A TOMBOY’S OWN ADVENTURE
TEN FACTS ABOUT THE PERTHSHIRE
Perthshire is known as ‘Big Tree Country’, with Meikleour Beech Hedge being the tallest and longest in the world.
Blairgowrie is the centre of the Perthshire’s soft fruit growing, with raspberries a particular speciality.
In the Middle Ages Auchterarder was known as ‘the town of 100 drawbridges’.
‘The Perthshire countryside was my playground. We’d spend all day in among the trees and gullies, getting as dirty as we could’ At the age of eight I was sent to boarding
My stepfather loved the outdoors too – he
was in the Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre – so between the two of them they really inspired my passion for all sorts of sports and adventure. My brothers loved it too. I have one full brother and two half-brothers and we’re all very close in age. We all hung out together. I was a complete tomboy. We lived in Cargill, a little hamlet between
Perth and Blairgowrie. The house was small but there were old stables and a big garden and woods leading down to the River Tay. The Perthshire countryside was my playground. My stepfather built walkways and death slides in among the trees and gullies. It was fantastic. We’d play there all day, getting as dirty as we could. We had another adventure playground too, a disused railway bridge down by the river. My stepdad encouraged us to climb it, even though it was made of sandstone which is the worst thing to climb on. Our challenge was to do a traverse round one of the pillars over a huge drop into the Tay. And he’d test the suitability of our boyfriends and girlfriends by suggesting they climb it too! Being a tomboy probably saved my life when
I was seven. I was in a crash on the motorway: our car was hit from behind and I got thrown from the car at 70mph and went shooting down the motorway. My skin was literally saved by my thick denim boiler suit – I had refused to wear a skirt. Even so, I had to spend two weeks in hospital being stitched up.
school, first at Ardvreck and then Gordonstoun. I didn’t do particularly well academically, but I was very sporty and the school encouraged me to pursue my interests. They spotted my skiing ability and so I began competing in Nordic (cross country) skiing. When I left school at 16 I continued this, skiing competitively for four years. At the same time, I was doing various jobs – I worked in Chamonix for six seasons and at the National Outdoor Centre at Glen- more near Aviemore. I still liked taking part in races but I realised I was never going to make it to the Olympics – I just didn’t have the neces- sary competitive edge. And, besides, I had lots of other ambitions and interests. I spent some time giving skiing lessons in
Norway and the States. My parents had a place near Andorra, so I worked there too. It was in Andorra, when I was about 19 or 20, that I met a climber named John Barry. He was a friend of my stepfather and was really quite famous – he’d climbed Everest and K2 and several other major peaks. He took me under his wing and I went to northern India with him as he attempted a serious mountain in Kashmir. Spending eight weeks there with some hard- core climbers really opened my eyes. From then on I’d work every winter to earn enough money to spend the summer climbing.
Above: Polly’s skiing ability was recognised by her school. Previous page: At her home near Kirkmichael.
In the mid-1700s, Blairgowrie became the starting point for the military road between Perth and Inverness.
Blairgowrie is the gateway to skiing at Glenshee.
Built in 1680, Dunkeld House was Scotland’s first house built of brick.
Author Beatrix Potter spent eleven summers of her childhood in Birnam. Her parents helped fund the Birnam Institute.
In 1787, poet Robert Burns visited the Falls of Moness at the Birks of Aberfeldy, inspiring his famous poem The Birks of Aberfeldy.
The Royal forests of Glen Artney, near Comrie, were a popular hunting spot for Mary, Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley.
Innerpeffray library, in Strathearn, established in 1680, is Scotland’s oldest free lending library.
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