Exploring Blairgowrie

What a place. This is absolutely beautiful.

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I’m in Scotland, and I’m starting a magical journey.

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This time I’ll be travelling through vast, open Scottish countryside on an epic adventure. We’ll be visiting the places you never get to see while thumbing through the pages of a guidebook. There’s 10,000 miles and 34 shires all steeped in living history. We’ll be travelling through the Scottish landscape to find great big epic stories about people and the history of their town. So come on, follow me.

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The adventure begins… Well, it begins as you might expect, travelling away from the city and into the surrounding shires where all the Edinburgh hints of Scotland’s history can be discovered. Starting in Scotland’s ancient capital city, Perth, I’ll be travelling north along the open road for 16 beautiful miles. This particular town is small, its personality is big, and as someone who grew up here, I can confidently say it’s unlike any town you’ve ever been into.

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Getting around Scotland’s backyard is super simple. You can go from trains to buses to cars to even cycling super easily. Now, for this part of the journey, we’re going to be getting the bus from Perth bus station to Blairgowrie. It’ll take us about 50 minutes, it’ll cost us about three pounds 90 for a single ticket, but you’ll want to get a return ticket, which will cost you about seven pounds if you’re planning on coming back to Perth on that same day. So, let’s go.

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It seems like I’ve stepped on this bus for what feels like the millionth time, but the number 57 at Perth bus station is still a local’s favourite. It also happens to be the gateway to the Highlands. Coincidence? I don’t think so. It’s green, open, and peaceful, with untouched natural beauty and a whole lot of wilderness. Make no mistake; getting the 57 here is your magic ticket into Scotland’s backyard.

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So, a working class industrial mill town in the 17th century, and more recently, it was the soft fruit growing capital of the entire world in the 18th century. People would flock here from all over Scotland and Europe by the thousands in search of well-paid work and the chance to pick fresh fruit from the nearby farms. Today though, the locals have nicknamed this town the Berry Toon, and I couldn’t think of a better place to start my journey.

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Welcome to Blairgowrie, one of the most charming, creative, and adventurous towns in the heart of Scotland. Its cultural centre, the Wellmeadow, touches all corners of town. And for a town that focuses on looking forwards, there’s something reassuringly old-fashioned about this place. Even though today we’re in a much smaller part of the world, you still get this feeling that this place is trying to offer you something not found in a typical city. And I think it’s a connection to things made and grown locally.

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The best ways to experience slow travel in Blairgowrie is through meetings and exchanges with local craftspeople. And so I’m exploring Nest, an open studio across the road from the bench I was just sitting on. It sits literally on the edge of the Blairgowrie Bridge. This building, built in 1890, was known as Temperance Hotel and Coffeehouse, but the locals, they simply refer to it as the Brig O’ Blair Hotel. Fast-forward to today, and you’ll discover the master weaver himself, Ashleigh, handcrafting unique Scottish tartan. He loves this town, and he devoted his own tartan to it, and I’m here to discover why.

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So, you were born and raised in Derbyshire?

I was born and raised in Derbyshire. So, for my sins, I’m either adopted Scottish now, or I’m still an outsider.

You know, of all the places that you could have went to, why Blair?

The reason why we moved to Blairgowrie was just out of the beauty of the place. We were looking for somewhere to be near Dundee, so I could attend university, and also finding something that’s got the most suitable accommodation. It’s not easy, trying to look for a house that’s accessible for wheelchair, but we’ve been here since 2006, and we’ve decided to stay.

That’s really good that you managed to find this place, because this place has proven to be so important in what you do now, the people that you’ve met, the relationships that you’ve built up with the local farmers, you’ve managed to create your own tweed for one of the local farmers, Melanie Thomson of Thomas Thomson Farms. Now, that was a Berries and Cherries…

Cherries.

How did this all come about? What’s the story here?

So, basically the Blairgowrie Berries and Cherries, which is this tartan here, it was initially woven, I think it’s on its fifth anniversary now, but initially it was woven with Thomas Thomson. We got together and we kind of combined the ideas of the berries and cherries, of the fruit. So it contains all the colours of the industry, of Thomas’s fruit growing company. And Melanie Thomson kind of adopted the tartan. It’s still handwoven here, we still get it commercially woven as well. And then from there on, it’s just grew, and then we’ve made merchandise from this. I say it just keeps growing from strength to strengthen. And that’s the story of the tartan. It’s just really representing the fruit growing industry, as you know, because Blairgowrie’s renowned for its berries.

So, why do you do this? It must be a hard job to do.

I do this for therapy. It’s no harder… It’s hard, but it’s not, I actually enjoy it. It’s therapeutic. When you actually get into the weaving side of it, it’s kind of very rhythmic. I think the hardest part of this is setting up looms, finding the right colours for tartans, and actually making sure everything blends and matches together. We’ve lost to tourist information now, but we’re trying to, I think, try and promote it locally.

Yeah, why? Why shop locally?

It’s really important, I think. Supporting smaller local businesses, you actually get a more friendlier side. You can actually source the person who makes it. There’s more of a connection to the story of the cloth I design and make. Now, obviously times are shifting and things, and everybody wants fast fashion and quick made stuff, and we’re getting kind of pushed out market. I think there’s a reinsurgence now for people to come back to craft.

If you shop in a big supermarket, then that money goes out of the economy as quickly as it comes in. Whereas if you shop with people like you, and maybe you’re here visiting on holiday, and you want to take something back, and I think it’s common sense that the best thing you probably could take back is something that was handcrafted and locally produced, because that’s a memory in itself. You’ve got years and years of experience, and all of that has been woven into your tartan, and people get to take that away with them and that, I think, is priceless.

