Photograph of a small town with buildings occupying a valley floor in the distance. In the foreground is a wooden fence following the contour of the land with trees in the middle distance.

Blair Athole is situated in Perthshire, Scotland. The Gaelic name refers to a plain or 'blar' that the town occupies. In his book Photographs of English and Scottish Scenery published in 1868, Wilson describes Blair Athole thus: 'The village is situated upon a rising ground which overlooks a rising plain at the junction of the [rivers] Tilt and Garry, and is now fast rising into importance, having a spacious hotel for the accommodation of visitors, and communicating both north and south by the Highland Railway.' This photograph is a later carbon copy of the original albumen photograph. Carbon was a process that was less susceptible to fading, unlike an albumen print that is prone to discolouration over time.