Tree-mendous Scottish trails that inspired poetry

This part of Perthshire is known as Big Tree Country because of the legacy of the Dukes of Atholl, who once owned most of the land between Perth and Inverness.

Two hundred years ago, they planted 25 million trees, partly for the timber and partly to improve the land.

I was here for what the Japanese call forest bathing – for the pure pleasure of being surrounded by such a forgiving and benevolent mass of living things.

From Birnam Wood, I crossed the river via a bridge built by Thomas Telford and ambled into Dunkeld, a tiny place with a cathedral, once an important foothold of Christianity in Scotland. For me, though, it was somewhere to refuel with some of the best chips I’ve ever had from the Dunkeld Fish Bar, before checking out the Atholl Memorial Fountain and continuing upstream.

That last part of my day’s walk was up through an arboretum of exotics, including larch, Douglas fir, maple, western hemlock and redwood, imported by the dukes.

My final destination on the riverbank was actually their former summer residence, now reborn as the Dunkeld House Hotel, where I was greeted at reception with a welcoming dram. The next day, after a haggis breakfast, I headed halfan-hour’s drive west to Aberfeldy, a pleasant town that supposedly sits right in the centre of Scotland, and is where JK Rowling lives.

I completed my forest bathing with a walk called The Birks of Aberfeldy, after a poem written by national treasure Robbie Burns.

Like many a poet he was inspired by the woodland. His “birk”’ are birch trees, whereas the majority that line the walk are actually beech. Poetic licence, I guess.

I could see why Burns was impressed by the setting, though. The trees blanket the steep enchanted glen of the Moness Burn, rising towards a dramatic waterfall, glimpsed through tantalising gaps in the leaves.

Occasional snatches of conversation of other hikers mingle with the murmur of water, as if there were faerie people sharing the glen.

At the top, the path loops around the waterfall and descends the other side, where I came upon a bench with a statue of Burns, presumably composing his lines about “little birdies that blithely sing”.

So I sat down next to him and composed a selfie. It seemed like the natural thing to do. FACTFILE: Double rooms at the Dunkeld House Hotel start from £111, with breakfast. To book, see dunkeldhousehotel.co.uk.