DUNKELD, a town of Scotland, in the county of
Perth, situated on the northern bank of the river Tay, in a
truly romantic spot, embosomed among lofty crags, now al-
most wholly covered with wood. It is the chief market-town
of the Central Highlands. The immediate vicinity has
been greatly improved by the Dukes of Atholl, particu-
larly by the last, under whom much was done not merely to
beautify his own residence, but also to enrich the scenery
which encloses Dunkeld, particularly on the north. He
also commenced building a new mansion, or rather palace,
on an extensive and magnificent scale; but the building
was interrupted by his death, and has not yet, it seems,
been resumed.
Dunkeld is of great antiquity. It was the capital of
ancient Caledonia. About the dawn of Christianity, a
Pictish king made it the seat of religion, by erecting there
a monastery of Culdees, which king David I., in 1180,
converted into a cathedral, and it ranked as the first in
Scotland. Since the Reformation it has in a great measure
fallen into ruins. The choir, however, is still entire, and
converted into the parish church, which has of late been
very elegantly fitted up. On the north side of the choir
is the charter-house, built by Bishop Lauder in 1469, the
vault of which is now used as the burying-place of the
Atholl family. In the porch of the present church is
the tomb of Alexander Stuart, earl of Buchan, third son
of Robert II., but better known by the name of The
Wolfe of Badenoch, who died in 1394. The seat of the
Atholl family, when the new building is completed, will
be one of the finest in the kingdom. There is, almost
right opposite, a cascade, on the water of Bran, which,
in its way from the western hills, forms a considerable
fall called the Rumbling Brig, from a narrow bridge made
by the fall of two rocks across the stream. The pencil of
Rosa never delineated a wilder or more striking scene.
The stream has a second fall, which, but for the other,
would be deemed superb. Sir James Galloway, master of
requests to James VI. and to Charles I. was created Lord
Dunkeld in 1645; but his grandson James was attainted
at the Revolution, and having died at the beginning of
last century, the title became extinct. Besides the pa-
rish church, there are two dissenting meeting-houses in
Dunkeld. The village has five fairs annually. The po-
pulation amounted in 1821 to 1915, and in 1831 to 1471.