Drummond Castle Gates

The imposing gates were installed at the main entrance to Drummond Castle on the Crieff  to Muthill road c1785 to proclaim that the family had regained their inheritence.  The Duke of Perth's estates were finally recovered by the family after they had been lost as a consequence of his involvement in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. Above the wrought iron gates are the arms of the earls of Perth.The gate piers finished with urns date from c1685. The entrance was remodeled once more, in the 19th Century,  by Clementina, Lady Willoughby de Eresby with the formation of a large circular space bisected by the Crieff Muthill road. The gate piers were joined by concave screen walls to smaller piers finished with ball finials on the west side, while further gates and a neo-Italianate lodge were added to the east side of the road.

Inside the gates a mile long avenue is a tunnel of beech trees that leads to the (unseen) castle. To the north are views  of the mountains and to the south over the policy park. The beech trees are planted close to the carriage way, so that when proceeding down the avenue, at the speed of a trotting horse they would have produced a magical shuttering effect, light, shade, light, shade....