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

Follow in the footsteps of past notable visitors including William Wordsworth and Queen Victoria as you wander through this magnificent landscape.

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.

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®. He inherited his mother’s perfectionism and his passion for excellence in chocolate has since received over 60 national and international awards.

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

Not everyone enjoyed the flavors of Dewer’s while 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 soaked up the atmosphere in the Whisky Lounge.

The Dewar’s family pursuit of whisky perfection continues to this day, and we still produce whisky in a way that they would recognise instantly. In common with most Scotch whisky distilleries, malted Scottish barley to make the whisky is brought to site, with the old Malting House now home to our beautiful Whisky Lounge and Cafe. Due to vastly increased demand, they now mature their whisky elsewhere in Scotland.

Hiking The Birks

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.