Other in Perthshire

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.

Loch Tay is one of the largest freshwater lochs in Scotland, stretching approximately 23 kilometres through the magnificent scenery of Highland Perthshire between the towns of Killin at its western end and Kenmore to the east. At almost 150 metres deep in places, the loch holds more water than any other body of fresh water in Scotland south of Loch Ness, and its dark, cold depths support significant populations of brown trout, perch and pike, making it an important game fishing destination. The landscape surrounding Loch Tay is characterised by the rounded green hills of Highland Perthshire, rising steeply on both sides of the water and giving way to the broader mountain country of the Breadalbane. Ben Lawers, at 1,214 metres the highest mountain in the southern Highlands, dominates the northern shore and is famous among botanists for its exceptional arctic-alpine plant communities. The nutrient-rich mica-schist geology of the mountain supports over 160 species of flowering plants including many rare species that exist here at the southern edge of their natural range. The National Trust for Scotland manages much of the Ben Lawers massif and maintains an interpretive centre with information about the mountain's ecology. Human history along Loch Tay stretches back thousands of years. The loch's shores preserve some of the best-known crannog sites in Scotland, particularly the reconstructed Iron Age crannog at the Scottish Crannog Centre near Kenmore. Crannogs were artificial island dwellings built in the shallow margins of the loch on wooden piles, and dozens of these structures lie beneath the water of Loch Tay, some dating back 5,000 years. The Crannog Centre offers fascinating hands-on demonstrations of Iron Age crafts and technologies. The village of Kenmore at the eastern end is one of Scotland's prettiest planned villages, its whitewashed cottages arranged around the green with a charming arched bridge across the Tay. Killin at the western end sits below the dramatic Falls of Dochart, where the river tumbles through a series of rocky rapids in the centre of the village, creating one of the most photographed scenes in Highland Perthshire. Both villages serve as excellent bases for exploring the loch and surrounding countryside.

Scone Palace near Perth in Perthshire is one of Scotland's most historically significant royal sites, standing on the location where the kings of Scotland were crowned for nearly a thousand years from the ninth century to the reign of Charles II in 1651. The Stone of Destiny, the ancient coronation stone of the Scottish kings, stood at Scone until its removal by Edward I of England in 1296, an act of deliberate cultural humiliation that was reversed only in 1996 when the stone was returned to Scotland after seven centuries in Westminster Abbey. The stone now rests in Edinburgh Castle, but Scone retains the authority of its extraordinary history as the seat of Scottish royal investiture. The current palace was built between 1803 and 1813 for the third Earl of Mansfield in the Gothic Revival style fashionable among Scottish landed proprietors of the period, replacing an earlier building that incorporated the remains of the historic palace on the same site. The resulting Gothic Revival building of considerable scale and quality houses collections of furniture, paintings, porcelain and decorative objects of outstanding importance, assembled by successive Earls of Mansfield over three centuries of aristocratic collecting and reflecting both the family's wealth and their connection through their legal careers to the highest levels of British society. The palace is still the home of the Mansfield family and is open to visitors throughout the summer season. The state rooms contain remarkable pieces including Louis XVI furniture, Sèvres porcelain, needlework by Mary Queen of Scots and a collection of ivories of international quality. The grounds include a pinetum, a maze and the Moot Hill where the coronation ceremonies were conducted, a small artificial mound of such historical significance that visiting it provides a direct connection to the entire sweep of Scottish royal history.

The Victoria Falls near Kenmore in Perthshire, known locally as Acharn Falls, tumble through a steep wooded gorge above the southern shore of Loch Tay in the heart of Highland Perthshire, their cascade accessible via one of the most unusual and picturesque visitor experiences in Scotland. The falls were developed as a romantic tourist attraction in the eighteenth century and the approach through a series of staged viewpoints and atmospheric tunnels cut through the rock reflects the picturesque aesthetic of the period and the desire of the landowners to provide visitors with a structured experience of the sublime qualities of the Highland waterfall. The walk from the village of Acharn begins gently along a woodland path above the loch before ascending into the gorge where the Acharn Burn descends in a long series of cascades toward Loch Tay. The visitor route passes through a tunnel cut into the hillside that emerges directly above the main fall in a hermit's cave viewpoint, providing a dramatic enclosed view of the water below that was designed to produce a theatrical shock of revelation for the original eighteenth-century visitors. This kind of staged landscape experience, in which natural scenery was framed and presented like a theatrical performance, was characteristic of the picturesque movement's approach to landscape appreciation. The falls cascade approximately 40 metres through the narrow rocky gorge, the water force varying considerably between the dry conditions of late summer and the full flow of early spring snowmelt. After significant rainfall the falls fill the gorge with spray and noise in conditions that justify the theatrical approach the original designers intended. The setting above Loch Tay is wonderful throughout the year but particularly in autumn when the mixed woodland of the gorge turns to gold, rust and yellow, and the mountain backdrop of Ben Lawers across the loch provides scale to the pastoral and wooded landscape of the valley floor. The village of Kenmore at the eastern end of the loch is within easy reach and provides refreshment and a further focus for the visit.