More about Pitlochry

           The "Gateway to the Highlands"  is a small Victorian style town lying in the shadow of Ben Vrackie with the Cairngorms rising like a backcloth behind it.

    Such a dramatic background is very suitable for a town that boasts its own, very successful and internationally acclaimed theatre which proudly claims to present "six plays every six days" throughout the year with two matinees on Saturdays and Wednesdays.

      At a time when theatre was dying, Pitlochry's Theatre thrived and today it is a major contributor to the Highland town?s economy, all thanks to the dream of a Glasgow business man who first visited the district in 1942.

     His name was John Stewart and he was a director of Skerry's, a well known business college that trained thousands of Scottish shorthand typists.  His hobby however was the theatre, and with his actor friends Duncan Macrae and Robert McLellan, he founded the Park Theatre Club in Glasgow in 1941.

     When it was forced to close eight years later, he did not give up his dream of theatre owning, and moved to Pitlochry because the peaceful town that straggled along the banks of the river Tummel so impressed him on his first visit that he scrawled a message on a piece of paper and stuck it into a crack in a fence post.  His message said that one day he would return and built a theatre there.

     He chose his location well because, since Queen Victoria first visited the town in 1842 and was loud in her praise of the town, Pitlochry had been a hub of the tourist trade.  A railway line was built to the town 20 years later and hundreds of holiday makers began arriving in its elegant little station every summer.

       Because Stewart started building his theatre at a time when it was almost impossible to purchase building materials, he decided to put up a temporary tent to house his productions. The first production was staged in May, 1951, - a play called "Mary the Queen" by Maxwell Anderson with young Joss Acland playing the part of Darnley.  During that summer Pitlochry Theatre also put on ?Macbeth? and J. M. Barrie?s "Mary Rose".   Success followed, and in 1981, the doors opened on a new custom built permanent theatre with 544 seats and designed by James Dunbar Naismith.   The opening ceremony was performed by Lord Home of the Hirsel on the 30th anniversary of the first show put on in Pitlochry Theatre.

     It is still thriving and the slogan ?stay six days and see six plays? is still its proud boast.  The theatre also holds poetry and literary readings, musical recitals and workshops throughout the year.  Details can be found by contacting Pitlochry Theatre at Port-na-Craig, Pitlochry.  Telephone 01796484626.

     When not in the theatre, visitors can enjoy beautiful walks through unspoilt country where woodpeckers, deer, red squirrels and ospreys can be seen, or take a ?wee nip? at the Blair Atholl Distillery which has been turning out top class whisky since 1798, or Edradour which is Scotland?s smallest distillery.