Something has been quietly happening in Dunkeld. Over the last decade, this small Perthshire village on the River Tay has turned itself into one of the coolest places to stay, eat, drink and walk in Scotland.
A Bake Off semi-finalist came home and opened a sourdough bakery that now has people queueing down Atholl Street by 10am. A husband-and-wife team took over the old post office and turned it into a wine bar running Taco Tuesdays and themed wine flights.
Then Atholl Estates opened Glen Glack, the coolest cabins in Perthshire, hidden away above the village. The Taybank, once a quiet riverside inn owned by folk singer Dougie MacLean, got a fabulous refit and is now arguably the best beer garden in Scotland, complete with riverside open-air cinema, a winter sauna and Thursday-night trad sessions.
Last year, The Sunday Times named Dunkeld the best place to live in Scotland. They were not wrong.
Sitting on the River Tay an hour and a half north of Edinburgh, with 200,000 hectares of forest, moorland and loch surrounding it, Dunkeld has done what most Scottish small towns are crying out to do. It became cool. Here’s what to do, where to eat and where to stay.
At a glance
- Where: Highland Perthshire, on the River Tay
- Distance from Edinburgh: 1 hour 30 minutes by car or train
- Distance from Glasgow: 1 hour 30 minutes by car
- Best for: woodland walks, independent shops, food lovers, autumn colours, wildlife, family days out
- How long to visit: a long day trip, or 2–4 nights to explore properly
- Best time to visit: autumn for the colours, late spring for the ospreys
Where to eat in Dunkeld
The food is, more than anything, what’s transformed Dunkeld. For a town of fewer than 2,000 people, you could eat here for a week and never be dissapointed.
The instagram famous bakery – Aran
Aran Bakery is owned by Flora Shedden, the youngest-ever semi-finalist on Great British Bake Off. Originally from the hamlet of Trochry, ten minutes outside Dunkeld, Flora baulked at more TV fame and instead returned home to Perthshire to open her own bakery and small café, and write her own cookbooks. Aran, and her homewares shop Lon across the road, have transformed Dunkeld’s High Street. Lucky Dunkeld.
Aran (Gaelic for “bread”) is famous for sourdough, exceptional pastries and seriously beautiful cakes. They regularly sell out, so go early. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 9.30am–3.30pm or until they sell out, whichever comes first.
Lon Store, run by Flora across the road from Aran, is a beautifully edited deli and homewares shop that wouldn’t look out of place in Marylebone. Sign up to their monthly box scheme for a curated gift to yourself.
The wine bar – Redwood Wines
Redwood Wines, in the old post office on Bridge Street, is the village’s hidden gem. Recognised by the Good Food Guide and run by husband-and-wife team Roseanna and Morgwn Preston-Jones (he cooks, she runs front of house), the menu is small, seasonal and properly thought through: seasonal salads, homemade pasta, slow-roasted meats. The wine list is one of the best in rural Scotland, with serious bottles by the glass.
Look out for rotisserie chicken night every Friday, monthly themed wine tastings with food pairings, and Morgwn’s much-loved Taco Tuesdays. Open Thursday to Saturday evenings, and Tuesday and Wednesday 11am–5pm. Closed Sunday and Monday. Booking strongly recommended.
Best for brunches – Dunkeld’s
Dunkeld’s at 1 Atholl Street is a deli and café serving doorstep focaccia sandwiches, bagels and huge brunches; by night (Thursday to Saturday, 5.45pm–10pm) the kitchen turns out a small Asian-influenced menu of bao buns, ramen, fried chicken, rice bowls and properly good sides — all made in-house. Last orders 8pm; booking advised.
Pizza by the river, seasonal suppers upstairs – The Taybank
The Taybank sits right on the River Tay and is one of my favourite places to hang out in Scotland. Owned by Fraser Potter (and once owned by Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean, whose musical legacy still hangs in the air), it works equally well for a long lazy lunch in the sunshine, a serious dinner, or just a pint by the river.
The first-floor restaurant serves up a daily-changing menu drawn heavily from their own gardens and a tight network of Scottish suppliers. The riverside garden, one of the largest beer gardens in Scotland, does wood-fired sourdough pizzas, loaded chips, and seasonal small plates designed for sharing in the sun.
