About Scotland

Red Deer

Dunkeld Cathedral and the River Tay.
William McGonagall's Poem on the Tay.
Dunkeld is 60 miles north of Edinburgh.

Photographs of
Dunkeld Cathedral and gardens

Dunkeld Cathedral

A Celtic missionary settlement was established here on the banks of the River Tay as early as the 8th century.

In the 9th century King Kenneth MacAlpin made Dunkeld head of the Celtic Church and capital of the newly unified Picts and Scots.

The Cathedral, begun in 1325, is dedicated to St Columba.

It was ruined during the Reformation in the middle of the 1500s. The chancel was converted to a parish church in the 1600's.

Dunkeld Cathedral
Dunkeld Cathedral Dunkeld Cathedral

A Descriptive Poem on the Silvery Tay

by William McGonagall, 1830-1902
The River Tay

The Tay at Dunkeld. Telford's Bridge of 1809.

"Beautiful silvery Tay,
With your landscapes, so lovely and gay,
Along each side of your waters, to Perth all the way;
No other river in the world has got scenery more fine,
Only I am told the beautiful Rhine,
Near to Wormit Bay, it seems very fine,
Where the Railway Bridge is towering above its waters sublime,
And the beautiful ship Mars,
With her Juvenile Tars,
Both lively and gay,
Does carelessly lie
By night and by day,
In the beautiful Bay
Of the silvery Tay.
Beautiful, beautiful! silvery Tay,
Thy scenery is enchanting on a fine summer day,
Near by Balmerino it is beautiful to behold,
When the trees are in full bloom and the cornfields seems like gold
And nature's face seems gay,
And the lambkins they do play,
And the humming bee is on the wing,
It is enough to make one sing,
While they carelessly do stray,
Along the beautiful banks of the silvery Tay,
Beautiful silvery Tay, rolling smoothly on your way,
Near by Newport, as clear as the day,
Thy scenery around is charming I'll be bound...
And would make the heart of any one feel light and gay on a fine summer day,
To view the beautiful scenery along the banks of the silvery Tay."