Scotland’s happiest city finally has its crowning glory
“The Stone of Destiny is not a destination, more the start of a new journey for the city,” smiles Xander McDade, Perth’s dynamic 30-year-old lord provost, as he greets me on the opening day of the sparkling new Perth Museum.
The most symbolic stone in the British Isles may be making headlines, but it is the renaissance of this oft-forgotten city on the river Tay that is really making waves.
It cannot be easy building a museum around a lump of stone, but they’ve done a stellar job of making it shine with slick visuals and drama-generating architecture from award-winning architects Mecanoo.
The Stone of Scone was integral to Scotland’s coronations near Perth at Scone Palace, before Edward I snatched it in 1296 to triumphantly crown England’s and Britain’s kings and queens at Westminster Abbey. Devolution spirited it to Edinburgh Castle, but after a detour south to crown King Charles III last year, it is back home in Perthshire for the first time in more than 700 years.
Most visitors today are here to see the stone, but the museum instantly charms too. It tells the story of Perth, a story alive with Pictish kings, chastised legionnaires sent home to think again and Vikings suffering a similar fate. It’s a proud story, a much-needed reminder of past glories for the ancient capital of Scotland, which suffered the ultimate ignominy of being stripped of city status in 1975.
This was restored in 2012, however, and the stone’s arrival “bookends this culturally rich city coming of age with a continuation of our economic regeneration”, in the words of the lord provost.
Optimism courses through McDade’s youthful veins as he bids to bring everyone on his journey, but there is palpable dissent: a lively protest outside bemoans that money channelled into the £27 million museum could have been better spent funding local groups.
It’s a very Perth protest in this culturally rich city, as fiddlers jig the crowd into an impromptu ceilidh. Civic spirit and irreverence burn deep in Perth. It was in this square that John Knox worked the local congregation into such a frenzy in 1559 that they trashed St John’s Kirk and sacked the local monasteries, kickstarting the tumultuous Scottish Reformation.
Next, I walk further back in time to Watergate, which is not a gate as such: in a city swimming with international influences it comes from “gaet”, the Norse word for street. En route wee vennels – a French and now Scots word for narrow lanes – break off in all directions from the High Street in a city whose medieval walled plan is still intact.
Scotland’s longest river is the star of Watergate, with a quayside once bustling with traders from the Low Countries and the Baltic bringing their exotic goods to the Tay’s highest navigable point.
Three years ago I met Iain Fenwick of the omnipresent Perthshire Local app here by the river, as we scanned it for the beavers that had recently made it their home – the UK’s first city beavers in centuries. Perth had just been named Scotland’s happiest city (and the UK’s fifth) by Rightmove, and it seems that positivity has continued.
“There is definitely a buzz about and we’re on a roll – this year Perthshire was voted the world’s most welcoming region,” Fenwick told me. “I see it with businesses signing up to my app – they’re moving into new premises and expanding, while other businesses are coming in.
“I’d directly attribute that to the Stone of Destiny’s arrival. The museum has brought the community even closer together and made us even prouder about showing off Perth.” Iain steered me towards George Street, which he said “speaks for itself”. It seriously does.
This elegant thoroughfare sweeps from close to Perth Museum up to the city’s other brace of cultural treasures – Perth Concert Hall and Perth Art Gallery, the latter reborn with expanded gallery space after the museum collection moved to its new home.
The star of an impressive show is the collection of Scottish colourist John Duncan Fergusson (1874–1961), which moved into its permanent new home just weeks before the Stone of Destiny’s arrival. Ferguson had links with everyone from Charles Rennie Mackintosh to Picasso, and it’s fitting that his pioneering dancer and choreographer wife, Margaret Morris, is celebrated too as being more than just his muse.
Ferguson would have been a fan of the rebirth of George Street. He pined for his beloved Parisian cafes and he would have found a touch of joie de vivre here today. The Bean Shop houses artisan coffee roasters, so on trend that they supply Perth Museum’s cafe with its own “Destiny” blend.
“Perth is a brilliant place to live and work. Everybody helps each other. Scots have a tendency to talk ourselves down,” said joint owner John Bruce. “Yes, we’ve got similar post-Covid issues to other UK towns and cities, but we’re pushing on, as you can see with the thriving independent businesses on this one street alone.”
Bruce points me down George Street to the Perth Distillery on a day that is becoming a life-affirming game of Perth positivity pinball. Elaine Brady heralds my unannounced arrival with another cheery welcome. Impressive considering she works in a dark cellar and old stables hidden from the world beneath the Royal George Hotel.
She is surrounded by gin though, the literal fruits of the artisan Perth Distillery. The showstopper is the Scottish Gin Awards Gold Medal-winning Perth Pink, infused with bountiful Perthshire’s famed raspberries, along with 16 botanicals.
I head next to Princes Street, where Quince & Cook shines as all things to all people. Fancy a cooking lesson on an Aga, or a pasta making session? Done. Or how about an interior design workshop or a botanical skincare tutorial? The engaging staff show me around their “refillery”, which dispenses cut-price toiletries and household cleaners to fill your own container.
On the day of my visit, they were giving away a free unicorn with every purchase to celebrate the museum opening – the white horned fictional horse is, of course, Scotland’s national animal.
Wandering back to sneak another look at a museum that has captured my heart as quickly as it has cheered and emboldened a city, I think of the lord provost. “We’re not ones to sit on our laurels”, McDade had told me. “We’re a city that really pushes boundaries, and we’ve got plans to radically move on with bigger aims and investment in our community.
“We take on challenges head on and try to be bold. ‘No one has a monopoly on wisdom’, as our council leader is fond of saying. And our museum is free and open to everyone, as a testament to that.”
For more information see visitscotland.com and download the Perthshire Local App
