An analytical method is carried out to investigate transient free convection boundary layer flow along a vertical surface embedded in an anisotropic porous medium saturated by a non-Newtonian fluid. The porous medium is anisotropic in permeability with its principal axes oriented in a direction that is non-coincident with the gravity force. A step increase in wall temperature or in surface heat flux is considered. On the basis of the modified Darcy power-law model proposed by Pascal [H. Pascal, Rheological behaviour effect of non-Newtonian fluids on steady and unsteady flow through porous media, Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods in Geomech. 7 (1983) 207-224] and the generalized Darcy's law described by Bear [J. Bear, Dynamics of fluids in porous media. Dover Publications, Elsevier, New York (1972)], boundary-layer equations are solved exactly by the method of characteristics. Scale analysis is applied to predict the order-of-magnitudes involved in the boundary layer regime. Analytical expressions are obtained for the limiting time required to reach steady-state, the boundary-layer thickness and the local Nusselt number in terms of the modified-Darcy Rayleigh number, the power-law index, the anisotropic permeability ratio, and the orientation angle of the principal axes. It is demonstrated that both the power-law index and the anisotropic properties have a strong influence on the heat transfer rate. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.