Look out for the Boat Road Sessions (bluegrass and Americana), a popular monthly pub quiz, Thursday-night Scottish trad sessions, a sauna in winter and a riverside open-air cinema through the warmer months.
Pies & Pints – The Birnam Inn
The Birnam Inn is a pop-up pub in the former stables of the Birnam Hotel, open while the main hotel undergoes a major refurbishment due to complete in spring 2027.
The hotel is being transformed by Fraser Potter (also of The Taybank), and the pub itself has a cosy open fire, Scottish craft beers, seasonal pies and sides, and a relaxed garden tucked beneath Birnam Hill.
Every drink supports the team and the hotel restoration. Open Fridays 5–10pm, Saturdays and Sundays 12–10pm.
More places to eat:
- The Craft Diner is an award-winning takeaway in Dunkeld’s North Car Park on Atholl Street, doing proper craft smash burgers, burritos and an excellent breakfast menu – their famous French toast box (with maple syrup and a fried egg on top) has its own loyal following. Order, take it down to the river, eat in the sunshine. Hard to beat.
- Full Circle Donuts operates from a converted 1969 horsebox in The Hermitage car park and is, post-walk, the correct decision.
- The Perth Arms is the only proper independent pub in the village (everything else is a hotel bar), dog-friendly, and is what a village pub should be.
Where to stay in Dunkeld
Atholl Estates Glen Glack Cabins – woodland seclusion, five minutes from the village
This is the one I’d recommend first. The Glen Glack Cabins sit on the Atholl Estate, tucked into mature woodland a five-minute drive from Dunkeld but feeling considerably more remote than that.
The cabins are properly designed: full kitchen, woodburner, picture windows aimed at the trees. They’re built for the way people actually want to use a Highland bolthole: log fire on, wine open, walking boots drying by the door, a dog asleep on the rug. The estate itself is yours to wander, with miles of forest tracks, riverbank, and the kind of silence that’s increasingly rare. We didn’t want to leave.
If you want the village on tap but the woods at your door, Glen Glack is the answer.
The Taybank Hotel – best for boutique character
If you only stay one night in Dunkeld, stay here. The Taybank is the boutique pick: five individually designed bedrooms above the bar and restaurant, with the river running past the window and the village’s best beer garden one floor below. Every room is dog-friendly, and both of our pups were welcomed in like regulars.
Breakfast is the moment that tips the Taybank from very good to genuinely memorable. A wicker hamper is delivered to your door (or to a tray in the corridor if you’d rather sleep in), packed with flaky butter croissants from Aran Bakery up the road, Galloway Lodge jam, Inverloch goat’s milk cheddar, Great Glen charcuterie salami, Katy Rodgers yoghurt, the Taybank’s own granola, and a seasonal compote from their walled garden. We carried the whole hamper down to the riverbank and ate breakfast in the sun. Check-out is a generous noon, so there’s no rush.
Read more in my full review of The Taybank Hotel.
More places to stay:
- Dunkeld House – a country-house hotel in 280 acres of woodland on the Tay, with a spa, fine dining and the Tree Trail on the doorstep. One for an anniversary. Dog-friendly rooms available.
- The Atholl Arms – recently refurbished into a 4-star boutique with river-view rooms, sitting in the heart of the village. Step out the door and you’re on Bridge Street.
- Coming spring 2027: The Birnam Hotel – Fraser Potter (of the Taybank) is currently refurbishing this traditional 25-bedroom hotel in Birnam, just across the bridge. One to watch.
The best things to do in Dunkeld and Birnam
Dunkeld and its sister village Birnam sit either side of Thomas Telford’s 1809 bridge across the Tay. Both are small enough to walk in twenty minutes, but there’s plenty to do if you aren’t just coming to Dunkeld to eat.
Don’t miss – The Hermitage
If you do one thing in Dunkeld, do this. The Hermitage is an 18th-century pleasure garden built for the Dukes of Atholl, set among Douglas firs so tall they make you a bit emotional. The path follows the River Braan for half a mile through the trees until you reach Ossian’s Hall, a folly perched directly above the thundering Black Linn Falls.
The Hall was built in 1758 and was originally fitted with mirrors, sliding panels and trompe-l’œil paintings designed to reveal the waterfall in dramatic fashion. The National Trust has restored it beautifully, and stepping through the hidden door to emerge above the waterfall is, even on a grey Tuesday, genuinely beautiful. There’s also a small artificial cave nearby where the original owners advertised, seriously, for a real-life hermit to live and entertain visitors. Obviously, nobody applied.
