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Killiecrankie
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“Blood and Gorge”. Wander around the visitor centre and discover the gory facts about the battle of Killiecrankie and the delights of the natural history and wildlife of the Pass of Killiecrankie. Interactive displays, historic weapons and seasonal information.
Take a short stroll through attractive woodland, with stunning views of the Pass, down to the historic Soldier’s Leap.
Enjoy a longer walk along the river through the magnificent wooded gorge of the Pass of Killiecrankie. Link in to one of the trails of the Pitlochry walks network to really explore this area further.
Finish your visit with a relaxing cappuccino and home baking from the snack bar and browse around the shop with its good selection of books (particularly natural history, Jacobites and local titles), gifts, souvenirs and children’s items.
Killiecrankie through the seasons
Spring
Spring generates a floral extravaganza at Killiecrankie. The plants on the woodland floor feast on the sunlight to grow and flower before the blue sky is replaced by the chlorophyll green canopy of tree leaves. White wood anemones carpet the woods on the way down to the Soldier’s Leap, interspersed with primroses and violets.
The air resonates with bird song as the season progresses, males showing off and establishing breeding territories, most notable are the residents, the tits, finches, blackbirds, wrens and robins. Pictures from cameras inside nest boxes relay the fascinating secret lives of a family of blue or great tits into the Centre.
Summer
Migrant birds such as pied and spotted flycatchers, wood and willow wablers have arrived to join the residents.
In the summer evenings both piperstell and daubentons bats are on the wing, each bat munching its way through 3000 midges a night!
While the best of the woodland flowers are over, the verges beside the Centre come alive with grassland flowers, bees and butterflies.
The bird feeding station helps bring the woodland birds close to the Centre balcony, red squirrels are also regular visitors.
Autumn
The Pass is renowned for its splendid autumn colours, each tree species makes its own particular contribution to a mesmerising blend of gold, burgundy, saffron, amber, russet, umber and many other colours.
It’s a good time to spot red squirrels as they search for nuts and seeds to store away for the winter, they regularly come to the feeding station below the Centre.
During periods of rain you can look for the spectacular sight of leaping salmon at the falls in the river Garry beneath the famous Soldier’s Leap.
Winter
Often the overwhelming sensation of winter in the Pass is that of silence and solitude. Trees stand tall, no longer burdened by their life giving foliage, bare spars of branches supporting an ever-interlocking network of naked twigs.
Robins and wrens may be heard singing, but the undoubted star performer of winter is the dumpy, brown, white-bibbed dipper. Its beautiful long warble of liquid and grating notes can be heard above the rushing river Garry.
Snow may be deep in the Pass in a hard winter, tracks from deer or squirrels and the runs of small mammals are common, but perhaps the most exciting discovery is the five-toed webbed print of the secretive otter.
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