Ever since my dad moved into a care home, I have been making an effort to take mum on day outings over the weekend. She hasn't driven a car in decades and I keep an eye out for events she might find interesting. The town museum in Perth sprung to mind as the place had been closed for refurbishment the last time my folks had headed up there with the intention of seeing the famous log boat excavated from the sands and gravel of the Tay estuary. Then of course lockdown kicked in and when I heard the museum was once again open to the public, I decided it was time for a trip north to the Fair City. We dropped Nicole off at Loch Leven Nature Reserve on the way and battered up the M90. I've always enjoyed a wander around Perth. We used to shop at the Farmers Market once a month and there was always a wide variety of wares on sale.
I had been to the museum a couple of times previously. My first visit was in 2001. I remember that because I was booked on a Ryanair flight to Belfast the next day. Cost - zero pounds. Well, not quite. It was a promotional fare of zilch but the government levied a tax of £10. Still a fiver each way to the Emerald Isle wasn't too shabby a deal. I bought a bundle of films on VHS in an HMV sale over there. How times have changed! I definitely popped into the museum again at some point over the intervening years but can't put an exact date on it. Entry is free and the building is actually one of the first public museums ever opened in the United Kingdom, dating back to 1824. That's the pre-Victorian age! I phoned in advance to verify the Covid restrictions. Mask wearing was required but otherwise you could simply turn up and have a look around. A scan of the website revealed a nice bonus - an exhibition on the Perthshire railways. Oh well, if you must! But first to the Carpow Log Boat. It is located in the first gallery past the main entrance and is impossible to miss. Nearly nine metres long and carved from a single tree trunk, the Bronze Age craft is reckoned to be around 3000 years old. Rivers were natural transport arteries back then and floating down the Tay would have been far more practical than hacking your way through the densely wooded banks. It was found in 2001 and although the bow had decayed, the immersed hull and stern remained in good condition. Fife Council archaeologist Douglas Spiers once explained to me that timber below the surface could easily last for centuries (if not millennia) given the right intertidal environment. Five years later, the boat was carefully lifted from the water and subsequently spent six years at the National Museums of Scotland Centre for Conservation and Analytical Research in Edinburgh. In 2012 it was displayed in Perth for the first time and the redeveloped museum now provides a permanent home for the boat in the Fair City. The entire gallery has been amended to tell the story of the local area, guiding visitors from the Neolithic through the Bronze and Iron Ages, followed by the Medieval and later periods before finishing with modern day Perth. It was indeed fascinating to take all this information onboard and we spent a significant amount of time browsing. I do read the majority of information panels in museums. I guess that makes me a textual as well as visual learner. I like the summary they provide. I don't religiously examine every small explanation in a display case. Got to draw the line somewhere otherwise you'd be there all day.
Then it was into the hallowed halls of the railway exhibition with tales of steam trains from days gone by. Perthshire had an extensive network of lines running across the county. Much of this was lost in the 60s and the temporary exhibition looked at many of these forgotten routes, along with the main rail corridors that pass through the Big County today. Regarding the strapline on the promotional poster, it should be pointed out that Perth & Kinross is a current administrative area that oversees the whole of Kinross-shire and around three quarters of traditional Perthshire. The missing chunk lies within the boundaries of the Stirling Council Area (which does not resemble historic Stirlingshire). Additionally, the southern tip of Perthshire is governed by the Council Area known as Clackmannanshire. Bear in mind that the present Council Areas were established in 1996 and are tasked with providing local services. The traditional counties go back many centuries and massively pre-date any forms of what we now term local government. It is of course completely incorrect to equate P&K Council with Perthshire, on two obvious fronts. Much of the confusion stems from naming some of the new councils after the old counties which they don't usually align with. To be fair to the museum, their hands were probably tied as the funding would have been awarded from the council budget. To give credit where it's due, parts of the display did cover old Perthshire stations such as Callander and Balquhidder now administratively outwith the Big County. The exhibition presented a good overview of the past and present railway system. Branches to places like Bankfoot and Aberfeldy were always living on borrowed time in the post-war years due to declining demand and the coming of the motorway network. Indeed, many minor routes lost their passenger services a good 10 to 30 years before Richard Beeching came along to put the boot in big style. Surely one of the craziest decisions (ironically not a Beeching cut) was the axing of the direct connection between Edinburgh and Perth (via Kinross) in 1970. A couple of years later, the M90 emerged upon a portion of the line near the tricky Glenfarg terrain. I think that tells us all we need to know. Another major casualty was the ancient market town of Crieff. Sitting in the centre of Scotland and once served by several railways, it hasn't seen a train in decades. I once attended an excellent talk on the town's lost transport links at the local high school. It was with mixed feelings that I moved on to the remaining galleries. Pleased to have learned more about the iron road within Perthshire but sad that so many lines were kicked into touch that could have served a useful purpose today.
I had a good look around the wildlife exhibits, along with the selection of paintings with a local theme. I was instantly drawn to a scene depicting life on the North Inch (pictured right). Painted by Alexander Duff Robertson, the image shows Perth from across the Tay, with Smeaton's Bridge (built in 1771) clearly visible. I love the busy feel of the artwork. A snapshot of a typical day on the river. It's a timely reminder that Perth has a strong maritime past. Despite the undeniable presence of the Tay, we tend to think of the town/city as an inland destination reached by motorway, rather than it's status as a port. The river is tidal in these parts and Perth Harbour is still trading. Tucked away from the main roads, the docking facility is ideally suited to the handling of barges up to 100 metres in length. Nearby connections to the national rail and motorway network enable goods to be shipped onwards in a relatively seamless manner. In 2019, the biggest vessel to be seen in the Fair City for a decade delivered a consignment of fishmeal. We left the museum thoroughly satisfied with our experience and rounded off the day with a stroll along the waterfront. Information panels are spaced at regular intervals outlining the importance of the Tay in the Fair City's development. I had also noticed the next exhibition to arrive at Perth Museum would focus on the Roman frontier in Scotland. A return visit would have to be arranged. Nicole and I duly rolled up a couple of months later to learn more about this period in history. Despite several waves of attempted invasion, Iron Age Scotland was never fully conquered by the Romans. This was in stark contrast to southern Britain being settled for 400 years.
Titled Romans: Edge of Empire, the exhibition explored what life was like for Roman and Celtic peoples on the north western edge of the vast political terrain. The story involves global and local concerns. Accounts of interaction between invaders and natives in a time where history was not recorded as assiduously as is the case today. Entry was again free and I was immediately drawn to the large map showing the extent of Roman territory in Europe, Asia and North Africa. It was obvious the whole sphere of influence centred around the sea and major rivers. This would have enabled the rapid movement of soldiers and goods. In Scotland, the Antonine Wall was a well-defined turf frontier but several sorties further north were launched, although this never resulted in permanent conquest. Details of Roman camps in Perthshire were given, along with (often hazy) accounts of conflict on largely uncharted ground. I found the exhibition worthwhile and it's good to challenge the notion that the Romans built walls and stayed firmly on their side of the boundary while the savages roamed free on the other. A most enjoyable afternoon and I'll have to watch out for future events at this gem of a museum.
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