Cargill's Leap is a narrow, rocky stretch of the River Ericht just above Blairgowrie. The name comes from Donald Cargill, the Covenanter, born at Hatton of Rattray about 1610. Around 1665, with government dragoons after him, he's said to have got across the river here by jumping it. Local knowledge would have helped. He grew up a mile up the road.

The gorge was once called the Keith. It's tighter and louder than the river either side, the water funnelling hard through rock. Worth knowing it's not quite the gap Cargill faced, though. The town council later blasted the rocks to widen the channel, after one too many people drowned trying to copy the leap.

Cargill himself didn't get many more lucky escapes. He was wounded at Bothwell Bridge in 1679, fled to the Netherlands to recover, came back and kept preaching at illegal open-air gatherings. The authorities caught up with him in 1681. He was taken to Edinburgh, found guilty of treason, and executed. The Bible he carried to the scaffold is still kept at St Andrews.

You reach the Leap on foot from Blairgowrie, a short walk upstream along the Ericht through old mill country. There are two viewing platforms out over the water, the second one right above the cataracts. The path is the start of the Cateran Trail, so you can carry on if the legs are willing.