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 almost 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, particularly 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 1130, 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 Wolf 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 parish church, there are two dissenting meeting-houses in Dunkeld. The village has five fairs annually. The population amounted in 1821 to 1915, and in 1831 to 1471.