Park at the main car park (£4) or stroll from Dunkeld in about thirty minutes. Go in October or November if you can possibly manage it; the colour through these trees is absurd. Red squirrels are almost easier to spot here than greys.
Above The Hermitage is Pine Cone Point, a four-mile climb up through Craigvinean Forest to a wooden shelter shaped, true to its name, like an enormous pine cone. The forest itself was sown by the 3rd Duke of Atholl, who reportedly fired larch seeds across the hillside out of a cannon.
Spot ospreys at Loch of the Lowes
The Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve at Loch of the Lowes is one of the best places in Scotland to see ospreys. The birds return from West Africa each spring (usually late March) to breed, and you can watch them from a heated visitor hide with high-powered telescopes trained on the nest.
The reserve covers 130 hectares with interactive displays, a “Woodland Window” hide that gets you up close with red squirrels and woodpeckers, and a live osprey webcam during nesting season. Beavers are sometimes spotted at dusk too. The reserve is around 2 miles from Dunkeld and well worth half a day.
Walk the Fiddler’s Path
The Fiddler’s Path is a 5-mile circular walk and one he loveliest ways to explore the village
Starting from the car park off Atholl Street, the route passes Dunkeld Cathedral, follows the River Tay upstream past Dunkeld House Hotel, crosses the River Braan, and returns through woodland on the south side of the river. The path is well signposted and mostly gentle, though there’s a short section that uses the A9 bridge. It’s short-lived and quickly forgotten once you’re back among the trees.
Allow 2–3 hours and wear proper boots if it’s been wet.
The Fiddler’s Path is named after Scotland’s most celebrated fiddler, Niel Gow. Born in nearby Inver in 1727, Niel Gow was a friend of Robert Burns, sat for a famous portrait by Henry Raeburn, and was paid an annual retainer by the Duke of Atholl, who would sit on the opposite bank of the Tay listening to Niel play under his favourite oak. That same gnarled oak still stands today.
Find the Birnam Oak
From the centre of Dunkeld, cross the Telford Bridge and take the steps down to the riverside walkway to find the Birnam Oak, a 500-year-old tree mentioned in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
The Birnam Oak and its neighbour the Birnam Sycamore are the sole surviving trees of a forest that once covered this area. According to the play, the soldiers advancing on Macbeth each cut a branch from Birnam Wood to disguise their numbers, making it appear as if the wood itself was moving toward Dunsinane Castle and fulfilling the witches’ prophecy.
The Birnam Oak is about a 10-minute walk from the centre of Dunkeld and a lovely riverside stroll.
What to do when you’ve had enough trees
You can canyon down waterfalls and abseil into rock pools with The Canyoning Company, just outside the village. Thirty minutes up the road at Grandtully there’s Grade 2 and 3 whitewater rafting on the Tay and Tummel.
Highland Off-Road runs quad bike treks and Land Rover experiences from the Steading at Dunkeld House, with a junior driving experience for 11–17-year-olds that’s predictably popular.
Progression Bikes on St Ninians Wynd hires out everything from kids’ bikes to high-end mountain bikes and e-bikes, and the team genuinely knows the trails.
The Beatrix Potter Garden and Exhibition is a quiet surprise. Few visitors realise that Potter spent her childhood summers in Birnam, and the characters from her famous tales first took shape here. The themed garden and exhibition at Birnam Arts Centre are free and lovely with kids.
Right next door, Birnam Arts Centre runs a year-round programme of theatre, music, film, kids’ workshops and family ceilidhs.
Day trips, if you must leave
Dunkeld is one of the best bases in Scotland for exploring further afield. Easy day trips include:
- Pitlochry (20 minutes north): Victorian spa town, salmon ladder, Enchanted Forest light show in autumn.
- Aberfeldy (30 minutes west): Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery, whitewater rafting, the Birks of Aberfeldy walk.
- Blair Castle (30 minutes north): historic seat of the Dukes of Atholl, with extensive grounds, a private army (yes, really, the only legal one in Europe), and the lovely Hercules Garden.
- Perth (25 minutes south): Scotland’s “Fair City”, with the Perth Museum, Scone Palace and the Black Watch Museum.
