The Magic Escarpment. Mist Inversion over Glasgow and Clydebank.

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On a few days each year, usually in November/ early December, the City of Glasgow gets a classic mist inversion as it sits in a bowl shaped hollow surrounded on three sides by hills. There are several places to see this effect. The Campsie Fells area around Mugdock and the Whangie, The Fintry Hills, The Brownside Braes and The Kilpatrick Hills. From decades of previous experience I usually know when this effect will occur so I picked a day a few weeks ago and headed for Old Kilpatrick. A decade ago this car park would seem busy with a dozen cars in it on a weekend but in 2020 finding 60 to70 cars crammed in here everyday is not unusual. As I was busy in the morning and it was a thick pea souper down in the Glasgow hollow I waited until lunchtime to set off, hoping to nab a precious parking space from folk that were coming back down off the hills. And this proved to be the case.

Although I started off in thick mist I was confident I would rise above it the higher I climbed and a few hundred feet higher this proved to be the case. These photos do not do justice to how good this day was in reality. A magical atmosphere and a cracking day out.

Judging from the mist levels I may have timed it just right with an afternoon ascent as The Erskine Bridge, seen here, was completely hidden at first. After an hour a gentle breeze picked up and various holes started to appear in the thick mist blanket below.

Another one of the Erskine Bridge appearing with the Renfrewshire ridges clear. You could easily tell where the River Clyde was in the landscape as that was where the mist lingered the longest, refusing to dissipate. Unlike the masses heading up the land rover track to the reservoirs I quickly headed east, back towards the city, traversing steep slopes high above Clydebank and Glasgow, moving in the direction of Duntocher.

 This used to be an easy walk but its much harder today as they have planted loads of young trees all over these hillsides with several vicious barbed wire fences to negotiate and an eight foot high deer fence, which did have a stile over it. As I have a painful shoulder injury at present this route was a real challenge for me as I was effectively one armed. Folk with a dog or a bike would find this walk very difficult if not impossible. On the plus side this faint path I was following is one of the very few that is still short green grass and not trashed into mud and bog through overuse. Indeed I never met anyone else on this walk the whole day. Very quiet route. Why? Most people hill walking want to bag summits. This is a hard to access balcony trail without any.

 

As I progressed further along the escarpment the mist started to lift over the city and Clydebank and Glasgow's numerous tower blocks began to appear. A wonderful sight. The tight cluster of Radnor Park Hi Rise flats on the right here, built after Clydebank was heavily bombed and many older buildings in this former shipyard town were flattened by the Germans during World War II.

One of the fog bound River Clyde with the 46 metre (150 foot high) Titan cantilever crane next to Clydebank College sticking up. The low lying and flood prone Newshot Island with the spires in the town of Renfrew just poking out are also visible.

The A82 dual carriageway heading past Clydebank at Drumry descending slowly past the tenements of Drumchapel down into Glasgow here in this one. Over the decades I've had many great adventures mountaineering, hill-walking and general exploring outdoors. As a hobby/ pastime/pleasure/ addiction it's the lifelong gift that keeps on giving and unlike some other pursuits where repetition dulls the senses this day out was up there with the very best. A joy to behold. As good as any view from Mount Olympus or a fallen angel plunging to earth with eyes wide open.

Berthed cruise ships at Govan docks, laid up here due to the pandemic with the new hi rise hospital behind.

Approaching Duntocher with the white water tower in Drumchapel visible, dead centre.

This photo shows how the mist can distort/hide things as for a moment I thought three massive cruise ships had arrived unannounced in Glasgow with the real three medium sized boats, sitting sideways, as mere elevated bridges on much larger boats. It's actually the sloping roof of Intu/ X-scape and other buildings sticking up, half hidden, that I thought were super tanker sized vessels. 

A plane taking off from Glasgow airport, which is nearer Paisley than Glasgow.

A festive December Robin paid me a visit in the late afternoon sunshine.

 

Heading down into Duntocher  off the escarpment. Although a faint path exists off the hillside here it does look as if it's seldom used now and with all the young trees growing up it may become impassable in the years to come.  Halfway down, stumbling through tussocks then over a deep ditch I thought I would have to crawl on my stomach through a screen of thorny gorse bushes but by trending right to reach a downward sloping deer fence I found out you could keep your dignity intact and walk upright down to a metal gate. Once through this then down a lane to a farm you come out at the Clyde Coastal Route near the crematorium.

 

Lower light levels meant I had only an hour of daylight left but when I came to a few ruined farm outbuildings I couldn't resist a look around. Part of the ridge, seen here, I walked along above this farm.

The sort of place you might expect to find a dead body stuffed in a hole, a murder victim, at least in TV crime programmes, like Vera,  but curiosity gets the better of me, as usual. And I still have nine lives left.

And graffiti and abandoned buildings always reminds me of my childhood home :o)  Ah, the nostalgia! The romance! The sweet joy of shadows!

 

 What I was really looking for in here was good murals because often teenagers let loose in these places have artistic talent.

I recognize this one....

And this... both inspired by cartoons....

But this is different. Inspired by a real person and a good film. Into the wild. The story of a young man from a fairly privileged background who could have settled for the American Dream lifestyle of family, large house in suburbia, professional job, 9 to 5 40 year career, good pension fund, then death but swapped it instead for the adventures of a backpacking young traveller with a far more unpredictable but uncertain future.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2xelgl