Prehistoric Dunkeld

Dunkeld had its beginnings ere the written history of our land began. The misty glamour of an unknown past surrounds its origin. It was the Capital of the Kaledonoi, a tribe in the midlands of the ancient kingdom of Piotavia, when the Romans arrived; but, even at an earlier date, judging from the stone monuments numerous in the neighbourhood, it was the tribal resort of an earlier race. Centuries before the advent of Christianity, and before the Pictish nation emerged from the darkness of the past, the rude races who wandered o'er the hills or sheltered in the dense forests found in this natural stronghold beside the Tay a safe and suitable place for the performance of religious ceremonials or sepulchral rites. Records of this are graven on stone, mysterious and as yet not fully understood, though affording glimpses of bygone customs, from which modern research is gradually building up a knowledge of a prehistoric age. Read more.