- Loch Tay (45 minutes west): the Scottish Crannog Centre and some of Perthshire’s most beautiful loch scenery.
- The Cairngorms (1 hour north): Britain’s largest national park.
Tay Forest Park stretches from Blairgowrie in the east to Crieff in the south, and from the Ben Lawers range in the west to Glen Lyon in the north, taking in some of Highland Perthshire’s most dramatic scenery. This is genuinely Big Tree Country. Craigvinean Forest contains one of Scotland’s tallest trees at 194 feet (59 metres), and many of the giants are Douglas firs, named after David Douglas, the Scottish plant hunter who brought their seeds back from North America in the 1820s.
Highlights beyond The Hermitage include Faskally Forest (and the seasonal Enchanted Forest light show in autumn), Allean Forest, Queen’s View overlooking Loch Tummel, and the Linn of Tummel walk to Garry Bridge, one of the most beautiful river walks in the area.
How to get to Dunkeld
By train
Trains run regularly from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and Inverness to Dunkeld & Birnam station. From Edinburgh or Glasgow it’s around 1 hour 30 minutes; from Inverness around 1 hour 45 minutes. The Caledonian Sleeper from London also stops here. The station is in Birnam, about a 10-minute walk across the bridge into Dunkeld itself.
By car
Dunkeld sits just off the A9, the main road north. It’s around 1 hour 30 minutes from both Edinburgh and Glasgow, and 1 hour 45 minutes from Inverness. There’s pay-and-display parking in the village (£1–2 per hour) and free parking at The Hermitage if you don’t mind walking in. Edinburgh and Glasgow airports are both around 1 hour 15 minutes’ drive; Dundee airport is just 30 minutes.
By bus
Citylink coaches between Edinburgh/Glasgow and Inverness stop at Birnam, taking about 2 hours from the central belt. Slower than the train but cheaper if you book ahead.
When to visit Dunkeld
Dunkeld is a year-round destination, but each season brings something different:
- Spring (April–May): ospreys arrive at Loch of the Lowes, bluebells in the woodlands, fewer crowds.
- Summer (June–August): longest days, Taybank’s beer garden in full swing, busiest with visitors. Book accommodation well ahead.
- Autumn (September–October): Perthshire’s autumn colours are some of the best in Britain, particularly at The Hermitage and around Tay Forest Park.
- Winter (November–March): quiet, atmospheric, log fires in the pubs. Some attractions have shorter hours and most restaurants are open year-round.
Visiting Dunkeld: frequently asked questions
How long do you need in Dunkeld?
A day trip will let you walk to The Hermitage, explore the village shops and have lunch. Two to three nights gives you time to do longer walks, visit Loch of the Lowes, and explore further into Tay Forest Park. A week makes Dunkeld an excellent base for the whole of Highland Perthshire and the Cairngorms.
Is Dunkeld worth visiting?
Yes — it’s one of the most charming small towns in Scotland and a strong contender for a long weekend if you want forest walks, independent shops, good food and easy access from Edinburgh or Glasgow. The combination of riverside setting, ancient woodland and proper Highland scenery is hard to beat.
Is Dunkeld dog-friendly?
Very. The Hermitage, Loch of the Lowes, Birnam Hill, the Birnam Oak walk and Tay Forest Park all welcome dogs (on leads in wildlife areas). The Taybank, Atholl Arms, Perth Arms, Aran Bakery (outdoors) and Scottish Deli are all dog-friendly too.
Can you visit Dunkeld with kids?
Easily. The Beatrix Potter Garden, Birnam Arts Centre, the Loch of the Lowes red squirrel feeders, Highland Off-Road’s junior driving experience, Progression Bikes and the gentle Hermitage walk are all great with children. Plenty of family-friendly cafés and dog-friendly pubs too.
Is Dunkeld good in the rain?
Yes — Dunkeld Cathedral, Birnam Arts Centre, the Beatrix Potter Exhibition, the village shops and the cosy pubs all work brilliantly in bad weather. Even The Hermitage walk is partly covered by trees and atmospheric in mist.
What's near Dunkeld worth visiting?
Pitlochry, Aberfeldy, Perth, Blair Castle and Loch Tay are all easy day trips. The whole of Highland Perthshire and the southern Cairngorms open up from here.
Love from Scotland x
