Aberfeldy: a run, a walk and lots of waterfalls

In the end, I decided to join John and do the FeldyRoo Fitness Trail ParkRun. We were made to feel very welcome and we’re glad we did it. It was 3 laps of the trail and, despite not have run 5k for a long time, we were both pleased with our times.

We then wandered into Aberfeldy for some brunch. It’s a pretty town on the River Tay, with attractions including the 5-arch Wade’s bridge, a Black Watch memorial and an art deco cinema.

Aberfeldy is famous for ‘The Birks of Aberfeldy’, a poem by Robert Burns, and now a circular walk through woodland along the Moness Burn.

The start of the walk was through beech woods carpeted in beautiful wild garlic, and we followed the path alongside a series of small waterfalls.

The waterfalls became taller as the path climbed uphill, past a cave where legend says Robert Burns sat on the rocky ledge and wrote his poem.

Having climbed dozens of wooden steps and zigzagged over several side streams, the main river was now splashing through the gorge far below us.

We finally reached the impressive Upper Moness Falls plunging into a ravine. We crossed a footbridge directly above the falls, with the water thundering below us.

The return walk was high above the gorge, with fewer views of waterfalls, but lovely views down the glen. We remember doing this walk on our last trip to Scotland but it was very different this time because there was less water in the river, and there were spring flowers and new green shoots everywhere, rather than autumn leaves.

John kept disappearing into the trees to do some geocaching, while I took photos. It’ a wonderful walk at any time of year and I’m pleased we visited again.

Back in the town, we returned to Molly Moho before driving to Gretna where we’d booked an aire for the night, and had a delicious takeaway curry.

Now we’re driving home. It’s been a wonderful trip and we’ll definitely return to Scotland. However, our thoughts have now turned to our next adventure, hiking the Walkers Haute Route in Switzerland. Bring it on!