Qualla: Blairgowrie and Rattray https://qualla.com/blairgowrie-and-rattray en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/9/blairgowrie-and-rattray-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Blairgowrie and Rattray https://qualla.com/blairgowrie-and-rattray Blairgowrie and Rattray: Introduction https://qualla.com/blairgowrie-and-rattray/ Photo credit Linda, CC BY-SA 2.0. Locals just call it Blair. In summer, the population of this twin burgh on the River Ericht visibly swells when Eastern European students arrive to pick the raspberries, strawberries, cherries, and blueberries that have made the surrounding fields the soft-fruit capital of Scotland. In winter, the same town is the southern gateway to the Snow Road - the tourist route over the Cairnwell Pass to Braemar that includes the highest stretch of tarmac in the United Kingdom road system. Blairgowrie and Rattray have always been a crossroads, a place defined by who and what is passing through.

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Image: Linda | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/9/blairgowrie-and-rattray-wp/gfj9-blairgowrie-and-rattray-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Blairgowrie and Rattray: Two Burghs, One River https://qualla.com/blairgowrie-and-rattray/ Photo credit Mike Pennington, CC BY-SA 2.0. Blairgowrie sits on the southwest bank of the River Ericht. Rattray sits on the northeast bank. The Brig o' Blair, built in 1777, made the two communities a single connected place; an Act of Parliament in 1928 made it official by uniting the burghs. Rattray claims the older histo...

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Image: Mike Pennington | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/9/blairgowrie-and-rattray-wp/gfj9-blairgowrie-and-rattray-two-burghs-one-river.mp3 0:06 2 full Blairgowrie and Rattray: Neolithic Lines https://qualla.com/blairgowrie-and-rattray/ Photo credit Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 3.0. People have lived in this stretch of Strathmore for at least 5,000 years. Two miles south-southwest of the town runs the Cleaven Dyke, a Neolithic cursus monument - a long, narrow earthwork that may have served ceremonial purposes. Four miles further west lies Inchtuthil, where a...

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Image: Simon Burchell | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/9/blairgowrie-and-rattray-wp/gfj9-blairgowrie-and-rattray-neolithic-lines.mp3 0:06 3 full Blairgowrie and Rattray: Twelve Mills on the Ericht https://qualla.com/blairgowrie-and-rattray/ Photo credit Trish Steel, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1792, Blairgowrie had 425 inhabitants. By 1870 it had 4,000. The expansion came from twelve textile mills strung along the River Ericht, employing close to 2,000 people. The mills are all closed now, but the buildings remain visible from the riverside walk - vast empty husks o...

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Image: Trish Steel | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/9/blairgowrie-and-rattray-wp/gfj9-blairgowrie-and-rattray-twelve-mills-on-the-ericht.mp3 0:06 4 full Blairgowrie and Rattray: The Berry Toon https://qualla.com/blairgowrie-and-rattray/ Photo credit Andrew Abbott, CC BY-SA 2.0. Soft fruit took over in the twentieth century. Smedleys opened a cannery on Haugh Road. Adamsons ran a jam factory on Croft Lane. Berries and pulp went out by rail to markets across Britain. The pickers came from Perth and Dundee by bus and from further away, including a large an...

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Image: Andrew Abbott | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/9/blairgowrie-and-rattray-wp/gfj9-blairgowrie-and-rattray-the-berry-toon.mp3 0:06 5 full Blairgowrie and Rattray: Cargill's Leap and Braemar Night https://qualla.com/blairgowrie-and-rattray/ Photo credit Benutzer:Brunswyk, CC BY-SA 3.0. A short walk upstream from the Brig o' Blair, on the riverside path, is Cargill's Leap - the narrow part of the River Ericht where the Covenanter minister Donald Cargill is said to have escaped government troops by jumping across the gorge. North of Rattray, Craighall Castle stan...

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Image: Benutzer:Brunswyk | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/9/blairgowrie-and-rattray-wp/gfj9-blairgowrie-and-rattray-cargills-leap-and-braemar-night.mp3 0:06 6 full Blairgowrie and Rattray: Wellmeadow and the Snow Road https://qualla.com/blairgowrie-and-rattray/ Photo credit CC0. The centrepiece of Blairgowrie is the Wellmeadow, a grassy triangle at the heart of the town where Saturday markets run with stalls of local produce and crafts. The bus station is here too. Stagecoach connects the town to Perth, Dundee, Alyth, Dunkeld, Aberfeldy, Kirkmichael, and...

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Image: CC0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/9/blairgowrie-and-rattray-wp/gfj9-blairgowrie-and-rattray-wellmeadow-and-the-snow-road.mp3 0:06 7 full