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Although the factories and mills have long since come down, Blairgowrie’s history with craftspeople remains. Peek through the window of an open studio, and you’ll find all manner of designers, artists, and craftspeople. Someone like Ashleigh Slater of Tartan Caledonia. Inspired by his town, Ashleigh specialises in unique, one of a kind tartan that juxtapose natural patterns with the vibrant colours of the landscape. His work clearly embodies the spirit of nature, the 18th century textile mills, and, of course, carries the spirit of Scotland. If you’re coming through Blairgowrie, go and visit my friend Ashleigh. Tell him Kyle sent you, because even if the weather isn’t good, I promise you, being in his presence will make your day.

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There’s a lot of good reasons to explore Blairgowrie, and few are better than the fruit. And sitting 10 minutes away on the outskirts of town, looking for what I’ve been told is the best fruit in all of Scotland, is The Berry Bee. That’s right, my second stop brings me to a giant strawberry sitting at the side of an open road amongst a landscape painted in polytones.

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All right, this is where the magic is grown. And if you don’t know by now, agriculture is a massive deal around here. The reason why is because Blairgowrie is home to the soft fruit growing industry. It’s had a massive influence on where this town got its nickname, the Berry Toon. And for the past 100 years, the Thomson family, who own and live on these farms, have been growing and sharing their space with other nearby farmers and growers to sell the fresh fruit by the punnet to people all over Scotland.

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In the late 18th century, at its height, 4,000 men and women, who were often seasonal travellers, were recruited to pick the fruit here, and they benefited from free housing, good wages, and hearty meals at low rates. They even had a dedicated train back then, the Raspberry Special Express Service, that shipped thousands of tonnes of fruit to all corners of Britain, from right here in Blairgowrie. Just when you think things couldn’t get more delightful, I got the chance to meet the lady who oversees the entire place, Melanie Thomson.

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How did the strawberry come about, and what is it? What is it?

Aha. So this strawberry is our kiosk, which we use as our pop-up shop, really. And it’s here from beginning of June through to the end of August. And so we buy in fruits from the locality that are grown, so the blackberries, the raspberries, the strawberries, and we also sell our own blueberries and cherries when they come on stream.

When we look at this farm, and we look at this history, and we look at the foundations of this place, how far back does everything go?

Aha. It’s quite a long time, actually. There’s been raspberries grown on Westfield Farm here since 1895, I think it was. So, it’s definitely more than 100 years. In fact, it’s more like 125 years.

Really, 125 years?

If you look back at some of the old newspaper reports, basically the town was inundated with berry pickers from, probably, the beginning of July, usually, when the raspberries started, for about six weeks till middle of August, say, when they would finish. That was the short picking season. And it was a hub of activity. There was a big picking area out at S&D called the Tin City, and that was a development that had been started by, I think, the Hodge family originally, and getting together with other people and buying land, and dividing it into small holdings so that people could grow. And there was a ready market for the fruit in those days. So, it was a win-win situation for everybody.

“Bursting Berries, 100% natural, Thomas Thomson”, and it’s a lovely little bottle, lovely colours, one of your five-a-day, and “Shoogle Me”. You got to give it a wee shoogle. Why did you come up with this? Why? What inspired you to do this?

It’s a wonderful mix of five different berries that are all grown locally. And I suppose it’s my answer to the boost of antioxidants that were, I suppose a few years ago, were being promoted with foreign berries. So, for example, pomegranate juice or acai berries. These are all foreign fruits, which are very high in antioxidants, but people should know, really, that we have just as good fruits grown in the UK, which are also very, very high in antioxidants.

Smells really nice.

What I’ve done here is made a mix of five of the best, and so the five that I’ve got in this mix are raspberries, strawberries, black currants, red currants, and aronia.

Oh, that’s fine.

If you take it as a shot, which is primarily what it was designed as, it gives you a real boost. And I think it sort of does, somehow, restore your energy. I don’t know whether that’s absolutely true, but I did have somebody once who was running a marathon, and so she took eight with her, and she said she was convinced that it was the Berry Bees that got her through the marathon, so that was nice to hear.

It’s that good, I’ve got it all over my face. No, that is beautiful. I really like that. It was lovely to meet you.

Very nice to meet you, too. Thank you very much, and thanks for coming, Kyle.

That’s okay, thank you very much.

Pleasure.

Thank you.

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It’s not often you get to spend some time with someone whose identity and sense of history is so embedded in a place. The thing I love about Melanie is her kindness and the generosity that she shares with the people she meets. Her job isn’t easy, but if it wasn’t for all of the other farmers and local growers working together, there simply would be no Berry Toon. Stories like these are the life and soul of any town, and it’s this magical ingredient that connects people together through shared identity. And in this case, it’s the berries, cherries, and handcrafted tartan.

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I’m continuing the journey along the open road, following the River Ericht upstream, where I’m greeted with fantastic architectural charm.

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This has to be one of Blairgowrie’s best kept secrets.

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An abandoned road turned nature’s peewee playground.

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You know those movies where the dart comes out of the bushes and… Out of nowhere? I’m waiting on one of them.

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And a legendary castle, high up on a cliff, peeking out above a carpet of trees.

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I think this one is Blairgowrie and Rattray’s answer to Edinburgh Castle.

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So, the next time you’re travelling, slow down a little, visit the locals, and experience a magic that could only be found in the local towns and shires across Scotland. You don’t have to come here, just simply put the phone down, get on a bus, even if it’s just to visit your granny. I promise you there’s magic to be found in that too.