In 1691 the Reverend Robert Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle, finished a manuscript now known as The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies. It catalogued the fairy-folk he believed lived in the hills around the village. He died a year later, on 14 May 1692, found at the top of Doon Hill, the very place he had described as the gateway to their world. Local lore says the fairies took him, fed up of having their secrets shared. The book was eventually published in 1815, by Sir Walter Scott of all people.
Title page of the 1692 manuscript of The Secret Commonwealth. University of Edinburgh Heritage Collections, CC BY 3.0
You can pay your respects on a bike in an afternoon. It's a short ride. The stops are the point.
Of the hills near Aberfoyle, Doon Hill isn't the highest or the hardest. It's the one with the story.
The route, in the loosest sense
This is more of a tour with checkpoints than a circuit. Start in the village, head up to the old kirk, ride out to the foot of Doon Hill, walk up, ride back via the Faerie Loop if you've got the legs.
The shape of it:
Aberfoyle village to the old parish kirk and graveyard on Manse Road: about 1km, mostly tarmac, a short hill at the end.
Lock the bike, walk into the cemetery to find Kirk's grave. It sits in the southeast corner near the church ruins, looking out towards Doon Hill. The thistle, dagger, and shepherd's crook on the headstone are worth a closer look.
Back on the bike, follow signs for Doon Hill, also signed locally as the Fairy Knowe. Ten minutes' easy pedalling.
Doon Hill itself is on a footpath, not a bike route. Lock the bike at the trailhead. Walk to the top. It's a moderate climb on a forest path; 30 to 40 minutes round trip.
At the summit you'll find the Fairy Tree, an old Scots pine pinned with ribbons, written notes, and bits of cloth. People still leave wishes here. Whether the fairies are listening is between you and them.
Walk back down. Either return to the village direct, or pick up the Faerie Loop signs and ride the full 10km (6 miles) back through Loch Ard Forest. It's one of the better-marked routes we point people at and the waymarked loop passes the same hill, so it's a pleasant way to lengthen the day.
Old Parish Kirkyard and Fairy Knowe, Aberfoyle, postcard c.1905-10. Courtesy of the Strathard Heritage Digital Archive
Total time, including the walk and reading the gravestone: three to four hours. Total distance on the bike: 4km (2.5 miles) if you turn straight back, 14km (8.7 miles) if you do the Faerie Loop.
Why it's worth it
Robert Kirk wasn't a crank. He was a Gaelic-speaking parish minister, son of a minister, who took the folklore of his parishioners seriously enough to write it down. Folklorists still count The Secret Commonwealth among the most important works on fairy belief. He died at 47, on the hill he had written about, in circumstances nobody quite explained. The local story took it from there.
Photo: Rosser1954, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
There's a separate strand of Aberfoyle history that gets bolted on at this point, fairly or otherwise: Sir Walter Scott's 1817 novel Rob Roy. Scott set a fictional bar fight in 'the Clachan of Aberfoyle', an inn called Jean MacAlpine's. The fight is an invention, but the village played the literary part for decades. A coulter, a kind of plough blade, hung from a tree in the village for years, said to be the one Bailie Nicol Jarvie used to set a Highlander's plaid alight. That was Scott, not real Rob Roy. The actual MacGregor was born up at Glengyle, head of Loch Katrine, in 1671. To ride to his birthplace you want a different route, out towards Stronachlachar and onwards up the loch. We've a separate post on the full circular too.
Bailie Nicol Jarvie's Poker, Aberfoyle, undated postcard. Courtesy of the Strathard Heritage Digital Archive
For this ride, stay with Kirk. He's the local one.
What you need
Less than you think:
A bike that handles tarmac and a couple of forest tracks. [Hire bikes from us](/bike-hire) are fine. So is [most of what you've got at home](/blog/bring-your-bike-to-aberfoyle-or-hire).
A lock for the bike at Doon Hill. We can lend you one.
Walking footwear that isn't road cleats. The summit path is rooty.
Water and something to eat at the top.
A scrap of cloth or a written note if you want to leave a wish at the Fairy Tree. Don't pull anything off the tree to make space; they're other people's.
A note on the village
Aberfoyle is a working village, not a theme park. The parish church is still a parish church. The cemetery is still in use. People walk Doon Hill in all weather, and many of them know the story. Leave the place better than you found it. Take your wrappers home.
Come and ride it. Start at ours on Main Street with a coffee and something to eat, and we'll point you at the grave.
