An incredibly rare chance to buy one of the most beautiful stretches of river in Britain (and one that's teeming with fish)
Two striking beats on the River Tay, Dunkeld House Water and the Newtyle Water, have come to the market. Carla Passino takes a look.


A stretch of the gorgeous river Tay, with waters brimming with salmon, otters, lampreys and beavers, could be yours—if you move fast. Strutt & Parker expect huge interest in two prime Tay beats, Dunkeld House Water and the Newtyle Water, for which they are seeking offers over £1.1 million.
Set on either side of the seven-arch Thomas Telford bridge in the ancient town of Dunkeld, the two beats course across beautiful countryside and house some of Britain’s rarest species, including freshwater pearl mussels.
Newtyle also comes with a pretty timber fishing hut, complete with verandah and outdoor barbecue area, which is perfect to sit and soak up the views of the deep pools, the thickly wooded river valley and the mountains beyond.
Built on land belonging to the Murthly & Strathbraan Estates, it is available to the owner of Newtyle on a grace and favour basis.
The land also includes the Birnam Oak, an ancient tree thought to have once been part of a great forest that fringed the Tay and may have been the Birnam Wood that Shakespeare mentions in Macbeth.
Meanwhile, Dunkeld has planning permission to build a hut, with another hut currently leased annually from nearby Dunkeld House.
The Tay is also one of the country’s most famous salmon rivers, so fishing is obviously a big attraction and the two beats each come with rights (more than two miles for Dunkeld Water, more than one for Newtyle). For non-anglers, the tay offers plenty of water sports opportunity, including kayaking, canoeing and paddle boarding.
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Dunkeld House Water and the Newtyle Water are available for sale at £1.1 million for the whole via Strutt & Parker — see more pictures or enquire with the agent for further details. They are also available in two lots, for which Strutt & Parker is seeking offers over £550,000 each.
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Carla must be the only Italian that finds the English weather more congenial than her native country’s sunshine. An antique herself, she became Country Life’s Arts & Antiques editor in 2023 having previously covered, as a freelance journalist, heritage, conservation, history and property stories, for which she won a couple of awards. Her musical taste has never evolved past Puccini and she spends most of her time immersed in any century before the 20th.
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