Loch Tay : A day in Pitlochry

Whilst on our October week holiday at Loch Tay we decided to take a wee trip over to Pitlochry. The previous day we'd all attempted to climb Meall Nan Tarmachan. This is a hill which lies to the west of the better known Ben Lawers with commanding views over Loch Tay, Killin and from the top Glen Lyon. The mountain is often tackled as part of a circular ridge walk but as this was to be our first serious hill walk with the kids in tow we decided to go for the direct route to the top and back. Meall Nan Tarmachan has two summits, one lesser top at 923 metres and the Munro at 1044 metres with the route to the top visiting both. This is said to be one of the easier Munros to tackle due to the high starting point which makes for a shorter vertical ascent. This made it an ideal choice as a introduction to hill walking for the kids. In the end Super Kid (5) made it to the 923 top after which she chose to stop (I'm sure she could have made the top with ease though), and Super Girlie (7) made it to the very top and bagged her first Munro on the first attempt! So proud of them both!!

So back to Pitlochry... after the previous days exertions all we wanted was an easy day to rest, no hills, forest walks, etc, we'd also promised to treat the girls for their brilliant efforts on the hill, so Pitlochry it was.

After buying what seemed like all the toys in the town, and a great lunch in one of Pitlochrys many eateries we decided to head back to our accomodation at Loch Tay via a few caches. There aren't many caches in Pitlochry itself and although there are a few just to the North we were going the other way.

Our first stop was Esmeralda Hic! This was located at the Blair Athol Distillery which makes 12 year old Single Malt Whisky for Bells. The distillery was established in 1798 and is one of the oldest working distilleries in Scotland. Unfortunately it wasn't until we started looking that we realised it hadn't been found for a while with many DNFs and after our own thorough search we logged the same. The cache has since been archived.

Next up was Dunfallandy. This cache is located next to the house where the CO grew up and apparently is where their parents still live. Personally I don't like this sort of thing as it makes it a bit awkward when searching knowing the curtains are probably twitching. Thankfully I had my two secret weapons with me, the kids. The find was quite easy in the end. Just down the road from here we stopped at a small turn off and walked up to an old graveyard. The gravestones here are for the Fergusson family but it's not these which are of particular interest. This is also the site of the Dunfallandy stone, a pictish cross-slab which features ornate decoration of human figures, pictish symbols, animals and knot work. This is the first pictish stone like this which I've seen. It dates from around the 9th century and today is enclosed behind a protective glass case (which also makes it difficult to photograph).

Finally we stopped near the Pitnacree Bridge over the Tay and collected Pitnacree View. This was a simple park and grab next to the river.