Birks of Aberfeldy

Sometimes old poems can draw your attention to potential photo locations. That’s what happened to me when I read the following lines from the poem ‘The Birks of Aberfeldy’ by Scotland’s great poet Robert Burns:

The hoary cliffs are crown’d wi’ flowers,
White o’er the linns the burnie pours,
And rising, weets wi’ misty showers
The Birks of Aberfeldy.

Looking forward to a waterfall plunging deep into the glen, I visited the Birks of Aberfeldy last October. Autumn is considered the perfect time of year to visit Perthshire, as the dense forests of the ‘Big Tree Country’ (Perthshire’s nickname) turn into a colourful spectacle. The conditions were perfect, especially as it had rained the night before my visit, which is always beneficial for photographing waterfalls.

However, the “main” waterfall itself was quite a challenge. The highest falls in the gorge can only be viewed and photographed from a distance, which was not quite the shot I was hoping for. In contrast, the lower part of the glen offers an incredible abundance of photo opportunities. Here, the water cascades down the slopes, with one waterfall following another. A real El Dorado for landscape photographers. Burns was absolutely right in his lyrical homage to the beauty of the glen: the Birks of Aberfeldy are a photo location like a poem.