A weekend visit or mid-road trip stop at the House of Bruar is an absolute guilty pleasure, and on a wet and rainy day like today, I often find myself thinking about the next time I can manage to escape north.
The House of Bruar is a bit difficult to explain – it is a luxury goods store that sells everything from fishing tackle to fine cashmere, country styles and deer stalking outfits, fresh produce and plants, and also fine kitchen supplies, Scottish gifts, and much more. There is an extensive fine food hall with Scottish goodies like shortbread, oat cakes, Dundee cake, fine chocolates, sweets and pastries of all kinds, preserves, honey, crackers, cheeses, bread, and a fresh deli with an excellent butcher.
The sausages obtained from this butcher are often reserved for a special occasion and are offered in a great range of flavours. There is also a generous liquor section selling local gin, whisky, beer, liqueurs and soft drinks.
Not pictured: enormous scone
If this was not enough to draw you north of Perth, there is a large café selling fresh-made soups, sandwiches, cakes and indeed whole Sunday roasts; essential to any stop is a coffee and a scone in the covered canteen, where often you can find birds hopping around between the tables.
In short, it is the perfect place for a day out, as long as you set yourself a budget ahead of time. To help with this, there is a sale hall where you can find older styles of clothing and discounted wool and cashmere sweaters and scarves – a must around Christmas time.
Shopping is not the only goal of a trip to Bruar though, for if you bring your sturdy shoes, you can follow the path around to the back of the complex and up into the forest towards the two falls – falls that were immortalized in words by none other than Robbie Burns.
The Lower Falls is a short walk up a relatively easy trail that still enables you to experience the beauty of the woods. It is probably just short of wheelchair accessible, but I have seen plenty of prams and casually-shod walkers attempt it – with varying levels of success.
The path starts along the edge of the river then passes under the train track through a short dark tunnel.
Beyond the tunnel, the trees are tall and straight, the ground gently mossy or covered in pine needles, with stands of rhododendron scattered about, stunningly purple in the summer. Walkers weave gently uphill with the river audible to the right, deep in a gorge that has been carved through the rock. The first viewpoint is just before the bridge and allows for the picture below of the water pouring through the gorge under the stone arch. Just a bit further up one finds the remains of a Victorian view house, which is best spot for the lower falls themselves. Here one often finds children and dogs scrambling around the rocks, and there is a wide, rocky pool, though swimming is not advised. From the bridge you can see the falls or down the river to a spectacular gorge – pictures in the snowy bit below.
For those wishing a bit more of a hike, the path continues up the hill towards the upper falls. It’s a longer walk – around 45 minutes – and quite steep in places, but there are a few benches where one can pause and enjoy the view back over the valley.
I remember very clearly the first time we took this walk, more than fifteen years ago, and many of the trees that graced the hillside have since been cut down due to disease, creating patches of bald earth, particularly on what is the left-hand side of the river, facing uphill – the western side. The story is that it was Robert Burns himself who requested that the Duke of Atholl plant the forest around the Bruar Water, and so while it was required that diseased trees be removed, new ones have been planted to replace them.
A few strong wind storms damaged the path through the pandemic years, bringing down some enormous trees that must have been hundreds of years old. On our first post-pandemic visit we were not able to go as far as we had planned, as the path was completely blocked.
Continuing up the hill is well worth it when safe. As one climbs, glimpses of the upper bridge are visible through the trees, while the gorge cuts away sharply below. Eventually, the path circles down again towards the river and reaches the bridge, where the views are, again, lovely across the forest and valley beyond.
From this point, the path either continues along the far side of the river and eventually completes the loop at the lower bridge, or you can choose to return on the eastern path which is a bit more picturesque as the western slopes were those most dramatically cleared of trees.
In the autumn the few deciduous trees tend to turn orange-yellow to match the golden larch. In warm months, the greenery is lush and often colourful, but by far the most beautiful visit we ever had to the Falls of Bruar was in December. It was a completely unplanned trip that came into our heads one Saturday morning when we realised we wanted to get a new Christmas ornament for our tree, and quite fancied some nice sausages from the butcher. While Fife did not have any snow, we discovered as we drove up the A9 that the area north of Perth had experienced a dusting. We had planned to at least walk up to the Lower Falls – we almost always do – but thought we might run out of light before we could go further.
After a short tour through the food hall, we stowed our purchases in the car and headed up the path into a winter wonderland. The snow and afternoon sunlight – in December the sun sets not long after 3.30pm – made for an absolutely breath-taking walk, with so many stunning views that I can never decide which I like best.
It was with real regret that I eventually agreed to return to the food hall for a coffee and scone, delicious though both were. I have always desperately hoped that I might have a repeat of this snowy visit, but even in December 2022, when snow blanketed the whole country, I missed it here by about 12 hours.
There are a few caveats to visiting the House of Bruar: firstly, you may well run into coach trips full of tourists, or large groups of well-off visitors with very little consideration of those around them. Secondly, it is frequently very busy, meaning that even a mid-trip stop to use the facilities and pick up a snack can eat up 20 minutes. And thirdly, it is expensive – one has to be realistic about what one intends to spend, and realise that even a bottle of water is likely to cost double what it might elsewhere (though the quality of what you buy here often equals the cost).
Like so many places in Scotland, Bruar holds a connection for me that is both one of beauty and one of memory; the other half and I visited the House of Bruar on our first ever weekend away together to Pitlochry and I stop here at almost every chance I get, certainly on any trip along the A9. Even if I do not have the time to manage the full climb to the upper falls, a trip to Bruar is the highlight of any weekend or week. I am already planning a return visit closer to Christmas!
The Wandering Medievalist 