5th October 1819, crossed Tay, Hermitage, Ossian’s Bridge, Ossian’s Hall, Rumbling Bridge, Craig Vinian, Dunkeld House Duchess and private gardens

Tuesday 5th October 1819

Tuesday Octbr 5th after breakfast we took a guide & crossed the river Tay winding by its side we soon arrived at a gate where we entered the beautiful grounds of the Duke we walked by the river on a most beautiful grand walk shaded by the finest trees imaginable

till we arrived at a bridge called Ossians bridge built on fine old rocks close to it is a fine fall of water which dashes through the projecting rocks with threatening violence on one side is a pretty summerhouse called Ossians Hall where we have a good view of the fall before the hall is a pretty flower garden kept in the greatest order we passed several pretty rustic seats catching most beautiful & romantic views of the river till we arrived at the Rumbling bridge it greatly resembles the upper fall of Foyers but the chasm between the rocks is narrower & deeper here is also a fine waterfall. thence we ascended Craig Vinian one of the Grampians there is a fine ground continues nearly to the summit in several places seats are put where

we caught the most lovely views of Dunkeld the bridge & the river Tay that can be imagined. We then returned to the Duchess whom Papa had called on in the morning & took some refreshment we had not the honour of seeing the Duke he being obliged to attend the Perth races we met a very agreeable party at the Duchess’s who received most kindly & after partaking of a very acceptable repast we walked through the private part grounds on this side the river which surpass in beauty the opposite the Inn I forgot to mention is old but a new one is soon to be erected we afterwards entered the carriage and rode to the Farm which is very extensive then returned to the Inn highly delighted with our days excursion in short we beheld nature & art seemed combined to render it quite fairy land & its romantic

beauties can alone be fully appreciated by those who have seen it

OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:

The Grounds: In the 1750s John Murray of Strowan, the nephew and heir of the 2nd Duke (who would go on to become the 3rd Duke of Atholl in 1764) set out to establish public pleasure grounds along the floor of the valley, designed to make the most of natural features such as the waterfalls on the River Braan.

Rural Perthshire : Footpath Beside The Tay, Upstream From Dunkeld House. © Copyright Richard West and licensed for reuse under the (CC BY-SA 2.0) Creative Commons Licence. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4968844

Rural Perthshire : Footpath On The East Bank Of The River Tay Between Dunkeld House And Jubilee Bridge. © Copyright Richard West and licensed for reuse under the (CC BY-SA 2.0) Creative Commons Licence. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4968906

Murray's major contribution was the planting of large numbers of trees, and the building of what he called the Hermitage in 1757. This was a stone viewing pavilion which projected out over the edge of the gorge giving visitors a spectacular view of the most turbulent section of the River Braan, the Black Linn Falls.

Rural Perthshire : Ossian's Hall and Hermitage Bridge, River Braan, Near Dunkeld. © Copyright Richard West and licensed for reuse under the (CC BY-SA 2.0) Creative Commons Licence. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4967617

The Hermitage quickly became a "must see" on the itinerary of early tourists to Scotland and was visited by the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, the painter John Turner, and the composer Felix Mendelssohn. https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/dunkeld/hermitage/index.html

Ossian’s Bridge, or Hermitage Bridge. The entry on Canmore describes the bridge as follows: “The arched bridge over the river Braan is built from rough, mortared stone, with a free-standing doorway on the southern side. This had a gate attached, although this has been removed. The bridge has had some repairs carried out, apparent from the iron ties set in places along its sides. Underneath its northern end, the bridge contains a small arch giving access to the ledge below Ossian’s Hall and to the small grotto noted above. The bridge was built by the 3rd Duke, in 1774, presumably to gain access across to some lands leased from Sir John Stewart of Murthly (Dingwall 1995, 23), as well as exploiting and the views of the Linn and the falls. It has since become a major landscape feature and has been the subject of several paintings and sketches.” https://canmore.org.uk/site/27190/hermitage-bridge

Hermitage Bridge adjacent to Ossian's Hall © Copyright Gordon Brown and licensed for reuse under the (CC BY-SA 2.0) Creative Commons Licence. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5140959

Ossian’s Hall: In the 1760s the poet James Macpherson captured the imagination of an entire generation when he published a series of "discovered" ancient poems said to have been originally written in Gaelic by Ossian, son of Fingal. The elements of the Hermitage were quickly rebranded to exploit the mythology of Ossian. The Hermitage itself became known as Ossian's Hall.

Lucy’s sketch (below), “The Hermitage of Dunkeld”, depicts the Hermitage on the left with the Hermitage Bridge central

A group of angular stones above a steep section of the valley became known as Ossian's Seat. And in 1785 an artificial cave was added towards the far end of the walk through the valley, which, inevitably, became known as Ossian's Cave.

The dramatic stone footbridge over the River Braan near Ossian's Hall and between the Black Linn Falls and the Black Linn Pool avoided the trend, and was called Hermitage Bridge.

Further on the path brings you to the slight scramble needed to explore Ossian's Seat and, nearby, to Ossian's Cave. https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/dunkeld/hermitage/index.html

Rumbling Bridge: Landslips have seen a major blockage on the network of paths around Dunkeld, but the Hermitage can still be enjoyed to the full, especially as autumn colours start to appear.

“Rumbling Bridge at Dunkeld” as sketched by Lucy, below:

And an extension to Rumbling Bridge allows you to reach some open ground and a view across the forest. https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/walk-of-the-week-the-hermitage-rumbling-bridge-1-3533988

Craig Vinian: The only mention to be found is from page 117 of The Tay - A poem by David Millar published in Perth, 1850: Again they stood with upward gaze- Craig- Vinian's firs are in a blaze, The stunned earth shakes as roaring rend The pitchy clouds while down descend, Their drenching storm…. It is to be assumed Craig Vinian is a forested hill above the Tay River in the vicinity of the Hermitage. https://archive.org/details/tayapoem00millgoog/page/n130

The Duchess of Atholl, the Duke’s second wife, was Marjory, daughter of James Forbes, 16th Lord Forbes

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (BY-NC) License,

The Inn: Lucy records The Inn I forgot to mention is old but a new one is soon to be erected . This lends a bit more credence to the theory that they were staying at the old inn, inhabited by Miss Ogg, the Governess (see yesterday’s blog), which the Duke was about to enlarge and rename St Adamnan’s Cottage in preparation for him to move in whilst his new house was being built - which took place some time later, presumably after Mr Hopper’s 1828 architectural recommendation that he build another.

Can you help us?

Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.

New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?

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