Untitled Document

The Big Burn.

Start. Golspie (Duke Street).

Route. Golspie (Duke Street) - Old Bank Road - Big Burn car park - Golspie Burn - Mill Pond (Skating Pool) Big Burn Waterfall - Big Burn car park - Old Bank Road - Duke Street.

Notes. “Rated as one of the ten best short walks in Britain, the Big Burn at Golspie is not to be missed” these were the first words from our little guide book on the Big Burn, that’s a mighty big statement to make. It is a hidden gem though, a spectacular short walk up a sylvan gorge, crisscrossed by foot-bridges ending at a waterfall, we visited the mill dam also, billed as the Skating Pool, but what’s even better this walk starts from our front door, the car can stay at home.

We left our little cottage, wandered up the main road to the big burn car park, that was that, way marked paths then guided us through splendid woodland the song of the burn our constant companion. On reaching a finger-post promising passage to the Skating Pool, we left the burn, ascended the hill to join a path circling a delightful pond. Once round the pond a good trod guided us above a glorious sylvan gorge before descending to a board walk path, this lead to the head of the gorge, dark and dank but alive with a thundering cascade.

You have to double back from here, as we're still social distancing and a number of people were waiting to view the spectacle we re-traced our steps, the path we joined zigzagged down the burn, bridges aided our crossing, all too soon we stepped from the tree cover into the car park, our walk ending a few yards down the road.

view route map.

home.

Our little red stone cottage in Duke Street, home for the week.

Colin's Bridge, named after Colin Ploughman MBE who came to Golspie during WW2 to fell timber as part of the war effort, after a number of trips abroad he returned spending many years voluntarily carrying out work on this walk.