In 1692 the minister of Aberfoyle, Robert Kirk, published a study of local belief in fairies. Their reprisal, as the story goes, was to take him: he collapsed on Doon Hill and the village concluded that his soul had been carried into the hill and lodged in the pine at its summit. The tree is still there, hung with ribbons and written wishes, and the walk to it is 6.5km of waymarked path with 124m of climbing — an easy afternoon that happens to end at one of the strangest places in central Scotland.
The route starts from the main Aberfoyle car park, follows the River Forth out of the village, and climbs gently through mixed woodland to the summit knoll. It is a good walk in poor weather, since most of it is sheltered, and a good one with children, who tend to take the fairy business considerably more seriously than the adults.
If you are combining it with anything, Aberfoyle is ten minutes from the Lodge Forest Visitor Centre and twenty from Loch Katrine.
