The Pass of Killiecrankie is a spectacular wooded gorge cut by the River Garry about 4km north of Pitlochry. It can be reached by footpath along the river from Pitlochry in about an hour; the National Trust for Scotland visitor centre at the north end of the pass has parking and a café. The gorge is particularly dramatic in autumn, when the beech, oak, and birch canopy turns gold and the river runs fast below.
The path through the gorge follows the old military road built by General Wade in the early eighteenth century to open up the Highlands after the Jacobite rising. The military road predates the modern road by almost a century and the pass would have been genuinely formidable before it was constructed — the gorge walls drop steeply to the river.
Soldier's Leap, marked on the path, is the spot where tradition says a fleeing government soldier jumped an 18-foot gap across the river to escape Jacobite pursuit after the battle. Whether the jump actually happened is uncertain; the gap is real and the fall would be fatal. Pied flycatchers and wood warblers breed in the woods in spring and early summer, and dippers work the river year-round.