Lost Perthshire by Ann Lindsay; Birlinn Ltd, 2011, £14.99  ISBN 978 84158 5774
Reviewed by Kevin Ramage, The Watermill, Aberfeldy

This latest work from Dunkeld-author Ann Lindsay has been eagerly awaited. Following the manner of one of her previous books, Hidden Scotland, the author gives us a tour of little-known and unexpected aspects of the history of our local area.
Perthshire has been the centre to a wide range of industries, some maybe quite unexpected to a modern audience, that flourished and then disappeared, including printing, book binding, boat building, salmon curing, textiles, many small whisky distilleries, and newspapers. To those in the book could also be added Camserney’s erstwhile carpet mill. While we may bemoan the quality of modern transport links, in days gone by industries were fed by a network of mountain passes, drove roads, military roads and bridges, ferries, a harbour, massive rail junction and a wartime aerodrome.
The topography of areas of Perthshire has also been changed in ways beyond the means of nature, in a process that continues to this day as boglands have been drained, glens have been flooded for Hydro electric dams, forests have been planted and rivers diverted. Upland villages, farms and settlements have vanished while other previously sparsely populated areas now densely covered with buildings.
Easily written and illuminated with photographs, maps and drawings, this is a fascinating study showing how ancient and even relatively modern Perthshire landscapes – from stone circles, Roman ditches, and Pictish remains to the Bridge of Earn hospital – have changed so dramatically, often with little thought for conservation or preservation.