Killiecrankie Pass
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.