Scenic Place in Perth and Kinross

The Hermitage near Dunkeld in Perthshire is one of the finest and most dramatic landscape walks in Highland Perthshire, a designed landscape of the eighteenth century around the gorge of the River Braan that combines the extraordinary Ossian's Hall folly, the Black Linn waterfall where the Braan plunges through a narrow gorge in a fall of considerable power and the tall Caledonian pine and Douglas fir woodland of the surrounding forest in one of the most atmospheric and most completely realised designed landscape experiences in Scotland. The National Trust for Scotland manages the site. The Black Linn waterfall is the centrepiece of the Hermitage, the River Braan forcing its entire volume through a narrow rock gorge before plunging approximately 15 metres in a fall of considerable drama, the rock walls and the height of the surrounding forest creating an enclosed atmosphere of natural power that the eighteenth-century designers exploited brilliantly. The viewing platform at the fall provides the most dramatic vantage point and the combination of the sound, the spray and the visual drama of the water creates one of the finest waterfall experiences available in Perthshire. The Birnam Oak and Sycamore, survivors of the ancient Birnam Wood that Shakespeare immortalised in Macbeth in his prophecy that Macbeth would remain safe until Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane, stand in the riverside walk below the Hermitage and provide a direct connection to one of the most celebrated passages in English dramatic literature.

The Pass of Killiecrankie in Perthshire is one of the most dramatic and historically significant gorges in Scotland, a deep wooded ravine through which the River Garry forces its way below the road that follows the old military route through the Highlands, and the site of the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689, one of the most dramatic Jacobite victories and the occasion of one of the most remarkable feats of individual athleticism in Scottish military history. The National Trust for Scotland manages the visitor centre at the pass and the wooded walking routes through the gorge. The battle of 27 July 1689 was fought between the Jacobite Highland forces of Viscount Dundee, fighting for the deposed James VII of Scotland, and the government troops under General Hugh Mackay. Dundee's Highland charge, launching from the hillside above the pass in the late afternoon sunlight directly into the government infantry before they could fully deploy, was one of the most devastating individual military actions of the period, routing a larger force in minutes. Dundee himself was killed in the moment of victory by a stray ball, and his death effectively ended the rising as a serious military threat despite the tactical success of the battle. The Soldier's Leap, a point in the gorge where a fleeing government soldier is said to have jumped an eighteen-foot gap across the River Garry to escape pursuing Highlanders, is one of the most visited specific locations in the pass and provides a vivid human focal point for the battle narrative. Whether the leap was actually made and whether it covered the distance attributed to it has been debated ever since, but the gorge at this point is undeniably formidable. The oak woodland of the gorge is one of the finest examples of Atlantic oakwood in the central Highlands, its ground flora of ferns, mosses and wood sorrel particularly rich in the damp, sheltered conditions of the ravine.

Queen's View at Loch Tummel in Perthshire is the most celebrated viewpoint in the Scottish Highlands, a panoramic vista from the clifftop above the eastern end of Loch Tummel that looks west along the full length of the loch with the great mass of Schiehallion, the fairy hill of the Caledonians, rising in a perfect cone at the far end of the loch in one of the most perfectly composed natural landscapes in Scotland. The view takes its name from a visit by Queen Victoria in 1866, though the viewpoint was celebrated long before the royal endorsement. The combination of the loch, the surrounding birch and pine woodland, the reflection of Schiehallion in the still water and the sky of the Highland morning or evening creates a view that appears almost deliberately designed in its compositional perfection. The Visitor Centre at the viewpoint provides interpretation of the landscape and the history of the area, including the ancient Pictish and medieval heritage of Perthshire visible in the surrounding countryside. The Tummel Valley more broadly provides excellent walking and cycling on the marked trails through the forest and along the lochside, and the combination of the walking and the celebrated view makes the Queen's View area one of the most rewarding visitor destinations in the Perthshire Highlands.

