Puck’s Glen: Scotland’s Most Breathtaking Fairy-Gorge Walk, Near Dunoon

A narrow path winding up the mossy, fern-lined gorge of Puck's Glen beside a tumbling burn, tall conifers rising on either side.
Puck’s Glen — a deep, green, moss-hung gorge with the burn tumbling beside you the whole way up. Truly breathtaking.

Overview — a genuine “wow” walk

Some places over-promise. Puck’s Glen does the opposite — a modest little car park on a forest road, and then a walk so lush and dramatic it stops people in their tracks. It’s a short gorge walk in Argyll Forest Park on the Cowal peninsula, where a burn tumbles down a deep, mossy, fern-draped ravine in a series of waterfalls and pools, and the path threads up it on stone steps, footbridges and boardwalks, crossing and recrossing the water beneath towering conifers.

It’s one of our favourite short walks in all of Scotland — genuinely, jaw-droppingly beautiful, and manageable for most people in an hour or so. If you’re anywhere near Dunoon, go.

Where it is (and where on the route)

Puck’s Glen sits on the A815 in Cowal, between Benmore and Loch Eck, about 7 miles north of Dunoon — part of Stage 1 (Cowal) of the Argyll Coastal Route. The Puck’s Glen car park is signposted right on the A815 (there’s a signpost at the roadside, and interpretation boards for Argyll Forest Park and the glen itself where the trail begins).

It’s a very natural pairing with Benmore Botanic Garden (its famous redwood avenue is just down the road) and Dunoon & Cowal.

A wooden 'Puck's Glen Car Park' signpost beside the forest path at the start of the walk.
The start: the Puck’s Glen car-park signpost, right off the A815.
The 'Puck's Glen' trail information board showing a map of the gorge walk and forest routes.
The trail board at the start — the lower gorge loop plus longer forest options. (Down the Rushy Glen…)

The gorge walk — stone steps, footbridges & waterfalls

The walk everyone comes for is the lower gorge: you drop into the ravine and follow the Eas Mòr burn upstream, the path clinging to the sides on stone steps and slabs, wooden footbridges and boardwalks, and the odd handrail where it’s steep. The rock is thick with moss and ferns, the light goes green and cathedral-like, and there’s a waterfall or pool around almost every corner — including one lovely fall dropping into an iron-tinted amber pool.

It’s not long — the lower gorge loop is roughly 1.5 miles / around an hour at a gentle pace — but it’s wall-to-wall beautiful. You come back either the way you came or on the forest road above to make a loop (the board at the start shows the options, and there are longer waymarked trails here too if you want more).

Stone steps and a moss-edged path climbing beside a small waterfall in Puck's Glen.
Stone steps beside the burn — the whole glen is built like this.
A white waterfall tumbling into an amber, iron-tinted pool among mossy rocks in Puck's Glen.
One of dozens of falls — this one dropping into a peaty, amber pool.
A raised wooden boardwalk clinging to the side of the mossy Puck's Glen gorge above the burn.
Where the sides get sheer, the path goes onto boardwalks and bridges.
A deep, narrow ravine in Puck's Glen, walls covered in moss and ferns, the burn far below.
Green on every surface — this is temperate rainforest country.

The giant trees

Down near the start and the car park, keep looking up: this corner of Argyll is “big tree country,” and Puck’s Glen has some giant Douglas firs soaring overhead (Benmore’s celebrated redwood avenue is just along the road). They’re the kind of trees you instinctively go and stand next to — as we did.

A person standing at the base of an enormous Douglas fir in Puck's Glen, dwarfed by its trunk.
For scale. The big firs near the foot of the glen are genuinely enormous.

A little history (sourced)

Puck’s Glen isn’t purely wild — it’s a Victorian “designed” gorge walk, laid out in the 1870s as an ornamental fairy-glen walk when this ground was part of the Benmore estate (owned then by the businessman James Duncan, who planted much of the forest here). The paths, steps and bridges have been rebuilt many times since, and the glen — named for Puck, the sprite from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream — is now looked after by Forestry and Land Scotland as part of Argyll Forest Park. (Sourced below — Kevin, no first-hand history claimed here.)

Parking & practicalities

  • 🅿️ Parking: the Puck’s Glen car park, signposted on the A815 — a small forest car park (day use; it can fill on fine weekends — arrive earlier). [Kevin — confirm: this was a day stop for us, not an overnight? I’ve written it as day parking.]
  • 🥾 Underfoot: stone steps, slabs, bridges and boardwalks — often wet and slippery (it’s a waterfall gorge). Proper footwear; not suitable for buggies or wheelchairs, and care with young children near drops.
  • ⏱️ Time: allow about an hour for the lower gorge loop; longer if you take the forest trails.
  • 🦟 Midges: a damp, sheltered glen — midgey on still summer days, so repellent in season.
  • 🐕 Dogs: great walk for dogs (watch them on the steps and near the water).

🗺️ Map — the Puck’s Glen walk (from GPS)

Our recorded track from the photos (5 June 2024): from the car park on the A815, down into the gorge and up the burn past the waterfalls, and back by the big trees.

🗺️ Route map — download: `pucks-glen-walk.gpx` · `pucks-glen-walk.kml` · `pucks-glen-walk.geojson`

Best time to visit

Any time it’s rained recently — the waterfalls are the whole point, and this is one walk where a wet week makes it better. Late spring to autumn for greenery and long light; the moss and ferns are at their most vivid after rain. Just expect midges on still summer days and a slippery path.

Combine it with

Reality notes

  • 🥾 Path: stone steps, bridges, boardwalks — slippery when wet (usually is). Boots, and care near drops.
  • 🅿️ Parking: small forest car park on the A815 — fills on nice weekends.
  • ♿ Access: not buggy/wheelchair accessible (steps and steep sections).
  • 🦟 Midges: real on still summer days.
  • 🐕 Dogs: brilliant, on a lead near the steps/water.

Sources