The Birks of Aberfeldy

The Birks of Aberfeldy is a steeply wooded gorge on the Moness Burn, where, Perth & Kinross Council says, several waterfalls are flanked by a variety of trees. The Upper Birks is a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its plants and animals, and the burn lies within a wider Special Area of Conservation for otter, lamprey and salmon. The gorge is famous for a song. Robert Burns visited in 1787 on a Highland tour with William Nicol; the Traditional Tune Archive records that he adapted the chorus of an older song, printed by David Herd in 1776, and his version appeared in James Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum in 1788, while The Book of Scottish Song says he composed it standing under the falls.

The council’s circuit is 3.5km in two sections. The Lower Birks starts in the centre of Aberfeldy, through the arch off the town square and across the A826 to the Upper Birks car park, so it can be walked without a car. Walkhighlands describes the lower wood as mostly beech, with handrails once the valley narrows, and Burns’ Seat, a natural shelf in the rock where he is said to have rested, beside a feeder stream. Above that the path climbs flights of stone steps and then a wooden walkway up the gorge, and the council says the upper path rises to 250m at the bridge directly above the Falls of Moness. The return runs down the other side among the birches that give the glen its name, and Walkhighlands notes one clear view down Strath Tay to Ben Vrackie in the distance.

Walkhighlands gives the circuit as 3.5km with 195m of ascent in one to two hours. A half-day between hill days is what the walk suits, and anyone who wants a waterfall rather than a summit gets one. Ordnance Survey Explorer 379 covers it, per Walkhighlands. It is not a walk for anyone who cannot manage stone steps, since the path climbs several flights, and Walkhighlands says the path passes above steep drops with handrails for much of the route, which is not all of it. Perth & Kinross Council publishes path closures for the area, so check its page first. For a day on the hill rather than in the gorge, Schiehallion is the nearest Munro.