Glen Banvie and Bruar Circuit

This is a 10.01-mile (16.1 km) loop from Glen Tilt Car Park through Banvie Woods, open upper Glen Banvie, and the estate parkland near Blair Castle. Allow 4 to 5 hours for a long day on tracks and hill paths. Published distance estimates differ: the estate leaflet gives 9 miles, while the mapped loop measures just over 10 miles and another walking description gives 10.25. Published ascent estimates also vary, from about 300 to 380 metres, so treat those figures as guides rather than exact measurements.

From the car park, follow the road uphill to Old Blair and turn left at the crossroads. After the road bends right over Banvie Burn, take the uphill track on the right into Banvie Woods. Keep to the circuit's orange markers as it climbs through the woods and onto the upper glen, then turns back through Baluain Wood and the wider estate tracks. The main loop returns by the pond and Blair Castle parkland to Old Blair.

A separate path leads to a viewpoint over the Falls of Bruar. It is an optional side trip and is not included in the 10.01-mile mapped loop; the exact extra distance is unclear. Leave enough time if you want to add it.

The high stretch crosses nearly three kilometres of open moor in upper Glen Banvie, with forestry to one side and views up the glen. The track then reaches Scots pine woods; gaps look into upper Glen Bruar, and the more open felled area gives a view toward Schiehallion. The estate tracks are generally clear, but the ground can be muddy even in summer.

Look for the remains of Bail an t’Sepail, or Chapel Town, on the upland section. The settlement lasted until the 1850s. Atholl Estates says red deer use the grassy ruins and browse young pine shoots in the woods. Red squirrels may be seen in Banvie Woods; black grouse use the woodland edge, while red grouse live farther out on the moor. Sightings are never guaranteed.

The optional Falls of Bruar viewpoint looks down over a series of cascades. Robert Burns’s 1787 poem about Bruar Water imagines the river asking the Duke of Atholl to plant trees in the then-bare landscape. The return crosses mature parkland shaped in the 18th century by the second Duke of Atholl, with a pond and views toward Blair Castle, the River Garry, and Ben Vrackie.