Pitlochry - The Town

Lying on the banks of the River Tummel Pitlochry dates largely from Victorian times, though it's near neighbours Moulin and Port-na-Craig can lay claim to a much older pedigree. The area was made popular as a destination after the visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1842, followed soon after by the arrival of the railway in 1863. Sitting at the centre of good road and railway connections Pitlochry remains a popular tourist resort to this day, retaining many of it's stone Victorian buildings and entertaining audiences in it's Festival 'Theatre in the Hills'.

In no particular order, visitors to the town are drawn towards -

Loch Faskally, it's dam, visitor centre and fish ladder. This artificial loch was created when the River Tummel was damned as part of Scotland's push for hydro -electricity. A lovely circular walk takes you around the loch, with much of it by the lochside. Started in 1947 and completed by 1951, spawning salmon are helped along their way by the dam's ingenious 310 meter fish ladder. 2017 saw the opening of the new visitor centre, while Loch Dunmore, a pretty Lochan and site of the Enchanted Forest, is hidden away in an elbow of the loch.

Whisky: Pitlochry has two distilleries for those who enjoy studying the water of life. Bells Blair Athol Distillery at the eastern edge of the town is within easy walking distance and well worth a visit. Edradour Distillery lies in the hills above the town. While currently closed to visitors, its claim to fame is that it is the smallest ( legal ! ) distillery in Scotland.

Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Opened in 1951 as the lifetime dream of John Stewart, P.F.T. spent it's first thirty years occupying a semi-permanent tent, until the current building opened at Port-na-Craig in 1981. From classic plays to contemporary productions, there is something for everyone at this iconic 'Theatre in the Hills'. It's current artistic Director ? James Bond villian Allan Cummins no-less.

The town's hanging baskets and floral displays. Pitlochry in Bloom is responsible for the superb displays throughout the town. Formed in 1993, it is a very pro-active group which works hard to maintain all of the floral features in town, while at the same time introducing new sustainable ones. Pitlochry in Bloom has won over 30 awards including Britain in Bloom.

 

The Pitlochry Railway Station and the Railway Station Bookshop. A destination in it's own right due to it's original unique Victorian features, the railway station has been enhanced since 2005 with the charity bookshop open for business on Platform One. Selling second-hand books to all-comers and run by a stalwart group of volunteers, it has raised over an astonishing quarter of a million pounds for charity to date.

 

The Enchanted Forest runs each year from October into early November. Starting out as a small one-off event in Glen Lyon to bring in the millennium, it will soon have attracted over a million visitors to Pitlochry's Faskally Woods. This award-winning light and sound display embraces the beauty of autumn in the Highlands and is well worth a visit - for both adults and kids alike.

 

For the golfers abroad, the town offers a hilly but beautifull eighteen-hole par 69 golf course. With sweeping views of the Tummel Valley, Craigower Hill and Ben-Y-Vrackie, and featuring the remains of a Pictish Fort and the old Jacobite road, Pitlochry Golf Course can genuinely lay claim to being one of Scotland's prettiest inland courses.

 

Pitlochry Highland Games. Games weekends are often one of the busiest of the year for the towns and villages of Highland Perthshire, and Pitlochry is no exception. if you like Highland dancing, marching pipe bands, reams of tartan, tossing the caber ( and any other heavy things lying around ), tug of war,  and the  sound of the chanter then you will have died and gone to heaven.

 

The Rob Roy Way is a long-distance footpath that runs from Drymen in the Trossachs to Pitlochry and takes its name from Rob Roy MacGregor, the folk-hero or unscrupulous outlaw depending on your clan's point of view. Traversing countryside that he knew and travelled frequently, this near eighty mile walk ends with a distinctive arch and bench in Pitlochry's memorial garden.

 

At eighteen holes, Pitlochry Putting Green is twice the size of the Green Park's own putting green and is without a doubt a good deal hillier ! Tucked away on Rie-Achan Road in the centre of the town, this course is ideal for all ages and standards and is open from April through to October.

 

Nestled in the hill above the Festival Theatre, the Explorers Garden was conceived as a 'Theatricum Botanicum', and was built in conjunction with Edinburgh's Botanical Gardens. This mainly woodland garden with its Pagoda, Pavilion, and Amphitheatre locations, allows you ample opportunity to experience art in nature.

 

Pitlochry Boating Station and Activities is set in a bend of Loch Faskally not far from the Green Park. For the fisherman there are salmon, brown trout, pike and perch, while for the young at heart there are rowing boats, pedaloes, mountain and e-ride bikes, right throught to wet suits and stand up paddle-boards.

 

Built by John Campbell of Lochawe, the Black Castle dates from the fourteenth century and it's ruins can be found near the town's High School. Originally built on an island or crannog in a loch now drained, the castle was burned down in 1512, purportedly to try and keep an outbreak of plague at bay.

 

Situated on a buriel-knoll in a farmstead about a mile south of the town and housed in a glass and stone protective structure, Dunfallandy Stone is a richly sculptured Pictish cross slab stone. Carved in the sixth century, the stone has an elaborate cross on it's front face, and a fine collection of symbols and figures on the rear face.

 

Pitlochry Community Garden Share is based at the end of Manse Road in Moulin and may interest the green-fingered amongst you. Working from this dedicated garden and orchard, a band of local volunteers run regular events, including fruit picking and the very popular 'apple day'. Their mantra is to match people that have gardens and want help, with people that want to grow but do not have space.

 

Ben Vrackie lies to the north of Pitlochry and at 2,759 feet is just a wee bit too short to be a fully-fledged Munro - it still needs to grow an extra 241 feet. Roughly translated from Scottish Gaelic into the 'speckled mountain', the summit commands views of Pitlochry, the surrounding glens and westwards towards the road to the isles.

 

The Iron Suspension Bridge over the Tummel was built in 1913 to link the hamlet of Port-na-Craig with Pitlochry by means of a public footbridge, and replaced an earlier small ferry service. Lattice girder pylons on either side of the bank support the steel rope cables, but more importantly give the bridge a very pronounced 'wobble' by the time you to the middle !

 

Black Spout Oak Wood and Waterfall lie just to the south of the town. This 190 foot waterfall and gorge can be viewed from a timber viewing platform, and if you are lucky ( and quiet ) you may also see Roe Deer, the Greater Spotted Woodpecker and the colourful Jay. The woods are also the site of at least one iron-age monumental roundhouse.

 

The John Muir Wild Space Visitor Centre can be found at the corner of Atholl Road and Station Road. This space combines a permanent exhibition describing the work of the trust, along with an art gallery featuring artists inspired by Scotland's wild places. For good measure there are also audio journeys available, nature based photography, and a four-minute film.