Perth and the A9

Ah, Perth, an unexpected little jewel on the way north! We had one goal in mind, but found more to explore once we were there. And as for weather, it was a perfect day, as you can see by the cover photo, snapped out the window by my nephew as we drove up the A9.

Way back when we were at Edinburgh Castle, we found out the Stone of Scone, which was used in ceremonies crowning the new ruler of Scotland (way, way back when Scotland had their own kings and queens), had moved to the Perth Museum. And we would be going right though there on our way north. So we bought two tickets to the museum for that day and soon enough, we were staring at the Scone of Scone, or as they call it now:

This is as close a photo as you’re going to get, because it’s as close to a photo of the stone as I got. There’s a very firm “no photography” rule for the exhibit, and I can’t really imagine why, except maybe to sell more tickets? No matter, the museum deserves support, and it didn’t cost all that much for the tickets. The rest of the museum has very interesting exhibits on the culture, history, and wildlife of the area, which we both find information and well-presented.

Right across the way from the museum was a beautiful stone church, St. John’s Kirk, which was open for visitors, with a very welcoming steward, who gave us laminated guides to the various features of the building. With the sunlight strong outside, the inside of the building was well lit by all the windows. It’s not a huge building, but it’s got beautiful details that we explored for a while.

The Knox Chapel, behind the main worship area, was a peaceful place and I could see why it is used for small ceremonies or meetings. I’d be inspired sitting in that place, even if it was discussing yearly budgets.

While there is no medieval stained glass in this building, there is a lot of 19th and 20th century glass, mostly by Scottish artists. The Blue Window is the most famous one, and rightly so, as it’s lovely. Created by Harvey Salvin, an American glass artist who was working in Scotland at the time (1975), it’s so vivid and yet kind of abstract, and I really loved it.

We could have explored more, but we had a date with a rental cottage further north. On the way back to the car park, we stocked up on snacks at the local bakery, which had way too many tempting treats.

After navigating the narrow, busy streets of Perth, we made it onto the A9, heading north to Inverness. But it was a longish drive, so we opted to stop about halfway and consume some of our bakery finds. I will say this about roadside stops in the north of Scotland – there are plenty of laybys (pullouts) but almost zero toilet facilities. It became an art to find them and on this stop, I was relieved to see the WC sign as we turned off the A9.

The place also had a representative of the very overhyped Highland Cow. This was as close as we’d get to the real thing for days, as it turned out. Had I known that, I might have taken a selfie with this one!

The stop also had some lovely daffodils, the first I’d seen in a while. I’d gone through Spring in the southeastern US, but I was getting a second shot at it here in in Scotland.

Soon enough, the A9 led us into Inverness and a series of roundabouts that eventually led us to our next cottage in our grand tour of Scotland.

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Here’s a map of our route:

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I just go with the flow, I follow the yellow brick road. I don’t know where it’s going to lead me, but I follow it.

Grace Jones