Today we were really keen to get outside for a good walk, but were all feeling a bit tired and short on attention span. We had a hunt online for shorter walks with lots of interest and I casually suggested that we head to Maspie Den in the Fife Lomand Hills area starting from a little village called Falkland.
I hadn’t mentioned that the village square features as ‘Inverness’ in the TV series Outlander. The new series starts tomorrow, so we have been binge watching the previous series over the last couple of weeks.
We set off and then I let it slip that there might be a bit of a TV/film theme to the walk… not admitting that I am a fan in any way J. It is only a short trip from our house, so it wasn’t long before we pulled into the village and made our way to the large free carpark which had loads of space first thing. A quick note: people were queuing for spaces just after lunch time! Anyhow we got ready and set off.
After taking a few pictures of the lovely village we headed off on the walk. As you get to Maspie Den it feels like you are entering a different world. The path narrows and the lush vegetation closes in. Our son said it felt like we were in a jungle (it was 15 0C and humid after all, close enough for Scotland) and our minds immediately jumped to ‘Predator’. We were hunting round the trees and plants hoping we didn’t see an alien figure suddenly run off.
At the top of the valley you suddenly come upon a waterfall with a large undercut behind it which the path goes along. It reminded us instantly of ‘Last of the Mohicans’ and we quickly started singing as we hid behind the small fall. The theme from that film has been one of our walking tunes, along with the Tetris music, for a long time for those head-down uphill slogs when the going gets tough!
Anyway, after this it was a simple walk back downhill until we suddenly came upon the last surprise of the walk; a tunnel through rock beside the river.
We really enjoyed this short walk (less than 5 km total) and had a great couple of hours letting our imaginations run wild, all having fun and letting being outdoors connect us and re-invigorate us despite our tiredness before we started.
The Maspie Den walk is a fantastic family walk starting from the pretty village of Falkland and has the added benefit of being a great place for Outlander fans…(not that we are of course!)
A detailed route description for this walk can be found on the walkhighlands website
Quick Glance:
Starting point: Falkland village square, Fife
Distance: 4.75 km
Ascent: 181 m
An Outdoors Family 
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