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A Short break Following a map-maker with Gillian Hull
In 1823 a little guide for visitors to Perthshire was printed privately by the author, John MacCulloch. Its title was ‘A Description of the Scenery of Dunkeld and of Blair in Atholl’, and it covers country familiar to us all, as seen through the eyes of an early 19th century writer. Apart from the addition of the railway, the A9 and huge numbers of established trees, the country has changed surprisingly little in nearly two hundred years.
John MacCulloch (right), whose father was a Scot, was brought up in Cornwall before studying medicine at Edinburgh University. During ‘the boyish wanderings of his college holidays’ he often explored the country around Dunkeld and Dunsinane, developing his lifelong love of the Scottish countryside. He became a true polymath, with interests in medicine, geology, chemistry, botany, wine-making, painting, music and many more. His best known achievement is his Geological Map of Scotland; this was published in 1836, the year after his death. He spent many summers researching the country’s extraordinarily varied landscape, and his was the first official geological survey.
MacCulloch considered the area north of Dunkeld to be ‘the most magnificent and picturesque in Britain’ but that, unlike parts of England, it lacked a ‘Guide’ for visitors. |
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He sees the landscape through the eyes of an artist, and often comments on the movement of water, ‘gliding away in rippling lines of green light, or resting, brown and silent’. He has a great feeling for form and colour, and laments not having more time to sketch. He frequently mentions wildflowers, many of which still grow in the area today. The narrow pass at Birnam and its geology impress him, as does Dunkeld with its magnificent setting and architecture. The parent larch near Dunkeld Cathedral today is from a seed planted in 1738. MacCulloch mentions two larches there in 1823, the taller of them having reached ninety feet. He admires the 4th Duke of Atholl’s tree-planting schemes, which, it is said, included 15,000,000 larches.
Continuing northwards John MacCulloch describes the view as the country opens up towards Ben Vrackie and comments on the many houses and cottages, while the surrounding fertile land is mostly under cultivation. He visits the hamlet of Moulinearn, and stops at the inviting pub ‘festooned with honeysuckles and roses’. He is welcomed by Mrs Pennycuik who serves him her well-known Atholl Brose, which was also enjoyed by Queen Victoria when she halted at Moulinearn in 1844. The cascade at Edradour is impressive, and there are ‘round forts’ as in Glenlyon.
After the ‘sublime’ scenery and ‘alpine grandeur’ of Killiecrankie, he travels on to Blair Castle which, in 1823, had the appearance of a country house. After the1745 Jacobite Rising, the 2nd Duke ordered that the castle be stripped of its defensive details, and it was not until 1870 that the turrets and battlements were restored. MacCulloch gives an eloquent description of the Hercules statue and the gardens with flowers and cabbages side by side, and ‘a leek growing under the shadow of a rose’. He much prefers this type of garden to the designs of ‘Capability Brown’, ‘as if the patterns had all been sent out from a taylor’s shop.’
After describing Glen Tilt and Glen Fender John MacCulloch finishes with Loch Tummel and Schiehallion. He asks his readers to spread the message of the scale and beauty of Perthshire’s hills and lochs. How lucky we are to live amongst them.
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