Plan of the Day: Hiking Hermitage, enjoy chocolate at Iain Burnett Highland Chocolatier, Dewar’s Distillery, hiking the Birks and return to the Top Hat House for dinner.

Hiking the Hermitage

The Hermitage is a great place to go for a walk. An attractive woodland trail beside the River Braan leads through towering Douglas firs to the stone bridge and the folly of Ossian’s Hall, which overlooks the spectacular Black Linn Falls. The Hall is a former hunting lodge perched right on the edge of the river with the waterfall rushing right out the windows. According to signage, we traveled in the footsteps of Wordsworth, and Queen Victoria. Though there were mostly likely of millions of others between us and them.

Iain Burnett Highland Chocolatier

Iain Burnett grew up on a Scottish island learning to combine spices with local ingredients in his father’s kitchen. He trained under Master Chocolatiers of the French, Belgian and Swiss schools to develop his own unique style of chocolate making and his technically difficult pure Velvet Truffles®.

After a little shopping we sat down for a taste of this wonderful chocolate. I chose classic hot chocolate. Don’t ask for a mix to take home…it’s a trade secret and you can’t purchase all of the ingredients either.

Dewar’s Distillery

Next there was a choice — walk some more or drink some whisky. (no “e” in the word translates to Scotch for the rest of us North Americans). Four of us decided to hike the Birks.

The remainder decided to discover the Dewar family’s pursuit of Scotch whisky perfection in the distillery they built in 1898. Producing the beautifully balanced single malt at the heart of the Dewar’s blend, Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery is the spiritual home of America’s top selling Scotch. Karen chose to soak up the atmosphere in the Whisky Lounge. The difficulty was which flight to choose - 3 or 4 tastes? None of this area of Scotland is known for the smoky/peaty flavors of whisky, so our choices were limited to light and delicate palettes.

Hiking The Birks Of Aberfeldy

The four of us decided to skip the Dewar’s experience and hike the Birks.

Scotland is blessed with countless wonderful walks (as the past few days have shown us). Even in cities and towns, you are never far away from a green space filled with nature. The circular walk at the Birks of Aberfeldy in Highland Perthshire definitely falls in to that category. This beauty spot even managed to captivate Robert Burns who was inspired to compose 'The Birks of Aberfeldy'. Prior to his poem, the area was actually called the Den of Moness and renamed after his lyrics were put to a pre-existing melody and became a popular song.

The route takes you through a mossy woodland and up past tumbling waterfalls until you reach Upper Moness Falls, the highest on the walk. 'm not going to lie, all the step climbing is a bit of a leg burner. Given our past few days of hiking this was the best. The path zig zags upwards through the glen and every time you think there can't be any more waterfalls another one appears around the corner.