Pitlochry

Pitlochry is a delightful little town that some call the gateway to the Highlands.  It’s just up the A9 from Edinburgh and on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park.  We picked it for our base to explore the highlands, which is the crux of the research we were doing.  Well, that my mom was doing, I was just her assistant/driver. 

There have been villages around Pitlochry on record going back a thousand years, Pitlochry itself is more of a Victorian town that really popped up after Queen Victoria declared how much she enjoyed Scotland and bought Balmoral.  The name likely is an association with the Dunfallandy Stone, with is a carved Pictish stone dating to around the 8th century.  It sits on a farmers land but there is a path one can take to see it, which we did towards the end of the day. 

There is a smaller road that one can take if you want to avoid the A9 for a more picturesque drive.  Called General Wades Miltary Road, as it was build by General Wade after the Jacobite Risings.  If they wanted to keep the Jacobites down, the monarchy realized they needed to be able to travel faster through the highlands so a major road was built including lots of bridges through the passes. 

I was not up for a lot of driving again today, so we decided to keep it local, staying on the smaller road..  There is a fair amount to see in the area.  We drove up to Blair Atholl.  The castle there was the home of the Dukes of Atholl, until the death of the 10th Duke as the heir, a distant cousin, lives in South Africa.  The 11th and 12th Dukes stayed there, though they visit every year to inspect the Atholl Highlanders.  The only private army allowed in the UK, it apparently is mostly estates workers used as a tourist attraction with their own pipe band and everything. 

As we didn’t really feeling like walking around another castle today, the next stop was the Blair Atholl Watermill. The current building is from the 1800s, though a mill has likely been on that spot for centuries. It is still a working mill that is both museum and cafe serving delicious scones made from flour they milled themselves.  They were the best scones of the trip. 

Further up the road was the House of Bruar, which is a posh little shop and food spot near a path leading to the Falls of Bruar.  Probably a gorgeous waterfall, but up a trail that was a bit longer than I thought I could manage with my ankle, and my mom decided to stay with me, so we bought a few little whisky’s and gins to to take along and headed on. 

We stopped at Killiecrankie Pass, which is famous for a 1689 Jacobite victory along the River Garry.  You can walk along the river a bit to Soilders Leap, where it is said one of the fleeing soldiers leapt across the gorge a fair distance to escape pursuit.  There is also a small section of Victorian Viaduct along the pass.

 Driving back along the older road, we kept our eyes peeled for more standing stones, there was one in a field near Killiecrankie, just interesting that its a slab of granite in a field but apparently someone put it there thousands of years ago, and everyone just lets it be.  We drove along to the Pictish stone, which is a little more than a slab in the field with beautiful carvings still visible.  There is a layby where one or two cars can park and then follow the lane to a farmers field.  Up a small set of stairs is a small family cemetery and the Stone.  Historic Scotland has built a glass case to protect it, but it is amazing to see the carvings that are over a millennia old still visible on the old sandstone. 

Driving back to the hotel we checked out the little town of Moulin which was just up behind our hotel, spotted another standing stone in a field, and scouted out the Moulin Inn and Pub.  The pub first opened in 1695 and now has its own micro brewery in what was once the stables.  My mom was in the mood to explore a bit more, and I was in the mood to explore some beers, so we dropped the car at the hotel.  She walked down into Pitlochery to see more of the town and the old churches, and I walked back to Moulin to see the Pub.

It was a really classic pub feel to me with great staff.  I tried a flight of their beers from the classic pull draughts, as well as a gin made for them from local botanicals.  I ended up chatting a lot with the bartender between other customers. I can see why locals have been coming here for 300 years!  We already had plans to go down into town to the Old Mill Inn for dinner, but I thought Moulin Inn would be great for the next night, we had a longer day planned and the flattish walk would probably be more appealing!

The Old Mill was a beautiful 18th century mill, shocking I know, that is now a restaurant and hotel.  It was a delicious dinner, though very busy!  Clearly a popular spot in the middle of a popular town!  Then we had to climb back up that hill to the hotel for a night cap in the bar.