The
popular Glen Tilt walk
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any on the images below to enlarge!
Atholl Estates Blair Atholl
Walks – The Glen
Tilt Walk (10 or 6 miles)
The long walk is 10 miles, the shorter walk or as the Atholl
Estates way-marked trails booklet calls it the ‘short cut’ is 6
miles. The
 walk
is along estate roads and well established paths with
way-markers at all the critical points so you do not get lost.
The walk is
 relatively
flat with one or two slight climbs.
We started out at 3pm, deciding on the shorter of the two walks,
some 6 miles which took us 3 hours walking and stopping to take
in the views when ever we felt like it. The great thing about
this walk up the magnificent Glen Tilt is that at no point do
you cover the same route twice. The walk route takes you along
either the bottom of Glen Tilt or along either side of the Glen.
With beautiful scenery open fields, glen and moorland on view
throughout the walk.
Park at the car park just after the Old Bridge of Tilt.
Make sure you have proper walking boots and are prepared for the
weather which can change from hour to hour, wearing the appropriate clothing and carrying spare
clothing, rain coats and sun cream for the warmer summer
weather. Make sure you have the ‘Discover Atholl Estates
way-marked trails from Blair Atholl’
booklet which can be purchased from the Rangers hut next the
Atholl Country Life Museum in the village. It has a good map and
instructions so you do not get lost.
The walk starts from the car park along a well used Atholl
Estate road, through woodland and farm fields on the left. If
you are quiet you may see Roe Deer here and Red squirrels in the
conifer trees. Glen Tilt is also popular with cyclists. We met
several cyclists head up and returning from their trip up the
glen.
After about a mile or so
you come across a way-marker with a yellow arrow telling you
to head off to the left, this well established path takes you up
a slope through some tall conifer trees on to an Estate road and
the rifle range.
 When the Blair Atholl Rifle
Range is in use there are red flags flying to warn you to keep
away and walkers will have alternative routes to bypass the
range. Here you get some great views up Glen Tilt.
Keith Baxby, the Chairman
of West Atholl Rifle Club, which operates the Jubilee Rifle
Range in the Glen Tilt walk writes the following advice to
assist walkers - The red flags are always flown when
shooting is in progress, but when we shoot at "short range"
( ie up to 600yds) it is safe for people to use the main
track through the range, provided they keep to the track and
keep to the right at every fork. Only when we shoot at long
range ( 900 to 1,200 yards) is the road through the range
closed for safety reasons. In this case there are warning
signs in appropriate places so that people do not start on a
closed track and have to turn back to find the detour. I'm
writing only because we don't want people to be
inconvenienced more than they have to be. Please feel free,
if you wish, to add a link to our website
www.westatholl.org.ukwhere people can click on
"Information for Hill walkers" which is in the left hand
margin of the web site, to get information on long-range
closures, and on "Range Programme" for all shooting dates.
 The route then descends
down to the River Tilt crossed by Gilbert’s Bridge. Who
Gilbert was I am not sure! The road then goes through some
magnificent beech trees past a keepers house and his sheep fanks.
Keith Baxby, West Atholl
Rifle club who operates the Jubilee Rifle Ranges writes;
"Gilbert Stewart was the 'last man out' in the '45 rising.
He had a croft near the bridge. The buildings were still
recognisable 60 years ago but almost all trace of them is
now gone. However some of his rhubarb is still growing there
over 250 years later!
In those days the glen was a busy place and his croft was
near the branching of the 'road'. Mrs Stewart his wife was
well known for her hospitality to passers-by. She gave each
caller a 'Thoomb piece' which was a scone, or whatever she
had baked, onto which she spread butter with her thumb (if
they had table knives, which I doubt, they would have been
kept for very special occasions).
My information comes from Alastair Munro, aged 91, factor
(Manager) of the estate from late 1940s until his retirement
over twenty years ago." 3rd June 2008
Up on the hillside you can
see the remains of some old settlements. These would have
been two roomed houses. How well off we are today!
The short walk joins the
main route taking the walker round the back of the keepers
house and sheep fanks, up through trees to open farm land and
down the tarmac road back towards Old Blair and the car park.
Walkers and
cyclists can be seen in Glen Tilt all year round.
The Clunie walk - Pitlochry / The Craigower walk - Pitlochry / Drummond Hill walk - Kenmore / Falls of Acharn walk - Kenmore / The Fungarth walk - Dunkeld / Glen Banvie walk - Blair Atholl / Glen Tilt walk - Blair Atholl | 
