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View the Famous Beech Hedges, by Blairgowrie
 Short walks from Meikleour Hotel will take you two magnificent attractions each with its own particular part in history.
The Meikleour Beech Hedge has been in the Guinness Book of Records as the ‘World’s largest/tallest Hedge’ since 1966. It stands some 37 metres (120 feet) tall at its highest point and runs for almost 180 metres (200 yards) in length. The hedge is cut every ten years taking 4 men approximately 6 weeks.
It was planted in the autumn of 1745 by Jean Mercer of Meikleour and her husband Robert Murray Nairne, who was subsequently killed at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 fighting for the Highland Jacobite clans against Government forces.
Following the death of her husband, Jean Mercer of Meikleour would not allow the hedge to be cut, letting it to grow towards the heavens in a tribute to and her husband Robert Murray Nairne’s memory.
The Meikleour Hedge is a short walk, about 300 yards, from Meikleour hotel. It is at its most spectacular in the autumn, its size makes it impressive at any time of the year.
The Cleaven Dyke is a Neolithic Cursus, (a ceremonial earthwork or ritual monuments - perhaps a processional route, with deep significance to its builders ). It incorporates a central mound, between two ditches that runs for over 2 km (1.5 miles) around two metres high and ten metres wide in the best-preserved sections. It dates from around 3,500 BC and must have been one of the largest - and most labour intensive - monuments in Scotland at the time of its completion.
While this type of site was for long associated with southern England, aerial photography has in recent years identified several appearing as crop marks across Scotland.
Please ask the Meikleour Hotel staff for directions to The Meikleour Beech Hedge and the Cleaven Dyke, near Blairgowrie.
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