Scotland’s national tourism body has pinned its hopes on Ed Sheeran's new album sparking a boom in visitors to a picturesque Perthshire town.
On Friday, Sheeran will release his much-anticipated new studio album Subtract, featuring the acoustic song ‘The Hills of Aberfeldy’ as the final track.
The track was originally written by the global megastar during a visit to the area in 2012.
Since then, Sheeran has visited area on several occasions over the years, most recently in December of 2019 when he was spotted enjoying a performance at the town's The Black Watch Inn.
READ MORE: Scotland's Insider Guide: Aberfeldy
Speaking in 2017, Sheeran revealed he had written a ‘Highland folk song’ in the style of ‘Galway Girl’ after holidaying in Aberfeldy.
The track was due to go on his third studio album, Divide, but didn’t make it as it was “a bit too folky”.
Ahead of the release of his new album, the singer-songwriter has been performing 'The Hills of Aberfeldy' on his current North American tour and referencing writing it while visiting the area in his introduction.
VisitScotland Destination Development Director Caroline Warburton said the national tourism body hope the song will introduce the area.
She told The Herald: “The picturesque market town of Aberfeldy and surrounding countryside of Highland Perthshire has provided inspiration to artists for centuries, perhaps most famously to date Robert Burns’ poem ‘The Birks of Aberfeldy’.
“It is fantastic to see the song ‘The Hills of Aberfeldy’ the final track on international musician Ed Sheeran’s new album. Like Robert Burns, Ed Sheeran was inspired by the dramatic mountains and landscapes of the area when he visited the town.
READ MORE: Tourist sites see visitor numbers soar but remain below pre-pandemic levels
“As well as artists and musicians, Aberfeldy welcomes visitors all year round offering something for everyone, spectacular scenery, outdoor activities, historic attractions and award-winning whisky and food and drink.
"We hope the song will introduce this part of Highland Perthshire to a new audience who will be inspired to come and ‘fall in love with The Hills of Aberfeldy’ themselves.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel