill tops out at a modest 222 metres, but is in such a position that many of the Scottish mountains can be seen.

The onward path to the tower passes through more woodland, fresh foliage glinting in the sunshine.

There are more good views from the tower. If you visit this page later you may discover some history...

* see below

The 'Red Trail' led us in a circuit back down to the gardens, via an unexpected swarm of Leopardsbane. 

Here's our route - 6.2 km with nearly 300 metres ascent, taking us 2¼ hours.

I had the Merlin bird calls App turned on today. Here's what it heard. (I wish I could actually see just a fraction of the birds on this list!)

Jackdaw

Carrion Crow 

Magpie

Willow Warbler

Garden Warbler

Chiffchaff

Bullfinch

Greenfinch

Goldfinch

Chaffinch

Blue Tit 

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Long-tailed Tit 

Treecreeper

Goldcrest 

Song Thrush

Blackbird 

Blackcap

Dunnock

House Sparrow

Gadwall

Stock Dove

Collared Dove 

Wood Pigeon

Siskin

Wren

Robin

I also saw the following, as well as some of those above, in Glen Uig yesterday:

Oystercatchers

Pheasants

Partridge 

Grey Wagtail

Pied Wagtails (on the lawn outside)

Mallards

Others in our party have also heard cuckoos

Buzzards

Osprey

I wonder whether the latter two had a hand in the dead carcases I passed in the Glen?

Here are more pictures from the gardens.

*Kinnoull Tower

On an outcrop a few hundred yards to the east of, and several feet below, the summit is Kinnoull Tower, a folly built in the eighteenth century, by Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull, to resemble castles along the Rhine he had admired in Germany during his Grand Tour of Europe. Kinnoull saw a similarity between the mountainous landscape along the Rhine and the rocky outcrops on his estate near Perth. On his return, to achieve a similar effect, he built a modest castle on the highest point of Kinnoull Hill, with its tower overlooking the River Tay. The tower is a Category B listed structure.

Another of Hay's lasting legacies is the Perth Bridge over the Tay, which he helped fund.

Jane Austen visited Kinnoull Hill in September 1789. She described Kinnoull Tower in "Lesley Castle", one of two Scottish stories in her Juvenilia, as:

An old and Mouldering Castle, which is situated two miles from Perth on a bold projecting Rock, and commands an extensive view of the Town and its delightful Environs.