Kinnoull Hill

Kinnoull Hill rises near Perth in Perth and Kinross, its slopes partly in the town and partly in the village of Kinfauns. The hill’s summit stands 222 metres above sea level and splits into two small peaks. An 18th-century stone tower, Kinnoull Tower, crowns an eastern outcrop, offering a sheltered spot to pause. Below, the hillside is clothed in the managed woodland of Kinnoull Hill Woodland Park, a partnership between Forestry and Land Scotland and the local council. Nearby, Branklyn Garden sits in the western foothills, its roses planted by Dorothy Renton and her husband. The view from the top spans the lower Tay and its wide estuary, framed by the Carse of Gowrie’s farmland on one side and Fife’s shores on the other. Francis Watt’s 1889 description captures the scene as it closes on the smoke of Dundee and the Tay Bridge. Near the summit lies Windy Gowle, a hollow that once echoed nine distinct reverberations. A cave on the hill is linked to William Wallace, who is said to have hidden there from pursuers. The hill has also received Green Flag awards in 2009 and 2010 and was runner-up in Scotland’s Finest Woods Awards in 2010. Visitors walk shaded paths where fourteen woodland sculptures by Pete Bowsher depict local animals and plants. The park’s nursery once employed around eighty people after wild roses found on the hill were transplanted there in 1793. The hill’s name lives on in Melbourne’s Kinnoull Campus and in Abernyte Brewery’s Kinnoull Red beer. Despite its darker reputation, the hill remains a place of open views, quiet woodlands and layered history.