Our Facilities

Willowgate is positioned in the heart of Perthshire, just a stone's throw away from Perth City Centre. Its tranquil position on the River Tay sets the scene for a great adventure surrounded by wonderful views of Kinnoull Hill and surrounding countryside.

Willowgate feels like its own oasis, a perfect spot for a getaway into nature and a safe space for families, groups and our local community to enjoy. We have a purpose-built boating lagoon as well as easy access to Scotland’s longest river; the mighty Tay.

Our location, combined with high quality equipment and facilities, makes for a world class outdoor centre in the heart of Scotland.

Our Spaces

Comfy Room Great for staff meetings, group lessons and talks, our comfy room has sofas, coffee tables and a projector screen as well as kitchen access to make hot drinks.	Classroom A great space for parties, lessons or meetings, our classroom space is kitted out with tables, chairs, a white board and a projector. With views over the lagoon this is a great space for any time of gathering.	Bushcraft Shelter Right in the middle of our nature pond we built an island and erected our purpose-built Bushcraft Hut. Constructed with logs and canvas it’s a perfect scene to learn those survival skills and relax with a roaring fire.
Outdoor Classroom An open-sided, circular building, our Outdoor Classroom is a great outside space for groups to gather. Beautifully designed with its living roof, it's a great space for keeping you connected with nature while sheltered from the elements.	Willowgate Pontoon Tucked right under the Friarton Bridge, Willowgate Pontoon was set up by The Tay & Earn Trust with the hope of encouraging people to explore the River Tay. The pontoon is a great spot for a quiet evening’s campout or for convenient storage that is close to Perth City Centre.	Willowgate Beach Volleyball, sandcastles, sunbathing and slacklining; we think our beach adds something really special to our space. Our customers love it, and it provides the local community with that beach side feeling, right here in Perth!
Willowgate Lagoon Our purpose-built lagoon is the perfect place to take to the water for one of our many paddlesports or an open water swim. Located with stunning views of Kinnoull Hill and the River Tay, this is an awesome area to enjoy something a little different.	Changing Rooms and Toilets Our indoor changing areas are split by gender and provide a large communal space, a private changing area and hot showers to warm up when you leave the water. In the busy summer months we open our outdoor changing spaces as well.	Containers We reserve some space in our shipping containers to be used as rented storage space for groups and organisations who need it. If you are interested in using these facilities give us a call to discuss options.
	Unfortunately, at this time, there isn’t a gender neutral changing area. However, trans and non-binary people are welcome to use the changing area they feel most comfortable in and can also use the gender neutral disabled toilet if they prefer although this doesn’t include a shower. All of our toilets are gender neutral.

Our Accessibility

Willowgate strives to be accessible to all and achieving this aim is an ongoing process. We strive to adapt all of our activities, so please do get in touch and we’ll chat about options to cater to your specific needs.

For wheelchair users, it may be useful to know our car park is gravel, which we know isn’t ideal, though you can access the paddling area via grass. Some activities are really well designed for wheelchair users such as archery, which can be done sitting down, canoeing, as we have specialist equipment to strap paddlers in for added stability and kayaking, for which we have attachments to improve back support.

Our Katakanus are another great option as they are super stable with no chance of capsizing, and with up to 6 people pitching in to paddle, it gives everyone a chance to get out onto the water. Transfer boards can be used to help people move from chairs to their canoe or katakanu. We also have an assessable toilet.

Our staff are trained and familiar with working with people with ASD, ADHD, Downs Syndrome and other additional support needs. However, we always love a conversation so please get in touch to make your visit with us the best it can be. We can provide photos and picture boards upon request to help ease you into your visit with us.

Our Equipment

We are dedicated to investing in high quality equipment for our customers to use. We offer a range of activities, so have chosen kit that is designed to work best for each speciality.

For our river and loch tours we have sit on top Venture Islay kayaks, tandem closed cockpit Wave Sport Horizons, closed cockpit Dagger Stratos’ as well as our 14ft Voyager Red Paddle Co. stand-up paddleboards. Our tours are typically taken on our single sit on tops as they are safer for beginners, however we can supply tandem or closed cockpit kayaks on request.

Our closed cockpit kayaks for taking out onto white water include Pyranha Machnos, Wavesport Diesels and for little ones we have Small Pyranha Rebels as well as a range of other white water and play boats to suit people’s needs.

For taster experiences we use Tootega sit on tops as they’re a great all-purpose kayak to spin around on our lagoon. For paddleboarding we think there’s nothing better than Red Paddle Co. boards which we’ve found are the best all round boards out there. People tall and small can get involved as we have 10ft 6” and 10ft 8” all purpose 'Rides' as well as 11ft 'Wilds' and 14ft 'Voyagers'. All of our boards are fitted with quick release waste belts to ensure the safety of our clients.

We use sturdy Canadian canoes from Venture and Hou which work great for learning, fun, as well as journeying.

If you’d like any more information or advice about equipment please feel free to get in touch.