Scenic Point in Perthshire

Aviemore is the main gateway town for the Cairngorms National Park, the largest national park in the British Isles, and has been developed since the 1960s as a year-round outdoor recreation destination serving the ski fields, walking country, mountain biking trails, wildlife watching and watersports that the surrounding landscape offers in exceptional abundance. The town itself is a functional resort rather than a historic settlement, its modern hotel and leisure infrastructure reflecting its purpose-built character, but the landscape it serves is of the most remarkable quality. The Cairngorm plateau, the high arctic mountain environment that forms the core of the national park, covers an area of over five hundred square kilometres above five hundred metres and contains five of the six highest mountains in Britain. The plateau's character is genuinely subalpine: harsh, exposed, subject to violent weather at any season and supporting plant and animal communities more typical of Scandinavia than of most of the British Isles. Dotterel, ptarmigan, snow bunting and the Scottish subspecies of the crossbill breed here in summer, while reindeer, introduced to the Cairngorms in 1952, roam the open mountain slopes in a herd that is the only free-ranging population in Britain. The Cairngorm Mountain funicular railway, one of the highest mountain railways in Britain, carries visitors from the Coire Cas ski area to a visitor centre near the plateau summit, providing year-round access to the high mountain environment for those who prefer not to walk. The ski area is Scotland's largest and operates from approximately December to April in most years, though snow reliability has reduced in recent decades with changing climate patterns. In summer the ski area transforms into a mountain biking and walking venue of considerable scope. The River Spey, one of Scotland's great salmon rivers, flows north from the national park through Aviemore, and the surrounding forests of ancient Caledonian pine, remnants of the great forest that once covered much of the Scottish Highlands, support capercaillie, red squirrel, crested tit and osprey in habitats of international conservation importance.

Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in Britain at 1,345 metres, and the tourist path, officially known as the Mountain Track but colloquially as the Ben Path or Pony Track, is one of the most walked mountain routes in the country, carrying an estimated 150,000 ascents annually up the western side of the mountain from the visitor centre near Fort William to the vast plateau summit. The path was originally built in the nineteenth century to service a meteorological observatory on the summit and the route it follows, while not technically challenging, involves a considerable and unrelenting ascent of approximately 1,300 metres over approximately seven kilometres with correspondingly demanding descent. The experience of ascending Ben Nevis via the tourist path is one of contrasts. The lower section through the valley of the Allt a' Mhuilinn is gently graded and passes through pleasant moorland and river scenery before the path begins its sustained ascent of the mountain's broad western shoulder. The upper section above the Red Burn is increasingly exposed and demanding, the path crossing boulder fields and scree before reaching the plateau, where the walking surface becomes more level but the conditions can deteriorate rapidly and dramatically at any time of year. Snow can remain on the summit into August and the plateau is subject to violent weather that claims lives every year among walkers who underestimate the mountain's conditions. The summit plateau provides one of the most dramatic mountain experiences in Britain on clear days, with panoramic views extending across the Scottish Highlands to the distant peaks of the Cairngorms to the northeast, Ben Lomond to the south and, on exceptionally clear days, the mountains of Ireland to the west. The ruins of the Victorian observatory, the emergency shelter and the memorial cairn mark the summit area, and the dramatic cliffs of the northeast face, falling nearly 700 metres to the Coire Leis below, provide a sudden and vertiginous contrast to the gentle western approach. The Mountain Track approach via the Allt a' Mhuilinn should not be confused with the much more serious mountaineering routes on the north face, which include some of the finest winter climbing in Britain.

Glencoe is the most dramatic and most historically resonant mountain valley in Scotland, a great glacially carved trough in the western Highlands whose combination of towering mountain walls, the dark waters of the River Coe flowing through the valley floor and the melancholy historical associations of the Massacre of Glencoe create an atmosphere of brooding grandeur that has made it one of the most visited and most emotionally powerful landscapes in Britain. The National Trust for Scotland manages extensive areas of the glen and the surrounding mountains, and the visitor centre at the head of the valley provides orientation for the extraordinary landscape. The mountains surrounding Glencoe are among the finest and most varied in Scotland. The Three Sisters, the great buttresses projecting from the south wall of the glen, and the Aonach Eagach ridge on the north wall, the most technically demanding ridge traverse in mainland Scotland, frame the valley in rock walls of enormous scale. Bidean nam Bian, the highest peak in the former county of Argyll at 1,150 metres, occupies the massif behind the Three Sisters and with its satellite peaks provides some of the finest mountain walking in the Highlands. Buachaille Etive Mòr at the eastern entrance to the glen, the great pyramid visible from the A82 approach, is one of the most photographed mountains in Scotland. The Massacre of Glencoe in February 1692 is one of the most notorious acts of calculated treachery in Scottish history, when government soldiers billeted with the MacDonald clan turned on their hosts in the early morning and killed approximately thirty-eight men, women and children in an attack that violated the ancient Highland laws of hospitality and trust. The massacre was carried out on the orders of the Secretary of State for Scotland and with the knowledge of King William III, and the bitter memory of it has contributed to the atmosphere of the glen ever since.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Rothiemurchus Estate in the Cairngorms National Park is one of the finest and most accessible areas of ancient Caledonian pine forest in Scotland, a privately owned estate of approximately 10,000 hectares that encompasses ancient woodland of Scots pine, birch and juniper, the beautiful Loch an Eilein with its island castle, the River Spey and some of the finest accessible Cairngorm mountain terrain between Aviemore and the high plateau. The estate has been owned by the Grant family for over four centuries and their continuing management combines traditional land uses with conservation of the ancient woodland and a comprehensive programme of visitor activities. The ancient Caledonian pinewood of Rothiemurchus is one of the largest and most ecologically intact fragments of the forest that once covered much of the Highland landscape before millennia of human clearance. The old Scots pines, some of considerable age, grow with the space and character of genuinely ancient woodland, the open understorey of heather, blaeberry and juniper creating the conditions for the specialist pinewood wildlife including red squirrel, Scottish crossbill, crested tit and capercaillie that depend on this habitat type. Loch an Eilein, accessible by an excellent circular walk of approximately five kilometres through the forest, is one of the most beautiful lochs in Scotland, its island castle ruin reflected in the clear water and the surrounding ancient pines providing a landscape of perfect composition. The castle, a fifteenth-century tower house, was a stronghold of the Wolf of Badenoch, the notorious younger son of Robert II who terrorised this area in the fourteenth century. The estate visitor centre at Inverdruie provides interpretation and the access point for a comprehensive programme of ranger-led activities, fishing, cycling and walking.