The Stories the ‘Heatherly Loch’ Can Tell You
If you’re looking for a long, peaceful walk in Perthshire—flat, well-tracked, full of nature, and almost free of traffic—Glen Quaich is a perfect choice.
Although it appears in a couple of walking guides, it remains delightfully quiet. You’ll find heather-covered hills, abundant wildlife, and a loch ringed with history.
When I share this walk with my language holiday clients, it’s because Loch Freuchie (the Heatherly Loch) holds more than beauty. Its shoreline tells the story of lost and displaced people.
On my holidays, we use Deep Travel to unlock your English. We slow down for nature. We walk and talk—not rush through a checklist of tourist sights. It’s a far cry from the usual kind of “tour” you get on holiday.
Discover Perthshire AND Grow Your English
Every one of our favourite local walks sparks different conversations. You don’t just learn English—you experience it through history, memory, and landscape.
Here at Geln Quaich, the Highland Clearances and wildlife displacement come into view—stories that still echo in today’s debates about land use.
Our holidays are for travellers who want more than picture-perfect Scotland. We share real stories and encounters—because that’s what makes both your holiday and your English unforgettable.
Read on for an introduction to this powerful walk.
The Glen Quaich Circular | Walk Details
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Approximate distance/time (around 7–8 miles, roughly 3 hours)
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Terrain type: flat, well-tracked, tracks may be muddy on the far side
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Starting point: Amulree (don’t miss its beautiful white church) and the path along part of the Rob Roy Way
- Notable wildlife: osprey, eagles, black grouse.
- Important historic site
- Watch out for the dragon which is said to live on the crannog in the loch.
“The Highland Clearances were a devastating part of the history of Scotland. For many, it changed not only their way of life but also shaped the rural future of Scotland. Many villagers suffered at the hands of their landlords and tacksmen and fought a desperate struggle to find a new life. Others managed to prosper in a new life that never saw them return to Scotland again.” (1)
Loch Freuchie and the Highland Clearances
Few houses remain visible: as they were made from the land, it would have quickly reclaimed them. Each of the settlements you walk past once had around 10-15 crofts, built of stone, clay and wattle or thickly cut turf. The roofs were thatched in heather, broom, bracken, straw or rushes. Some would have also had also a mill.
Each housed 10-15 families.
What Happened to the People of Glen Quaich?
Most of this development dates from the early 1800s – as a result of the first Marquess of Breadalbane moving Highlanders from his estate around Loch Tay in order to implement new farming and tenancy agreements. (Similar economic and agricultural change was becoming widespread across Europe). This first wave of displaced families did not remain in Glen Quaich for long. In the early 1800s, around three hundred crofters voluntarily left the glen to resettle in Canada. (2)
An Over-Population Crisis
There was huge hardship and suffering and a succession of bad weather and harvests resulted in famine across the Highlands.
An Ulterior Motive
It was argued by the ruling classes that as a kindness all Highlanders should be removed from their miserable existence and settled elsewhere. Their motivation no doubt at least partly the desire to break up the militaristic and archaic Clan System which had facilitated the Jacobite Risings of the early part of the 18th century, and continued to threaten those in power.
Younger sons of Highlanders had always had to leave home to seek their fortune elsewhere – as the land simply could not support them.
The awfulness of the Highland Clearances was removing an entire stock of people. (2)
All across the Breadalbane Marquisate (as across huge swathes of the Highlands of Scotland), houses were burned, walls levelled and the fields turned into open moorland grazing for blackface sheep. (2)
“Next to go was the entire population of Glenquaich, a lovely heather clad glen running inland from Loch Tay to the hamlet of Amulree, and where over 500 people lived. The evictions were carried out before the houses were set alight”. (2)
Discover the Changed Landscapes of Perthshire
By 1850, out of 3500 people on Loch Tayside, only 100 were left (2)
The Next Big Change – Hunting Estates
The Land Grab Continues
“The half-dozen native white-tailed eagles recently released on the Isle of Wight required mountains of paperwork. To throw out a few thousand non-native pheasants requires no paperwork at all. In fact, to throw out 47 million pheasants requires no paperwork at all. You don’t have to be much of an ecologist to think that might be a bit wrong.” (4)
“Figures suggest that almost one fifth of Scotland is given over to driven grouse shooting and yet if Scotland’s economy were the size of Ben Nevis this industry’s contribution would be the size of a small banjo”.
