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Pitlochry
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PITLOCHRY
has, on the face of it, a lot going for it, not least the backdrop of Ben Vrackie and the River Tummel slipping by. However, there's little charm to be found on the main street, filled with crawling traffic and seemingly endless shops selling cut-price woollens, knobbly walking sticks and glass baubles. The town has grown comfortable in its utilitarian, mass-market role, and, given its self-appointed role as a "gateway to the Highlands", you'd be perfectly excused if you carried straight on through. The one attraction with some distinction in the immediate vicinity is the
Edradour Distillery
(March-Oct Mon-Sat 9.30am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; Nov & Dec Mon-Sat 10am-4pm; free), Scotland's smallest, set in an idyllic position tucked into the hills a couple of miles east of Pitlochry on the A924. Although the whistle-stop audiovisual presentation and tour of the distillery itself isn't out of the ordinary, the lack of industralization and the fact that the whole traditional process is done onsite gives Edradour more personality than many of its rivals.
Pitlochry is on the main train line to Inverness, and has regular buses running from Perth which stop near the train station on Station Road, at the north end of town, ten minutes' walk from the centre and the tourist office , 22 Atholl Rd (mid-May to Sept daily 9am-7pm, Sun closes 6pm; Easter to mid-May & Oct Mon-Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 11am-5pm; Nov-Easter Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 10am-2pm; tel 01796/472215). The office can sell you a guide to walks in the surrounding area (50p), and also offers an accommodation booking service. As a well-established holiday town, Pitlochry is packed with grand houses converted into large and medium-sized hotels . The Moulin Hotel (tel 01796/472196, ; A?50-60), at Moulin on the outskirts of Pitlochry, is a welcoming travellers' inn with a great bar and its own brewery. Of the many guest houses and B&Bs , try Kinnaird House , Kirkmichael Road (tel 01796/472843, ; A?50-60) or Ferryman's Cottage , Port-na-Craig (tel 01796/473681; A?40-50), also in a beautiful position next to the River Tummel. The Old Bank House Lodge (tel 01796/470022, ) is a friendly place with some en-suite rooms as well as bunkrooms and good facilities for walkers and cyclists.
Pitlochry is the domain of the tearoom and is pitifully short of
restaurants
and pubs; the best bet for good
pub grub
is the
Moulin Inn
, handily placed at the foot of Ben Vrackie. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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United Kingdom,
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