Blairgowrie is where the Perthshire farmland ends and the Highlands begin to show their hand. The town sits on the River Ericht, which comes tumbling out of Glenshee and, in the old days, turned the wheels of dozens of jute and flax mills; the stone mill buildings still line the river. Behind it the hills close in, and in front lies Strathmore, a broad, red-soiled plain that grows most of Scotland's raspberries. In July the fields are full of pickers, and you can smell the fruit from the road with your visor up.
Two odd things are within easy reach. Six miles south at Meikleour stands a beech hedge, planted in 1745, that is recognised as the tallest in the world and about as high as a six-storey building. It runs along the A93 for a third of a mile and is trimmed by crews on platforms only every ten years or so. North of town begins the A93 itself, the road that matters: up through Bridge of Cally, the Spittal of Glenshee and over the Cairnwell, one of the highest main roads in Britain, with the ski tows right beside the tarmac. Beyond is Braemar and Royal Deeside. The first miles run through wooded gorge and then open moorland, and the surface is generally good with a few frost heaves.
This is the start of the Snow Roads route, which links Blairgowrie to Grantown-on-Spey over the high ground of the Cairngorms National Park. In winter the Cairnwell section can close in snow, and gates are used, so check before a spring or autumn start. Even in May there can be snow on the verges. The weather up there changes fast; set off in sunshine and you can be wearing everything you own by the top.
You are in a town of almost nine thousand, which means fuel, shops and a good bakery or two on the high street. Fill up properly here. After Blairgowrie the next regular pumps on this road are a long way along, and the hills do not let you coast. Leave early and the glen will be quiet, with deer on the lower slopes and the occasional pheasant too dim to leave the tarmac.