Falls of Acharn

The Falls of Acharn come with a piece of theatre built in. In the second half of the 18th century the Earl of Breadalbane, a man keen on improving nature's presentation, had a stone tunnel cut into the hillside opposite the falls, a T-shaped passage about 20 metres long known ever since as the Hermit's Cave. No hermit ever lived in it. The idea, fashionable at the time, was to march visitors through darkness so the falls arrive as a reveal, and it still works: the left fork of the tunnel bends, passes under an arch, and puts you out on a balcony hanging over the gorge, with the main fall dropping a clear 20 metres directly opposite. Robert Burns came. So did William and Dorothy Wordsworth. The whole cascade runs to about 25 metres top to bottom, and after heavy rain the noise fills the gorge.

The walk itself is a circular of roughly two miles from Acharn village on the south side of Loch Tay, and the honest warning is that it starts steep. The farm track climbs hard from the village, part of the 79-mile Rob Roy Way, and the compensation is behind you: keep stopping to look back at Loch Tay and the Ben Lawers range across the water. Past the cave, a stone bridge crosses above the ravine and the path returns down the far side, where a wooden bridge suspended over the burn gives a close look at the upper falls and the potholed, sculpted rock of the river bed. The boardwalk sections get slippery when wet, and the gorge edges are unfenced in places, so keep dogs and small children gathered in.

The worthwhile detour is uphill from the bridge: the Greenland Stone Circle, nine stones originally, four still standing, on open hillside with sheep for company and the loch spread out below. It adds a mile or so and most people skip it, which is their loss. Go after rain for the falls at full voice, and in autumn for the woods. An hour does the loop; give it two with the circle and no hurry.