A WANDER AROUND BLAIRGOWRIE

 Leaving Perth behind, we head north to Luncarty, seeing a couple of Highland Railway services pass through the station.

Our first pint of the day is at the Meikleour Hotel, in the village of the same name.

Passing through Coupar Angus, there's just time to look at the LMS (ex CR) station.

Darkness has fallen over our next calling point, The Tavern at Ardler.

Our last visit of the evening is to the Kinloch Arms at Meigle.

The railway station serving Meigle was called Meigle Junction. This is what remains of it!

The nearby Belmont Arms is also closed now.

Next stop Blairgowrie. Here's the station in 1961, six years after closure to passengers (Ben Brooksbank CC).

Stageccoach buses now serve the town.

Wellmeadow, Blairgowrie town centre (Creative Commons License).

The River Ericht flows through the town (Creative Commons License).

Blairgowrie has several decent hostelries. Here's the Ericht Alehouse.

Sadly, the Old Cross (technically in Rattray) no longer has real ale.

It seems that the Royal Hotel is "long term closed".

The Stormont Arms is, fortunately, still trading.

We now come to the village of Spittalfield, home of McLennan's Buses.

A great variety of vehicles could be found here.

After Stagecoach took over, the depot remained in use for a while.

A few miles to the north is Bridge of Cally and the Bridge of Cally Hotel.

Now we move on to Dunkeld and the River Tay.

Dunkeld station is still open and served by Scotrail.

The signal box was still in use in 2008.

The Taybank is a great venue in Dunkeld.

The Atholl Arms is not bad, but no longer has real ale.

Foolowing the railway, we come to Pitlochry. 26003 passes the signal box in 1986.

Pitlochry is a magnet for coach operators. Here we have examples (top to bottom) from Highland Omnibuses, Eastern Scottish, Central SMT (ex Newtons), Yeomans of Herefordshire and Southdown.

We could stay the night at the Wellwood Hotel.....

.....or we could just admire the views.

But the best thing to in Pitlochry is to walk out to a brew pub, the Moulin Hotel. (pics from their website). 

That seems a good place to conclude this post. Next time we'll be in the hills. Follow the map here.