The fast flowing River Almond runs along the narrow valley floor and the glen itself, is rather small, at only 4 miles (6.5 km) in length. The Romans built a fort and watchtower here, General Wade built a military road here in the 18th century and the glen featured in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire.
At the northern end of the Sma' Glen keep an eye out for Clach Ossian or Ossian's Stone, an 8 ft high monolithic stone sited where the river and the road almost touch. This is reputed to be the burial place, in about 300 AD, of the legendary Gaelic bard Ossian. He was the father of Fingal who was immortalised in Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave overture.
