The Birks of Aberfeldy

Sunday 26th August 2018

On the day before this walk I came up to Scotland in lovely, sunny weather reminiscent of the fabulous, hot, dry summer that was coming to an end and woke to grey, overcast skies heavy with rain. After all the dry weather the rain was back and normal service in Britain was resumed. When I reached the town of Pitlochry I had taken advantage of the warm, dry evening to take a walk around the town, down to the river and up to the dam. It was a nice way to unwind after the long journey. The following morning I retraced my steps down to the River Tummel crossing the suspension bridge just a short distance downstream of the Loch Faskally dam before passing the Festival Theatre and up into the conifer plantation beyond. Soon the wide track was left behind and I was climbing a narrow path through the woodland that was lined with devil’s bit scabious, bracken and loads of pale orange mushrooms thriving in the damp conditions.

Rain lingered in the air and would soon fall in earnest, but for now I had a brief respite as I climbed the hillside eventually reaching the top where I passed the remains of stone circles. The trees have closed in on the archaeology preventing access, so I continued along the path and out onto the open moorland on the southern slopes of the hill. This was a much more agreeable landscape with heather, gorse and broom shrub covering the ground and with views into the distance of the mist enshrouding the Tay valley. Slowly, with increasing rainfall, the path brought me down the hillside through the pleasingly wild terrain into a young oak wood and to the village of Strathtay at the bottom of the valley. Since leaving Pitlochry I had been following the route of the Rob Roy Way and after crossing the River Tay this took me onto the route of a disused railway. By this point it was raining quite heavily so there was not much for me to see as I made my way along, which is often the case on old railway lines as the scenery doesn’t change with nothing to see but the line stretching far into the distance. The most interesting point was when the line seemed to sit at the top of a very high and narrow embankment surrounded by dense woodland, but it would have looked more dramatic in better weather.

Eventually I came off the old railway line and dropped down to beside the River Tay where more wild flowers decorated the scene although there was also a heavy density of the invasive balsam, which provided a sweet aroma to the wet surroundings as I made my way through the heavy rain and into the village of Aberfeldy. After having my lunch I noticed that the rain had eased so I headed off towards the Birks of Aberfeldy, which is a spectacular gorge made famous by the poet Robert Burns. I don’t know the song, but that didn’t prevent me from enjoying the walk along the well-constructed path that weaves through the birch trees beside the Moness Burn as it falls through a deep ravine in a stunning setting. Woodland ravines such as this are magical places no matter what the weather and I thoroughly enjoyed the climb despite the resumption of heavy rain as I neared the Falls of Moness where Burns was prompted to write his famous song. Getting a good view in these gorges is difficult and at Aberfeldy the path has to climb steeply to get high above the burn to a spot where a view can be made through the trees of the waterfall, although even from this spot vigorous growth of young trees has marred some of the view.

The path continues beyond the viewpoint descending to a bridge that sits just above the falls with quite vertiginous views down the full height of the waterfall. Heading away from the falls I took a path that heads west gradually descending across the open hillside in the pouring rain to eventually reach the farm of Dunskiag where I turned sharp right to head back east towards Aberfeldy. On reaching the Moness Dun Wood I dropped back down to the burn and followed it downstream back into the village where I caught a bus back to Pitlochry. This was really a very short walk around the gorge that had inspired a Burns song and extended by walking along the Rob Roy Way from Pitlochry. It was still not really long enough, but I didn’t want to go to any further lengths to prolong the walk due to the rain, which had prompted me to make a late start and an early finish. As well as the Birks of Aberfeldy themselves, I also enjoyed the walk over the hill from Pitlochry to Strathtay, especially the descent through heather and oak woodland, so despite the poor weather I have to say this was still a good walk.