About Falls of Moness (Birks of Aberfeldy)
The Falls of Moness were a series of waterfalls on the Moness Burn in the Birks of Aberfeldy (Birches of Aberfeldy).
This locale was also made famous in a poem
We did a loop hike that took in the main waterfalls on the Moness Burn though I felt that the hike was really more of a nature walk.
Perhaps its main purpose was more about trying to exhibit the kind of scenery that might have inspired Burns in his writings than it was about waterfalling.
Indeed, we felt that our morning stroll through the crisp air of the Birks of Aberfeldy was very tranquil even though we were hit on and off with a bit of rain during our visit.
Who was Robert Burns?
Of course with all this reverence for Robert Burns (or Rabbie Burns), I was naturally curious to see why he was so respected and adopted as Scotland’s cultural icon.
The respect for him was palpable as Scots would refer to him with monikers like Scotland’s favourite son, the Bard, or the Ploughman Poet.
So it turned out that Burns (whose time was during the French Revolution in the late 18th century) was credited with pioneering the Romantic movement.
He was also credited with being a source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism.
His writings covered a lot of political themes like Scottish patriotism and identity, anticlericalism, and the hypocrisies of class structures, etc.
That said, he also popularized Scottish whisky in his works, and his romanticism of Nature in Scotland was on display in his poem “The Birks of Aberfeldy”.
It was said the emotional highs and lows of his style plus his mastery of both the English and Scottish languages made his writings more relatable and digestible to a broader public.
Indeed, Robert Burns was influential even well after his death in 1796.
Hiking the Birks of Aberfeldy – from the car park to the Burn’s Cave
We began our loop hike through the Birks of Aberfeldy from the upper Aberfeldy car park (see directions below).
From there, we followed an obvious trail along the Moness Burn before veering left across a bridge.
Next, we followed along the eastern banks of the burn so this meant that we would be doing the loop hike in a clockwise manner.
At about 15 minutes into the hike (before it really started to climb), we saw a statue of Robert Burns sitting on a bench deep in thought with a pad and pen in hand.
The trail then generally went uphill though it did undulate quite a bit so it was a fairly non-trivial hike.
Since we made our daughter walk on this trail (as opposed to me carrying her the whole way), it did cause us to take more time on the hike than normal.
As we continued climbing on this side of the trail, about 20 minutes after the Burns statue, we then saw the so-called Burn’s Cave.
This was where Robert Burns was said to have been inspired to write the Birks of Aberfeldy.
The cave looked like a very nice and tranquil alcove to just sit and listen to the neighboring cascade falling next to the trail.
Indeed, it was pretty easy to see why Burns would be so inspired here.
Speaking of the cascade, it was a fairly tall but thin waterfall on a side brook that provided that ambient sound of falling water to complement the birdsongs and rustling of leaves.
Such ambience further drowned out the other worries or thoughts that tended to pre-occupy us until Nature reminded what’s relevant.
Hiking the Birks of Aberfeldy – from the Burn’s Cave to the Falls of Moness to the End
The trail continued climbing steeply up more steps and slopes as we rose higher above the gorge cut forth by the Moness Burn.
And it wasn’t until about another 20 minutes later when we would finally see the Upper Falls of Moness.
At this point, we had climbed about 150m from the car park, attesting to the amount of uphill walking we had done to this point.
The view of the falls itself was mostly obstructed thanks to overgrowth from below.
While we were still able to see most of the falls, the overgrowth conspired to make the falls appear smaller than they really were in our photos (see photo at the top of this page).
There was also a verse from Burn’s poem on display here.
Beyond the waterfall, the trail climbed a little bit more before descending towards the bridge right above the waterfall.
And from that point on, the trail then looped back towards the car park in a generally downhill trajectory on the west bank of the Moness Burn.
Along the way, we managed to get a glimpse of the neighboring hills and pastures around Aberfeldy through the trees.
We’d ultimately return to the familiar trailhead and car park after nearly 2 hours away from the car.
Underscoring the tranquility of the experience, we only encountered one individual hiker who did the same hike we did in reverse.
There was also a family who started their hike not much earlier than when we were about to end our excursion.
Indeed, it was tranquil and relaxing; just the way I’d imagine Burns would have experienced it.
Authorities
The Falls of Moness reside in Aberfeldy in Perthshire, Scotland. It may be administered by the town of Aberfeldy. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try to visit the Aberfeldy Tourism Board website.
To reach the Falls of Moness and the Birks of Aberfeldy from Edinburgh, we drove the A90 out of the city center to the M90 across the Firth of Forth (about 13 miles or so).
Then, we continued on the M90 until it ended at the outskirts of Perth (nearly 30 miles from the start of the motorway).
We then continued driving north on the A9 for about 14 miles to the town of Birnam, where we then turned left onto the A822 road.
We’d follow the A822 road for about 7.5 miles, then veer right onto the A826 road for just under 9 miles as we entered the outskirts of the town of Aberfeldy.
Turning left onto a short single-lane road, we then followed this road to its end at the Upper Aberfeldy Car Park.
Overall, this 75-mile drive took us about 90 minutes.
Coming from the other direction in Pitlochry, we’d take the A9 road south for just under 6 miles before turning right onto the A827 road.
We’d then follow the A827 road about 9.5 miles into the town of Aberfeldy before turning left onto Crieff Road.
After about 0.2 miles on Crieff Road, the turnoff for the Upper Aberfeldy car park would be on the right.
This route would probably take about a half-hour.
For further context, Aberfeldy was 47 miles (under 90 minutes drive) north of Stirling and 100 miles (over 2 hours drive) south of Inverness.
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Examining a small cascade and the cave that was said to be where Robert Burns was inspired to write the Birks of Aberfeldy
Focused on the main Falls of Moness
Top down sweep from the bridge above Falls of Moness
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