Pitlochry, The Queen’s View & Glen Shee – Scotland 2010
On leaving Loch Rannoch, we stopped at the Queen’s View Visitor Centre, which is at the eastern end of Loch Tummel. It looks out towards the Schiehallion mountain and was supposedly popular with Queen Victoria or a slightly more obscure Scottish queen, depending on who you believe. It’s a fine view but no better than many others in the area.
The viewpoint is only about 150m from the car park, so the compulsory £2 daily parking fee seemed a bit of a rip off. The visitor centre is full of the usual tourist rubbish for sale but coaches stop here regularly, so I guess it makes good business sense…
We next paid a brief visit to Pitlochry, having been seduced by the town’s description in our guide book. Lonely Planet describes as “this most charming of Highland towns”. I would beg to disagree – it’s a tourist trap with no redeeming features at all, as far as we could tell, although it does have one interesting attraction – a salmon staircase!
On the edge of Pitlochry is a dam and hydroelectric power station. Obviously a dam would prevent salmon making their way along the river, so a series of underwater chambers was constructed that allows the salmon to bypass the dam. This has become known as the staircase:
Far better is the scenic drive up the A93 through Glen Shee and up to the Glen Shee Ski Centre (933m above sea level). Highly recommended and good fun.
We continued up the A939 (via the B976) to the Lecht Ski Centre, shortly after which we found a section of disused road that made the perfect overnight stop.
If your looking for a free overnight stop near Pitlochry drive to the top of Fincastle glen (grid Ref NN8562) .
I was totally offended at the above Perthshire even Scotland doesnt need this kind of Offensive comment. Only thing I agree is about the Parking at Queen’s View that is NEW it use to be free, I am a born and bred local of the area, and feel strongly against having to now pay for parking. As for the comment about pitlochry that was very much uncalled for comments just because it doesnt suit the ODD TOURIST like the above Pitlochry has always been a popular Tourist Town this tourist must remember that days gone by the main artery road actually went through the town and it was a wecoming site for a break if you were going north then as the old A9 was a long tedious drive not like it is now obviously the above was is too young to remember or is new to the area visiting, please sir/madam keep your unwanted unhealthy comments to one’s self
The above article is 100% acurate,Pitlochry and the surrounding area is NOTHING but a huge tourist trap which has sold any bit of a soul it once had for the tourist dollar.The Queens View is in fact a coach park with a view of a sprawling mess of a caravan site,not worth the drive never mind the £2 parking.Linsey Reid says she was totally offended but fails to say what was wrong with the article,I would like to thank the author for what is an HONEST review.
Pitlochry and its surrounding area Tummel / Queens view is a total rip-off and is only popular with wife swappers and swingers.AVOID AVOID AVOID.