The Cateran Ecomuseum is a museum without walls, close to the cities of Perth and Dundee in Scotland, both accessible by a new electric bus service from Edinburgh.
Launched in 2019 and one of a growing number of ecomuseums worldwide, all its sites are outside. Community led, it empowers local people to take an active role in preserving the objects, sites and cultural practices they value.
Providing over 20 pre-designed cycling and walking routes that reveal the hidden heritage of this little known part of Scotland, the museum’s website also offers visitors the opportunity to design their own routes around its 130 sites of interest.
Travel for All Our Tomorrows, a campaign to position the Cateran Ecomuseum as one of Scotland’s premier car-free holiday destinations, was funded through Smarter Choices Smarter Places (SCSP) by Paths for All, Cairngorms National Park, NatureScot, Perth & Kinross Council and Thomson Charitable Trust, together with the Cateran Ecomuseum’s own directors.
The itineraries developed by Bikepacking Scotland, for mountain bikes, gravel bikes, road bikes and touring bikes, can be downloaded as GPX files for free on the Ecomuseum website.
They range from 8.3km to 109km and feature a variety of points of interest such as; stone circles, standing stones, geological features, historic churches and wildlife reserves along the way.