Falls of Bruar
Local highlightA gorge of falls in Perthshire that Robert Burns asked the Duke of Atholl in verse to plant with trees — and the Duke did
The Bruar Water drops through a series of falls in a rocky gorge in highland Perthshire, spanned by two stone footbridges that a circular walk links together, climbing to the upper fall and back in a couple of miles. When Robert Burns saw the gorge in 1787 its banks were bare, and he wrote “The Humble Petition of Bruar Water”, a poem in the river’s own voice pleading with the Duke of Atholl to clothe it in woods. The Duke obliged, planting the pine and larch that shade the falls today. The paths are steep in places and slippery when wet. The House of Bruar shops sit at the foot of the walk by the car park, and Blair Atholl, with Blair Castle and its grounds, is a few miles east; the falls lie within the Cairngorms national park.