Price per person
per week, 2026
Discover the Real Perthshire Landscape
The Lost Souls of Loch Freuchie
I wrote this blog during the first COVID lockdown, when numbers and statistics gave a sense of scale that was immediately depersonalising.
A village is both a small population and a huge loss.
The injustice of being forced from your home by the feudal powers you paid to shelter you. Of spending a whole lifetime knowing one glen, then surviving a perilous journey, arriving (as an indentured servant) in a ‘new world’ of different weather, vegetation, politics and dangers. Loving Scotland in your heart, but never returning. Communities scattered. Cultures destroyed forever.
“After the Breadalbane evictions began in 1834 more and more families from central Perthshire began to emigrate . They left with great sadness. The story of Anne Menzies is typical. She was born at Shian, Glenquaich in 1839. Her father was a local school teacher who also had a small croft. Out of this he had to provide the Marquis with two cartloads of peat, so many skeins of wool, so many pounds of butter and cheese, and £16 rent every year. Anne’s family were forced to emigrate in 1842 and sailed from Greenock on the Clyde. The voyage was long and stormy and the ship was three times blown back to the Irish coast. Every one on board did their own cooking and ate their own supplies. There was much sickness and many died. Cholera was the scourge on the emigrant ships and over 20,000 victims of the ship-borne disease lie buried at Grosse Island, Quebec.” (2)
“These are the rarities in human history, the places from which we’ve retreated”.
Kathleen Jamie, Findings, 2005
The Scottish Landscape in the Age of COVID
“Beware that this behaviour (and indeed this pandemic) becomes the latest excuse to close more of Scotland off from its own people” (6).
Deep Travel, Scotland
Our language guests don’t just admire Perthshire’s Highlands—they uncover how the landscape has been shaped, and scarred, by history.
What looks like “natural” wilderness is in fact, land cleared for hunting estates. Empty hillsides replaced once-thriving communities, and today indigenous wildlife still suffers from over-management and persecution in the name of game.
Even in our town of Crieff, estates bring wealth for some while excluding others from the land that should belong to everyone.
This is what deep, authentic travel means: noticing the real stories beneath the postcard views.
On our English coaching holidays, guests pull on the threads that interest them—and we share what lies underneath. Most of our learners are sensitive and curious, and together we turn those questions into conversations about history, politics, and how we imagine better futures.
Our English Language Hub is for learners who want cultural exchange that goes beyond sightseeing—the difference between seeing a place and being in a place. And that’s what transforms your English.
If walking through history moves you, I’d love to take this walk with you—on your terms, at your pace, building your English through story.
Walk Scotland with English Coaching
If you want to experience the best of Scotland’s great outdoors WHILE improving your English, choose our no-classroom holidays with English coaching.
More About Our Language Holiday Walks & Activities
At Blue Noun English Language Hub, every holiday is designed around culture-led learning. Whether through walking, storytelling, art, or nature, we give you ways to experience English in context.
Scottish history is one of the most powerful of these lenses—not just fascinating in itself, but it will bring you closer to the people and language you’re here to connect with.
“Our landscape contains the story of its people – all those who lived on it and from it and fought for it. For so many reasons, now more than ever, we need to listen“.
Ruth, 2025
Thank You, Historians and Eco Warriors!
Further Information
If you are planning a hill walk, prepare properly, including using a reliable website or map for directions.
Walking Highlands is a great resource to help you plan your hike.
English Practice Exercise
Describe a place or space which represents loss. What does it look like now? – How does it represent loss. Mention if it is deliberate (like a memorial) or a result of a change (like space where a building once stood
Choose between using the passive voice (the land was cleared to make way for sheep) when the agent isn’t important, and the active voice (the Marquess of Breadalbane cleared the land, to make way for sheep) when agency is important to the message.