The Fortingall Yew in the churchyard of Fortingall village in Perthshire is the oldest living organism in Europe, a yew tree estimated to be between 3,000 and 9,000 years old whose survival in the quietly beautiful Glen Lyon church garden provides one of the most extraordinary natural heritage encounters available in Scotland. The range of the age estimate reflects the difficulty of dating ancient yews, but even the minimum estimate makes the Fortingall Yew incomparably older than any other living thing of comparable significance in the British Isles. The yew was already ancient when it was described by visitors in the eighteenth century, when its girth was measured at 52 feet and a funeral was recorded as passing through the interior of its hollowed trunk. The centuries since that measurement have seen the tree change considerably, the great trunk splitting and the various sections developing separately, but the living sections of the ancient tree continue to grow and to carry the genetic material of an organism that was already substantial when the first iron tools appeared in Scotland. Glen Lyon, the longest enclosed glen in Scotland, provides an extraordinary landscape setting for this pilgrimage to the oldest tree in Europe. The glen's remoteness, its character of deep pastoral beauty and the atmospheric quality of the ancient church and its incredible yew create a combination that ranks among the most distinctive natural and cultural heritage experiences in Scotland.

Pitlochry is one of the most popular holiday destinations in Scotland, a Victorian spa town on the River Tummel in the heart of Perthshire whose combination of attractive townscape, spectacular Highland scenery, excellent walking, the Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the remarkable Pass of Killiecrankie nearby make it one of the most versatile and most rewarding bases for exploring the central Highlands. The town was developed as a resort following Queen Victoria's enthusiastic endorsement of the Perthshire Highlands in the 1840s and the arrival of the railway in 1863, and retains the confident Victorian architecture and the quality visitor infrastructure that characterise the best Scottish resort towns. The scenery around Pitlochry is exceptional. The Tummel Valley, sometimes called Tummel's Queen of Scottish Lochs, combines the drama of the river gorge below the town with the wider loch landscape of Loch Tummel above, the viewpoint at Queen's View providing one of the most celebrated prospects in Scotland. The Pass of Killiecrankie immediately to the north provides dramatic gorge walking and a famous battlefield, and the wider network of paths on the hills above the town gives access to moorland and mountain of increasing grandeur at every altitude. The Pitlochry Festival Theatre, one of Scotland's most important producing theatres, runs a programme of six plays in repertoire throughout the summer season, making Pitlochry an unusually cultural destination for a small resort town. The hydroelectric power station on the Tummel below the town includes a fish ladder through which salmon and sea trout can be observed ascending the falls during the run, a remarkable combination of engineering infrastructure and natural spectacle. The Edradour Distillery, claiming to be the smallest traditional distillery in Scotland, is accessible by a pleasant walk from the town.

Loch Rannoch in Perthshire is one of the finest and most scenically complete Highland lochs, a freshwater loch of approximately 19 kilometres in length set between the conifer forest plantations of Rannoch Forest to the north and the ancient Black Wood of Rannoch on the south shore, whose combination of the loch scenery, the wild Rannoch Moor visible at the western end and the ancient Caledonian pine remnants of the Black Wood creates one of the finest loch and forest landscapes in Highland Perthshire. The loch is the drainage basin for the extensive Rannoch Moor to the west. The Black Wood of Rannoch on the south shore of the loch is one of the largest and finest surviving fragments of the ancient Caledonian pine forest that once covered much of the Scottish Highlands, the old Scots pines with their gnarled and spreading forms quite different from the straight plantation conifers across the loch creating a woodland of ancient and atmospheric character. The wood supports red squirrel, Scottish crossbill, crested tit and a range of ancient forest invertebrates and fungi associated with Caledonian pinewood habitats. The driving and cycling circuit of Loch Rannoch provides one of the finest accessible loch landscape drives in Perthshire, the varying character of the loch shore from the oak and birch woodland of the eastern end to the more open shores of the western section creating considerable variety in a route of approximately 40 kilometres.