Right of way sign for the route between Strath Tummel and Old Struan and Blair Atholl
Path networks in Perthshire
Brenda Clough • March 23, 2021
The track through Glen Tilt, the subject of a famous court case
Our last blog was all about staying local and sharing some of our favourite local walks but how do we know where we can walk and how did all these paths originate?
Scotland has always been a bit different to England in that there has generally been an acceptance that people can walk over open land and between towns and villages to go to church, visit neighbours, drive cattle, go to market etc. Over time some of these routes became used on a regular basis and were recorded as rights of ways. The history of some of the famous routes and the battles to preserve them were sometimes fought in the courts and several of these historic court cases involved routes
in Perth and Kinross including the route through Glen Tilt from Blair Atholl to Braemar.
There have never been as many recorded rights of way in Scotland as there have been in England, partly because the requirement on local authorities to record them was never the same and partly because access to open land was never contested by landowners to the same extent as south of the border. However, Perth and Kinross still has one of the largest networks of recorded rights of ways in Scotland and around Pitlochry many of the routes we use on a daily basis are designated as such. These routes were seldom signposted and before the digital age could only be checked by looking at dusty paper maps in council buildings or contacting the Scottish Rights of Way Society.
Back in the late 1980s, the local council were aware that many people came to the area to go walking and thought it would be a great idea to promote and signpost a network of paths on which people could walk and feel confident that they would be welcome and not get lost. So the Council set about developing a path network around Dunkeld and Birnam by liaising with the local landowners to gain their permission to develop and signpost routes (made easier because much of the land was in the ownership of Atholl Estates). In July 1994 this was one of the first promoted path networks in Scotland.
Path sign for Craigower, part of the Pitlochry path network
It soon became the first of several networks and was closely followed by Pitlochry and then the newly formed Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust developed the network at Crieff. All this was before the new Land Reform Act of 2003 and involved lots of negotiation and discussion with local landowners and communities. If you have one, have a close look at the Dunkeld and Birnam path leaflet - it was produced before the days of digital mapping and printing and all the tree symbols are individually hand drawn!
Eventually, in 2003, the Land Reform (Scotland) Act was passed and at that point the right of responsible access to most land was enshrined in law. Furthermore, local authorities were required to produce core paths plans to give the public reasonable access throughout their area and again Perth and Kinross Council managed to produce one of the most extensive plans in Scotland through lots of consultation with local communities. There are over 2,000km of core paths in Perth and Kinross and you can find out more about them here. This time although landowners were consulted and were able to object to routes the final decision was made by the Scottish Government and the core paths plan for Perth and Kinross was approved on 1 December 2011. This now forms the basis for many of the new path network leaflets that have been developed since then.
Part of the core paths plan for the Pitlochry area. The core paths are shown as dark blue dashed lines.
The above is a very brief condensed history of the development of path networks in this area. You can find out more about the wide range of paths and other routes that exist in Perth & Kinross on our
Walking in Perthshire page on our website. If you want to know more about our world-class access rights, there is a summary on our
website or you can visit the official website on
access rights and responsibilities. Or just come out on a guided walk with Perthshire Treks and we can tell you all about it!!
Richard & Brenda on the summit of Tour de Moyen in Switzerland As we wind down Perthshire Treks over the coming winter, we have had time to look back over the last 6 years and all the lovely people we have walked with and the great adventures we have had. One of our very first adventures was for a lovely group of women from the Netherlands organised through Schottland op Maat . They came to Pitlochry on one of the wettest weekends of the year! Plans were quickly changed from the proposed walk up Schiehallion to a walk along the Rob Roy Way followed by a walk around Pitlochry the following day – and they were amazed at the waterfalls – they don’t have many in the Netherlands! The same year saw Richard do his fastest ascent ever of Ben Vrackie with a young Russian couple who were into marathon running and we also provided some self-guided walking for a corporate group from Baillie Gifford . This first year, as it turned out, was fairly typical with some clients booking directly with us and others via travel agents or travel curators.
What’s it like to be a walking guide? Well, this year will be my 10th and final year as a walking guide, so this blog post looks back at my longer than expected second career.
If you're living or staying in Pitlochry or Aberfeldy, you can use a local bus to help you do a wonderful walk between the two towns. Find out more in our latest blog.
As I write this blog, a cold northerly wind has set in across the UK. A change in the wind direction so that it is coming from the Arctic is one of those weather patterns that is very noticeable for many reasons. Find out more in this blog post.
An overgrown path in Perthshire - just one of the obstacles on the TGO Challenge Life is a challenge but some people enjoy physical challenges in the outdoors. These challenges can be very rewarding and you can feel a great sense of achievement in their completion which can spur you on to do more and set yourself new targets. People are very different in what type of challenges they want to do and this can vary from just completing your first Munro (a mountain in Scotland over 3000 feet), walking the Skye ridge in 24 hours, doing a more organised challenge such as the TGO (The Great Outdoors challenge) or competing in an extreme triathlon. Much depends on whether you like to set your own individual goals or prefer the stimulus of a bigger group and whether you are competitive or not competitive.
Some winter walking in the North York Moors National Park, with some cold and snowy days and some warmer days!
A description of a walk on the moors above Bruar and Calvine, taking in a well-preserved stretch of a General Wade military road.
A visit to the Cairngorms in October 2021 allowed a close-up view of the "cap cloud" that can form in the Cairngorms - and the strong winds it generates!
A report on two wild camping trips near Glenshee and in the Letterewe wilderness in spring 2021.
