Birnam

Birnam is a small Perthshire village sitting on the south bank of the River Tay, joined to its larger neighbour Dunkeld by the elegant Telford-designed bridge of 1809. The village grew up around the railway in the Victorian era, and its station, with services on the Highland Main Line from Perth to Inverness, remains the gateway for many visitors.

The village is best known for two literary associations. Shakespeare's Birnam Wood, from which the trees seem to march on Dunsinane in Macbeth, once covered the surrounding hillsides, and a single ancient Birnam Oak survives on the riverbank as a reputed remnant of that forest. Beatrix Potter spent childhood summer holidays at nearby Dalguise, and the Beatrix Potter Garden and small exhibition in Birnam celebrate the local inspiration for many of her characters.

The Birnam Arts centre hosts theatre, music and exhibitions year-round, while riverside walks lead through woodland to Dunkeld Cathedral and the Hermitage at Ossian's Hall, where waterfalls thunder beneath Douglas firs.