Inchewan Falls

One Man and his Dog

I'd been too involved filming the Inchewan to have noticed my friend Peter walking up the path with his dog. I did see him on the way back.

"I could see you were filming so I didn't say anything," he said, "but have you been up to the waterfall?" I hadn't. Peter told me that you used to be able to get there by following the path to the left just after the footbridge. "But there's a deer fence now."

A week later Genie and I headed up Birnam Glen in search of the waterfall. Sure enough the deer fence runs between the Inchewan and the old path which is now overgrown. We decided to walk alongside the burn on the Birnam side of the footbridge. The going got rough and we found ourselves wading through bracken and repeatedly having to cross the stream. We both got wet feet.

As we progressed, the gorge rose up on each side and eventually we weren't so much walking as climbing across the narrow ledges and hanging on to tree branches and rocks. Eventually we rounded the final bend and found ourselves looking up at the falls. Wonderful. We filmed for half an hour and then made our way back.

The following week I was on my way to Dunkeld and Birnam railway station when a familiar looking dog came bounding down the glen. I decided to wait and sure enough, after a couple of minutes, who should I see but Peter. I told him about our adventure at Inchewan Falls and he laughed.

"If you take the main path up towards Balhomish you'll see a little sign someone's put up there on the right-hand side and the path has been marked out by stakes."

I haven't walked that way yet but I would imagine the view down onto the falls is less impressive than the view we had from the bottom of the gorge. Here it is, anyway, in this video.



See also The Inchewan, Birnam Glen (the previous post) and the Highland Perthshire website.