Pie Pilgrims Head North: Edinburgh Visitors Drive Up the A9 for a Macaroni Pie, and Blair Atholl Says ‘Just Don’t Tell Them About the Tablet’
One customer reportedly came all the way from the capital for a single pie. Tourism chiefs say this is the start of something.
The A9 heading north, now a pastry pilgrimage route. Photo: Richard Webb, “Perthshire, A9 in Strathallan - geograph.org.uk - 5439518”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Tourism experts in Highland Perthshire are watching closely after reports that a customer travelled all the way from Edinburgh to Blair Atholl this weekend for a macaroni pie from the village’s new bakery.
“That’s 80-odd miles each way,” said a tourism adviser in Pitlochry. “That’s a 160-mile round trip for a pie. If we can get 10,000 people a year to do that, we can stop worrying about the off-season.”
Other villages along the A9 are said to be “nervous”. “We’ve got a nice café in our village,” said a resident of one village near Dunkeld. “But it closes in winter. You can’t compete with a bakery that’s open all year. It’s like playing football against a team that’s got two goalkeepers.”
Edinburgh visitors were said to be delighted. “We don’t have macaroni pies like that in Edinburgh,” one said. “Well, we do. But they cost £8 and come with a salad.”
Blair Atholl asks visitors to drive carefully and remember that the A9 has a 50mph limit on some stretches, whatever the pie situation is.
The real story: Livvi's opens in Blair Atholl (The Courier)
Letters to the Editor
The views expressed are those of the reader, and frankly that's on them.
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Folk drive past Pitlochry for a pie. Fine. More room in the Co-op for us.
— Iain M., Pitlochry, 1 November 2026 -
I came up from Edinburgh and it was worth every mile. The car smells of pastry now. My husband says it’s an improvement.
— Sarah D., Edinburgh, 1 November 2026 -
Stop at Dunkeld on the way back. We’ve cake. We’ve always had cake.
— Ken W., Dunkeld, 1 November 2026
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