In the first Jacobite Rebellion (in 1689) a battle took place at the Pass of Killiecrankie.

I had always meant to visit the site but somehow never had until April last year, despite it being only three miles from Pitlochry which we have visited many times.

The Pass is a very tight space between two steep hills on either side of the River Garry. Not an obvious spot for a battle.

The government forces were advancing from the south to remove the Jacobite presence from Blair Castle just to the north and were attacked from the hills by the Jacobites under the command of John Graham of Claverhouse (aka ‘Bonnie Dundee’) scourge of the Covenanters by whom he was later dubbed ‘Bluidy Clavers’.

Such was the lack of space in the Pass the government troops could only line up three deep, firing up the hill.

The Jacobites were victorious but Dundee was killed by a musket ball. With his death the Jacobites lost their militarily talented leader and the rebellion petered out soon after.

In the government soldiers’ retreat one of them was forced to make a desperate jump acros the river to escape capture (or worse.) A path leads down from the Killiecrankie Visitor Centre to the site of the leap.

Soldier’s Leap:-

Video:-

Pitlochry Festival Theatre from across River Tummel:-

Footbridge just to south of above:-

Approach to footbridge:-

Footway:-

Pitlochry Festival Theatre, River Tummel, Pitlochry Dam, (theatre to left background):-

River Tummel with Pitlochry Dam in distance:-

Station buildings on Platform 2. Trains to north:-

The station buildings on the east side (Platform 1) house a very good charity second hand bookshop.

Tracks looking south from Platform 1:-

For more views of the station see here.

I must have passed this church building, of the Scottish Episcopal Church, twenty or so times at least. It wasn’t till October 2017 I noticed the Commonwealth War Graves sign on the gate.

Its grounds are lovely with a burn running through them.

It contained one war grave quite near the entrance and close to the burn. Bombardier J Ward, Royal Garrison Artillery, 7/1/1915, aged 35:-

Here’s a video of the church and its grounds:-

This is in the form of a Celtic Cross and stands in a small gardened area just off the main street.

Reverse view looking on to Main Street:-

The Names on the Memorial include a staff nurse, only given as Staff Nurse Macbeth:-

A new addition to the small memorial garden, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great War, is a pair of memorial benches of which I photographed one. Both benches have inlays of soldiers, barbed wire and stylised poppies.

The River Tummel is dammed where it passes Pitlochry in the county of Perth and Kinross and the site houses a hydro-electric power station. The dam created the man-made reservoir Loch Faskally and the buildings are in the deco style.

Pitlochry Dam as seen from access road from the town centre:-

Loch Faskally from Pitlochry Dam (looking north-west):-

River Tummel (looking south-east from Pitlochry Dam.) Pitlochry Festival Theatre visible to the right:-

Cartouche and window of building at Pitlochry Dam:-

There is a fish ladder up the west side of the dam to allow salmon access up to their spawning grounds. When I was last there you could see the fish directly (if one was in the particular step with the window.) Now it seems to be a closed-circuit TV system. The photo below is of the upper platfrom: the fish ladder is to the right here:-

Pitlochry Dam buildings from east side. Part of the fish ladder to the right:-

Pitlochry Dam Generator Building from south:-

Pitlochry Dam + Generator Building:-

Pitlochry Dam Building from South:-

Pitlochry Dam window and cartouche from west side of the river bank:-

This Pitlochry shop has an Art Deco roof-line; good “stepping”:-