Dunkeld weekend guide
The best day trip from Edinburgh or Glasgow
Take this post as your reminder that it’s the best time of year for a little trip to this Perthshire town. The Hermitage is coming into its full autumn glory - a riot of orange tones so beautiful it really must be seen to take in it’s full glory. Located under two hours by road or rail from both Edinburgh and Glasgow makes Dunkeld the perfect day-trip spot.
The town may be small in size, but it punches well above its weight for food, drink and hospitality. Here’s what I’d recommend to eat and do while you’re up there.
Eat
This pub and restaurant is right on the banks of the river Tay (hence the name) and is perfect at any time of year. In the summer you can admire the hillside views sitting by the open windows, or grabbing a drink on their al fresco riverside deck and listening to some live music.
The winter might be my favourite though, we spent last New Year’s Eve hunkering down in their (dog friendly) downstairs bar with mulled ciders, and I can’t wait to try their pop-up sauna, which is returning this autumn.
It’s on every list of Scotland’s best bakeries for a reason. As far as I’m concerned this teeny bakery (run by Flora Shedden, of former Great British Bake Off fame) put Dunkeld on the map as a food-lover’s dream destination. I’ve never had an average baked good here - everything from the pastries to the breads are excellent.
A small local vegetable farm that hosts Soil to Slice events, mainly in the summer months. Come along to these for a pizza prepared in the Luigi’s Pizzeria’s vintage pizza truck, and enjoy them sitting on some hay bales in the farm yard.