6 
Exotic Conifers, glimpses of which were caught, chiefly on the 
right, all the way to Birnam. 
At the Pass of Birnam the route entered the defiles of the 
Grampians, through which it threads its way for many miles 
amid scenery of great splendour. Passing Birnam, the landscape 
is perhaps unrivalled in the whole range of the Grampian 
mountains—trees, meadows, hedges, waters, woods, steep crags, 
and towering mountains—all mingling together in perfect 
harmony and picturesque grandeur. On the right, across the 
Tay, was seen Dunkeld, with the towers of its ancient Cathedral 
standing amidst the trees close to the town, and marking the site 
of the famous ‘‘ Mother Larches,” the first planted in Scotland, 
in 1738, by the Duke of Athole, two of which still.remain within 
afew yards of the west tower of the Cathedral. The route now 
lay up Strathtay, with the steep hills on both sides thickly wooded 
to their summits. 
We were now in the country of the Larch, and immense planta- 
tions rear their head on every side. The famed larch plantations 
of Loch Ordie, on the Dunkeld estate of the Duke of Athole, lie 
high on the hills to the right, and mostly out of view; but their 
produce was in evidence at every railway station we passed, where 
immense piles of larch and other timber indicated the importance 
of the Forest industry in the district. At Ballinluig, Strathtay 
was left, and the route lay slong Strath Tummel. On the left, in 
passing Ballinluig, a handsome Celtic cross, erected in 1866 to 
the memory of the sixth Duke of Athole, was seen standing con- 
spicuously on the ‘ Castle-bill,” behind Logierait,—a village 
famed for its “ Dool Tree,” on which caitiffs were formerly hung, 
and long known as the “ Muckle Ash Tree o’ th’ Boat o’ Logie- 
rait.” It is said to have measured 60 feet in height and 40 feet 
in girth at 3 feet up, but only the hollow trunk now remains, and 
is used as a summer-house in connection with the hotel. Soon 
Pitlochry, with its numerous villas and splendid Athole Hydro- 
pathic, was passed, and the line entered the far-famed Pass of 
Killiecrankie,—the precipitous slopes of the narrow gorge through 
which the Garry flows being richly clothed with natural oak and 
birch, and presenting a scene of remarkable beauty and grandeur. 
At the top of the Pass, in a flat haugh on the right just before 
Killiecrankie Station was reached, the field was seen where the 
battle of Killiecrankie was fought on the 27th July 1689, between 
the royal troops under General Mackay, and Viscount Dundee. 
