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Mugdock Loch. A wild corner of Mugdock Country Park... A couple of weeks ago I motored up to Mugdock Country Park, lying to the north of the City of Glasgow. Although usually a popular location for walkers and family groups thunderstorms and lightning strikes were predicted for the early afternoon.
Water lilies. As I'd seen forecasts like that before on many occasions that didn't amount to very much in the end, I tossed my wet weather gear in the car undaunted and set off for a walk.
Incidentally, I noticed this sign for the first time (maybe a new addition) walking around the loch and was interested to learn that the still sizable loch seen today is only one third the size of its former glory. In the early 1800s, the age of the great landscaped estates, this much larger and shallower loch was considered too big and inconvenient so was drained by blasting away a retaining sill of rock. The sizable loch you walk round today is only the deepest part that remained. ( see map above for original size- apparently caused by a town sized block of static ice left behind by glaciers sinking into the land at this point through weight alone.)
It stayed dry for a few hours and I enjoyed this normally popular country park in splendid isolation, only a few hardy souls braving the forecast of impending doom.
The meadows were at their finest with waist high golden grass and fragrant meadow-sweet flowering everywhere.
Yet plenty of mature trees for shelter should the heavens open in a rush. Glasgow highlighted in the distance here.
I had a good walk around my favourite spots, view of the lesser Kilpatrick Hills here, practically having the park to myself, which was a great expansive feeling during this long year of Covid on our increasingly crowded, trapped little island.
Two other visitors seen in the distance.
Part of the long rock sill keeping the remaining loch in its bowl, presumably a lower part of this further on was removed by blasting to drain the loch to its present size.
Anyway, I enjoyed a pleasant couple of hours wandering round this extensive park which unlike most country parks in Scotland's Central Belt has a far wilder atmosphere to it and more places where you can easily lose yourself away from any crowds, even on a bank holiday, thanks to its impressive size and complexity of ever changing terrain.
Lightning flashes and rumbles of thunder started to make an appearance however by mid afternoon, which is a fairly typical summer weather pattern I know well from my alpine backpacking and camping trips abroad so just in case I wandered back to the car to avoid the possibility of flooded roads, which I've experienced near here in the past.
I got as far as the boundary between Bearsden and Milngavie before torrential rain flooded the main road, as seen here. Being brave- or stupid- I decided flooding on this scale was worth a few photos so I parked up, on a small hill, at nearby Kilmardinny Loch. ( another former, smaller grand estate with its own smaller kettle loch. Giant chunks of ice must have stranded all across here in isolated numbers judging by the dozen or so small attractive lochs found in this vicinity. With a few low slung cars already stuck in the floods and traffic queues forming behind them I thought I'd be smart and avoid all that hassle with another walk round this second loch of the day.
On a previous thunderstorm occasion a few years ago this cautious approach saved the day as I went a walk of an hour or so and by the time I did eventually drive off the traffic queues and flooding had receded. This was a different beast however and the torrential rain, which seemed localized to this one small area only increased in intensity. Not surprisingly, I had this walk to myself as well. Everyone else hiding indoors or stuck in traffic. Even on the journey up here before the thunderstorms numerous road works, temporary traffic lights and queues made it seem much longer than the map miles would suggest.
Kilmardinny Loch and wet ducks. The rain was so intense walking around here it reminded me of the French Pyrenees trip I devoted a chapter of my book Autohighography to as that was an amazing adventure with biblical thunderstorms experienced in the high mountains and deep canyons almost every afternoon, appearing around 3:00pm like clockwork, wading ankle deep on the paths within minutes after a bone dry sunny morning. Now it was happening here, in cosy suburbia, with the type of alpine mountain weather, thunder and lightning strikes not usually associated with Central Belt lowland Scotland. A months worth of rain must have landed on this area in the space of three hours- maybe far more than that. A taste of future years ahead perhaps as I personally think our escalating weather woes, which we've known about for a least three decades now will take a herculean effort to slow down, more than any radical change of lifestyle and habits can make a dent in with both poles and permafrost zones melting already. Hard choices ahead for poor humanity. No choices ahead for the poor dwindling animals stuck outdoors, caught within the effects of our avoidable transgressions.
