It is without a doubt that Pitlochry, in the council area of Perth and Kinross started to develop as a result of the Jacobite rising of 1715. It was in response to this, that General George Wade built a road running through the town to help move military equipment and men into rural Scotland.
These days, the town’s economy is fuelled by tourism, which is as a result from several key events in its past. The first, was Queen Victoria remarking on the beauty of the town while visiting nearby Blare Castle. This gave Pitlochry notoriety, and naturally enough sparked interest in it.
Built on this momentum, a station was established in 1863, which made the town far more accessible. Thanks to the surrounding rugged countryside and mountains, the momentum for Pitlochry’s development was established. In 1947, a dam was created as part of the Tummel hydro-electric power scheme, which resulted in an artificial loch being formed. Loch Fraskally.
This cemented Pitlochry as a tourist destination, and attracts many hilwalkers and mountain climbers due to its close location to mountains. The town has several other tourist attractions including two distilleries. Erandour distillery’s claim to fame is not that it has a name that suggests it should be in the Lord of the Rings, but that it the smallest in Scotland, while Blair Athol distillery dates back to 1798. There is also a plethora of pubs and micro breweries.
The town also boasts a theatre, or which J K Rowling is a patron, and the dam that was built as part of the hydro-electric power scheme, has also become a popular place to watch salmon jump from weir to weir.
The town has a burgh status, which these days is largely ceremonial, and is the equivalent of a borough in the rest of the United Kingdom.
