Kinnoull Hill

Kinnoull Hill is a hill located in Perth, Scotland.

Kinnoull Hill
View east of Kinnoull Hill tower, the A90 and the River Tay in view.
Highest point
Elevation222 m (728 ft)
Coordinates56°23′20″N 03°23′52″W 
Geography
LocationPerth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland

From the hill's 222 metres (728 ft) south-facing cliff summit, views are afforded of the River Tay, the Friarton Bridge, and a stretch of the Tay Coast railway line. Further to the south, Moncreiffe Hill can be seen.

On an outcrop a few hundred yards to the east of — but visible from — the summit is Kinnoull Tower, a folly built in the eighteenth century by Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull, to resemble castles along the Rhine he had admired in Germany during his Grand Tour of Europe. Kinnoull saw a similarity between the mountainous landscape along the Rhine and the rocky outcrops on his estate near Perth. On his return, to achieve a similar effect, he built a modest castle on the highest point of Kinnoull Hill, with its tower overlooking the Tay. Another of his lasting legacies is the Perth Bridge over the River Tay, which he helped fund.

The 9th Earl was well known in political and literary circles. He sat in the House of Commons for Cambridge, from 1741 until 1758. Horace Walpole described him in 1751 as "fond of forms and trifles." Earl Kinnoull was acquainted with the poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744), who used him as a model for the character Balbus in his Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot :[1]

"Indeed? no doubt," (cries prating Balbus) "something will come out." 'Tis all in vain, deny it as I will. No, such a genius never can lie still.

Jane Austen described Kinnoull Tower in Lesley Castle, the story she wrote in 1790, a year after she stayed there with D'Arcy Wentworth, during their ramble through Scotland : [2][3][4]

I continue secluded from Mankind in our old and Mouldering Castle, which is situated two miles from Perth on a bold projecting rock, and commands an extensive view of the Town and its delightful Environs... You can form no idea sufficiently hideous, of its dungeon like form. It is actually perched on a Rock to appearance so totally inaccessible, that I expected to have been pulled up by a rope.[5]

Today the tower is more easily accessible, via a winding footpath through the woodland park.

Awards

In 2009 and again in 2010, Kinnoull Hill was awarded Green Flag status.[6] In 2010, Kinnoull Hill Woodland Park also came runner up in Scotland's Finest Woods Awards.[7]

Management

Kinnoull Hill Woodland Park is managed in a partnership between the Forestry and Land Scotland[8] and Perth and Kinross Council.[9] A Users Group has also been established for many years and supports the management of the Woodland Park through a Management Committee.[10]

Sculptures

Woodland sculptures created by Pete Bowsher have been erected in the Woodland Park. There are 14 sculptures reflecting the animals and plants of the park.

Suicide location

The hill's summit has become well-known as a location for suicides. In 2015 it became "highlighted as a national area of concern for completed suicides".[11] That same year, 20-year-old Forfar Athletic player Jack Syme committed suicide at Kinnoull Hill.[12]

In early January 2002, Daniela Smith, a 31-year-old mother-of-two, pushed her infant children off the hill's summit while they were strapped in their pushchair, before throwing herself off. Their bodies were discovered on a ledge about 100 feet (30 m) below the summit on 15 January.[13]

References

The Kinnoull Campus of De La Salle College in Melbourne, Australia, is named after this hill. The property previously on the site of the College, built in 1856 by Sir James Palmer, was renamed Kinnoull by Sir Alexander Stewart (1874-1956) (former Chairman of BHP Australia), who was born near Kinnoull Hill.

  • View over the River Tay
  • Looking north towards Scone
  • Looking north-northwest
  • Looking northwest
  • Looking northwest
  • Looking south from the summit
  • Looking southwest from the summit, towards Friarton Bridge
  • Kinnoull Tower from the west
  • Kinnoull Tower from the east
  • This stone table, a few yards back from the summit's cliff edge, marks views on the horizon
  • Kinnoull Tower and the River Tay

References
  1. Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1891). "Hay, Thomas" . Dictionary of National Biography. 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. "Jane & DʼArcy – the Secret Romance Revealed".
  3. W.W.Walker, Jane & D'Arcy: Jane Austen & D'Arcy Wentworth, Volume 1, Folly is not always Folly, Arcana Press, 2017, page 143.
  4. V.S.Rutherford, Jane Austen had a Life! Amazon Books, 2020, page 107 to 120.
  5. Jane Austen, Juvenilia, Volume the Second.
  6. "Parks awarded green flag status". BBC News. 23 July 2009.
  7. "Scotland's Finest Woods Awards".
  8. "Kinnoull Hill". Forestry Commission Scotland.
  9. "Kinnoull Hill Woodland Park, Perth". Perth & Kinross Council.
  10. "Woodland Park Users Group". Kinnoull Hill Woodland Park.
  11. COMMUNITY PLANNING COMMUNITY SAFETY and ENVIRONMENT GROUP - Perth and Kinross Community Planning Partnership
  12. "‘It was just a complete shock… he had so much to live for’ says mum of tragic Tayside footballer Jack Syme" - Evening Telegraph, 10 June, 2015
  13. "Suicide mother throws babies off cliff" — The Telegraph
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