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), which was also made famous in a poem by Scottish poet Robert Burns. 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 to try to sense the kind of scenery that might have inspired Burns in his writings than it was about waterfalling. And 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.

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 as well as being referred to 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 while also 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, hypocrisies of class structures, etc. as well as the popularizing of Scottish whisky, and even the romanticism of Nature in Scotland such as the Birks of Aberfeldy. It was said the emotional highs and lows of his style plus his mastery of both the English and Scots languages made his writings more relatable and digestible to a broader public. Indeed, this guy was influential even well after his death in 1796.

Anyhow, 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 then following along the eastern banks of the burn (meaning we would be doing the 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, especially since we made our daughter walk (as opposed to me carrying her the whole way).

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, which 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, and 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 while further drowning out the other worries or thoughts that tend to pre-occupy you until Nature reminds you what’s relevant.

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 general 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, and 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 as well as 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.