Hermitage Walk

Dunkeld - River Tay and The Hermitage Walk

Starting Point: Dunkeld

Aside from a 80-metre ascent at the mid-point, this walk is quite flat and suitable for all walkers. Sheltered by woodland most of the way, it is an ideal all-year-round route. From the car park near Inver the walk follows a minor road and footpath, to reach the banks of the Tay at the mouth of the River Braan. A flat and wide riverside path leading through mature woodland follows Scotland's longest river northwards for about 3km. On the way you pass Niel Gow's Oak where the well-known local fiddler composed many tunes. The path leaves the river and after passing beneath the A9 and railway line, climbs steeply for a short distance into Craigvinean Forest, a woodland of enormous Douglas firs. A fairly level forest track leads back along the hillside, passing a 'fairy castle' folly built at a viewpoint over the Tay Valley. Beyond this, the track descends to the Hermitage, an ornamental woodland garden dating from the 1750s, where you will find a Hermit's Cave and Ossian's Hall, providing a viewpoint over the Falls of Braan. A stone bridge leads over the Braan and past Britain's tallest tree, a 64.6- metre-tall Douglas fir planted in the 1860s.

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