The Hermitage is on the River Braan just west of Dunkeld, eighteen kilometres south of Pitlochry, and it is the best short woodland walk in Perthshire.
It was laid out in the 1750s and 1760s by the Dukes of Atholl as a designed landscape — a “pleasure ground” in the eighteenth-century taste, with paths engineered to deliver views of the river gorge in a controlled sequence.
The National Trust for Scotland owns it.
The centrepiece is a small stone folly built in 1757 on a rock directly above the Black Linn Falls.
It is called Ossian’s Hall, after the Gaelic bard whose supposed works James Macpherson had just published — poems that swept Europe, influenced Goethe and Napoleon, and were almost certainly largely Macpherson’s own composition.
The original interior was extraordinary: mirrored panels arranged so that a visitor entering the room was suddenly surrounded on all sides by reflections of the waterfall, an eighteenth-century immersive effect. The mirrors are gone — the hall was blown up by vandals in 1869 and rebuilt — but the balcony remains, hanging directly over the falls.
In spate the effect is still overwhelming. The Braan comes down in a single powerful drop a few metres in front of you.
Ossian’s Cave, a rough stone-built grotto further up the path, is the other folly.
The Hermitage stands in Britain’s tall tree country.
The Dukes of Atholl planted Douglas fir here from the first seed sent home by David Douglas — the Perthshire-born plant collector who introduced the species — and the trees that resulted are among the tallest in the country. One nearby has been measured at over 65 metres, and Britain’s tallest tree has been recorded in this valley more than once.
Walking beneath them is the second reason to come.
The short circuit to Ossian’s Hall and back is about a kilometre and takes half an hour. It is well surfaced and mostly easy, with some slope.
The longer walks run up the Braan to the Rumbling Bridge, another fine fall, and out into Craigvinean Forest — routes of five to ten kilometres, on which visitors report seeing almost nobody once they are two kilometres in.
Wildlife: red squirrels, dippers, and salmon leaping the Black Linn in autumn, which is a spectacle in its own right.
Wild swimming in the pools is popular; the water is very cold and the rocks are slippery.
Free to walk; parking is charged, and free to National Trust for Scotland members. Take cash or check the payment method, as visitors have found this catches them out.
Time: half an hour to a full day.
Facilities: toilets and picnic benches at the lower car park. No café on site; Dunkeld is five minutes away and the House of Bruar is up the A9.
Access: the main path to Ossian’s Hall is surfaced and reasonably graded, and is manageable for many; the longer routes are not.
Dogs: welcome — though bagged waste left hanging in trees is a persistent and much-complained-about problem here. Take it out.
Dunkeld — the cathedral in a meadow by the Tay, half-ruined and beautiful, and the little town of Atholl Street with its restored houses.
Loch of the Lowes, five minutes away, is a Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve with breeding ospreys watched from hides from March to August.
Birnam, across the river, with the Birnam Oak — the last survivor of Macbeth’s wood.
A stone folly of 1757 built on a rock above the Black Linn falls, originally lined with mirrors to surround visitors with reflections of the waterfall.
The walk is free; the car park is charged, and free to National Trust for Scotland members.
The short circuit is about a kilometre and takes half an hour. Longer routes run up to ten kilometres.
Among them — the Douglas firs here descend from the first seed sent home by David Douglas, and the valley has held the record for Britain’s tallest tree.
The main path to Ossian’s Hall is surfaced and reasonably graded; the longer routes are not.