Perth

Thanks to the now-God-awful weather, we decided that, rather than try spend time outdoors during a Scottish downpour, we would take an earlier train out of the Cairngorms and stop along the way in the rather small city of Perth. I say that, as it has a population only a quarter of that of Colchester’s, a ‘town’ we live close by.

There wasn’t an awful lot to do in Perth, but we decided to make the most of it. We began by wandering a little around the town, and took a few pictures of the, occasionally, interesting architecture. After some Geocaching, we were brought to the Black Watch Museum.

For those unfamiliar with Scottish military history, the Black Watch was the nickname given to the first Scottish regiment in the British army. It eventually grew bigger than that, as I learned in the museum.

The museum itself was only somewhat interesting, though quite alike to most other museums of this type. It has all the usuals: weapons, uniforms, wax figurines, war trophies, plastic miniatures and so. It lacked anything particularly unique, and any interactive exhibits were shutdown due to Covid.

In general, it was the sort of place you visit to learn about the topic area, and only for that. As my interest in the history of the Scottish military was middling at best, I did not find it to be a particularly exciting museum. Not to mention Tayla, who was phenomenally bored during the whole thing.

Whilst the museum was of a reasonably high quality, it lacked any features distinguishing it from similar museums, save perhaps, for the massive price tag of £9. Considering the size of the museum, it really should have cost half of that.

The other main attraction in Perth is Scone Palace, which was the site of the coronation of many Scottish monarchs. We lacked the time to visit, though perhaps this may have sweetened our perception of Perth a little.

Overall, this was not a town we were particularly thrilled about, which was not aided by the weather – an uninteresting and overpriced museum, drab architecture, and oppressively bad weather. We were glad to leave Perth behind, as we began our journey back to Edinburgh.