National Scenic Areas

Waterfall on the Inchewan Burn

If you are walking through Birnam Glen, it's well worth a little diversion to find this delightful waterfall. From the bridge that crosses the burn before entering the Ladywell Plantation, you can simply follow the burn for a few hundred yards until you reach the falls - but be aware there is no path and the walking is rough, with steep scramble at the end.

UPDATE! The easiest way to reach the falls is just to carry on on the path towards Balhomish (ie left at the fork with the sign post) and after a few hundred yards you will come to a bend in the path, with a deer fence heading downhill to the right. There's a signpost thoughtfully put up by we don't know who, but even if it's disappeared, just follow the fence downhill then round to the left and very soon you'll be at the top of the falls.

This lovely video was done by Phil Brammer, and you can read about his adventure finding the falls by clicking here.

Picnic Spot by Kinloch Rannoch

There's parking here and a picnic table, right by the River Tummel as it flows out of Loch Rannoch. On the route of a circular walk around Kinloch Rannoch.

Macgregors Cave

Due to their banditry, cattle raiding and general lawlessness, the Clan Macgregor and all bearing the name, were outlawed by King James VI in 1603. The clan was dispersed and, while many adopted other names, those that still bore the name Macgregor were hunted and killed like animals. There is a local belief that the cave, which is really a cleft in the rocks high above the River Tummel at the east end of Dunalastair reservoir, was one of their hideouts during this time. It is rumoured that on one occasion, redcoat soldiers hunted down three members of the Macgregor clan to the cave and chased them onto the rocks in the river below where they were killed. The outlaw ban was only repealed in 1774. In Victorian times the cave was faked up as a summer house.

Picture copyright ronnie leask and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence.

Rumbling Bridge, Dunkeld

This old stone bridge spans the gorge high above the deep, rocky narrows and takes its name from the ferocious rumbling of the River Braan below. The eminent Victorian English painter, Sir John Everett Millais , one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, stayed at Rumbling Bridge Cottage in the 1870’s when he visited Perthshire on a hunting/fishing trip and two of his landscape pictures "The Sound of Many Waters" (1876) and "St Martin's Summer" (1877) were inspire by the River Braan. Queen Victoria had also been enthused when she visited the bridge in 1865 and wrote in her that the flow was `most splendid` and that `swollen by rain, it came down with an immense volume of water, with a deafening noise`.

The video below of the River Braan at Rumbling Bridge was created by Phil Brammer of Ivy Cottage Industries.

Picture copyright Trish Steel and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence

Allean Forest Picnic Spot

This scenic picnic spot is surrounded by Scots pine and larch trees that are home to a variety of birds and animals such as the gold crest, the siskin, the red squirrel and the elusive pine marten. Close to the picnic spot, two kilometres of path and new bridges have been added as part of the Heritage & Access Project and lead to the Clachan, a partly restored 18th century farmstead and the conserved remains of an 8th century Pictish homestead and lookout point above Loch Tummel.

Picture copyright Lis Burke and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence.