The Fair City of Perth
Willie Shand enjoys a day spent in Scotland’s erstwhile capital.
TO the north and south of Perth city are the Inches – two large expanses of parkland each fringed on their east side by the River Tay.
For countless generations the Inches have been enjoyed by walkers, joggers, golfers and just anyone keen to escape the throng of the busy streets.
Down the centuries they’ve been used for all manner of activities, including a few more unusual ones like archery, cockfighting, witch burning and, in 1396, full-blown battle.
It’s said that these Inches were given to Perth by the Mercer family in return for their being given the right to be buried within St John’s Kirk.
With its foundations going back to 1128, St John’s is the oldest surviving building from mediaeval Perth.
Perth’s old name was in fact, St John’s Toun and those who follow football will recognise this as the name of the local team.
With a history going back more than 2,000 years and having been the ancient capital of Scotland long before Edinburgh ever was, there’s a lot to see around the old streets and vennels of Perth.
Today, though, I’m going to escape the high street and see what I can find on what must surely be the shortest walk in the world. It is, after all, only two inches!
The South Inch is by far the smaller of the two, separated from the Tay by Shore Road and split in two by the main Edinburgh Road.
Early spring is one of the best times to catch the South Inch when tens of thousands of crocuses give a wonderfully colourful show along King James Place and in front of the Church of St Leonard’s-in-the-fields.
Close to the north end of the South Inch stands an unusual looking round building with a tall stone pillar rising from its domed roof. Built in 1832, this was Perth’s old waterworks.
Using a steam engine, water was pumped to a reservoir in the upper part of the building. It was impressive engineering for its day – so much so that, learning of it, the King of Prussia had a similar one built in Berlin just five years
later. The quaint building is now the Fergusson Art Gallery.
The two Inches are linked by Tay Street, and making your way along it there are several fine points of architecture worth taking time to view.
The old County Buildings, St Matthew’s Kirk with its 212-feet-tall spire and the Sheriff Courthouse with its heavy-columned façade have lots of interesting details.
An ornate gateway takes us for a wee detour into Greyfriars Cemetery with its rare carved stones.
It doesn’t matter how often I’ve seen them – the wee squashed creatures along the railings of the flood defences wall can’t help but cheer me up.
There are one or two clever sculptures and carvings along the pavement of Tay Street. The Tay being one of the country’s prized salmon rivers, not surprisingly salmon features in a few of them.
It may come as a surprise, but the columned portico that fronts the Sheriff Courthouse was never really intended to be built there.
It was actually part of a design commissioned by an ancestor of Lord Elgin and intended to grace the front of his home at Broomhall near Limekilns on the Forth.
However, when he saw the stones taking shape he had second thoughts, believing it would make the house too dark. The carved stones, along with the masons, were taken to Perth and it was built here instead.
I’m in no rush today, and at the waterworks thought I’d take a wee bit longer route to the North Inch by crossing to the other side of the Tay over the railway bridge.
A cantilevered footway runs alongside the rail track with trains rumbling past only feet away.
Halfway across, a stairway drops to Moncreiffe Island. As you cross the bridge, you may meet a few folk carrying golf bags. This bridge and steep stair is the only access to the King James VI Golf Course.
This is a lovely walk in the summer as, once across the Tay, the path now leads on to the Rodney Gardens with fine views across the river to Tay Street.
Recrossing the river by the Queen’s Bridge, flower boxes along the railings provide a perfect foreground to any picture.
Further downstream is the picturesque Perth Bridge, known after its designer as Smeaton’s Bridge. It was built in 1766, almost 150 years after its predecessor had been swept away by flood water.
During the intervening period, to cross the Tay meant taking a ferry. In Kinnoull Cemetery, close to the Rodney Gardens, you can see the headstone of one of Perth’s ferrymen, Alexander Duff.
Nowadays, any time there’s a flood or it rains heavily, the finger is pointed at global warming. Perth, however, is only too familiar with the destructive forces of floods and they’ve been happening for many centuries.
Below Perth Bridge, stones carry the marks
of the various flood levels over the past few hundred years. The floods of 1589, 1582, 1573 and 1329 were by all accounts no less devastating, and that of 1209 was said to have swept away half the old town as well as Perth Castle.
Thousands of vehicles cross Perth Bridge every day and I’m amused by the old sign from early days of motoring that bans crossing between 10 a.m. and three p.m. and, the bit I can’t see working nowadays, states that the driver shall send a man with a red flag to the opposite end of the bridge to warn all persons concerned of the approach!
When crocuses herald the spring on the South Inch, it’s daffodils that provide such welcome on the North Inch – particularly along Charlotte Street and around its junction with Rose Terrace – but they’re long gone today.
The heavy flood defence gates close to Perth Bridge are impressive; so, too, are the embossed wall plaques beside them. One depicts the Castle of Perth from before it was swept away.
Floods, plague and the ravages of war have all left their indelible marks upon the city. On the Tay at Perth, the extremes of nature weren’t limited to flood.
Winters in the past have seen the Tay completely freeze over. Quite a novelty it must have been to walk across this wide river.
However, not everyone was so appreciative of the novelty. The ferrymen in particular were less than enamoured. They couldn’t run their boats and folk could simply walk across for free. They soon sorted that, though, by breaking up the ice with pickaxes.
Making my way along the river’s left bank this fine morning, such pictures of winter can be put out of mind for at least a couple of months. Looking over the Inch is Balhousie Castle – home to the Black Watch Regimental Museum. It’s well worth a visit.
In the Inch is a fine bronze sculpture of a soldier piper and a wee girl handing him a rose. It symbolises the liberation of our European Allies from occupation and repression and commemorates the long years of peace that followed World War II.
Beneath Balhousie Castle is the Bell’s Sports Centre – one of Scotland’s largest sports facilities.
Golf, jogging, cycling, squash, badminton, basketball, football and the gym . . . there’s certainly no
excuse for not keeping fit on the North Inch. Personally, I’m quite happy to take this walk – even if it does stretch to just two inches! n