It did make for some interesting special effects though as the rain, thunder and lightning crashing around this ten foot high Gruffalo carving made it feel like I was on some waterlogged primitive tribal island just waiting for King Kong to arrive. Luckily, I was still semi dry at this point as I had full waterproofs on... and a black umbrella raised above me. If it's good enough for Indian gentlemen during the monsoon its OK in my book. ( Incidentally, I used to get a fair bit of stick decades ago for carrying a small foldaway black pocket umbrella if it was pouring down outside. This item was greatly frowned on by your typical hard school council estate teenager and even adult alpha males, as male pride dictated you got soaked going to school, sat in class dripping copiously on the floor, then walked home soaking wet yet again, with a cold... survival of the fittest 1960s and 1970s style. Even wearing a hat or having a hood up was frowned on as being totally soft and unmanly. I used to envy the girls, sitting dry in class, umbrellas at their feet, but knew I'd be a target if I used one myself in my particular school of young assassins. It took a presumably gay, or just more intelligent, fellow pupil who was very brave, or had a death wish, to persuade me to try one by his groundbreaking example. Unlike him I wasn't protecting fashionable clothes- it just made sense to stay dry. Unlike him I didn't get beaten up as I was very careful about hiding it away before I reached the school itself. My near neighbour and fellow classmate went even further in his macho approach to outdoor attire, attending school each day, winter, summer, snow, sleet, hail, frost, in just a thin white cotton shirt, blazer, and rubber gym shoes. He was completely nuts though... or had zero money for warmer clothes. In his book anyone different got a kicking... probably through jealousy.... or a deep sense of injustice .....or just to keep warm.... but I got a pardon somehow. No idea why. ( The Gruffalo, for anyone wondering, is a character in a popular children's book here.)
The deluge did make the various wood carved animals along the trail stand out though, sparkling as if painted with clear varnish.
Even the older models. After my walk around this second loch I was curious to find a better way out through the floods so I stayed on foot to try to find a clear route through the back streets. Unfortunately Bearsden and Milngavie run over drumlins so the whole district has steep streets, hilltops, dips and hollows.
So I went back and had lunch in the car. Another wait -another heavy thunderstorm. By this time I was getting slightly concerned as the water levels were increasing not subsiding.
I stopped here briefly under this mature tree on my walk as marble sized hailstones were damaging my trusty black umbrella at this point so I wanted more shelter. This was during thunder and lightning storm number three. The heaviest and last one of the day. Such was the intensity of the rain and hail it took 15 minutes from dry road to this level of standing water, full drains gushing upwards and ankle deep streams racing down steep tarmac. No streams or rivers anywhere near so just water from gardens, minor roads, and driveways hitting this point. It was hard to believe how fast it arrived here. So far I'd spotted several stranded cars in floods so I didn't fancy being one of them. Eventually, when the rain stopped, I set off but even with skillful caution I still had to go through one more major flood on the switchback near Anniesland Cross before I could breathe easy again... or so I thought.
Like a lot of other cars and traffic I made the mistake of turning into Fulton Street beside Temple, thinking that I'd left the worst of it behind. No way was I getting across this one though. Two stranded vehicles already trapped. Once again I had no option but to double back, join yet more nose to tail traffic and find another route home. It took three hours to travel 10 miles that day. An adventure but not one I'd want to repeat. On the plus side I did not see any damaged property or homes just flooded roads and several cars but with this level of flooding happening so quickly there might have been some somewhere else.
A hot shower, a change into dry clothes, then a tasty self prepared meal rounded off an eventful day.
10 comments:
OUch - that's some flooding. I don't mind most rain (although torrential isn't to my taste) but avoid going out if thunderstorms are forecast - I've already been struck once and don't intend to repeat it!
I think that, as we were country children, it was fine to wear coats with hoods and have your hood up. I prefer mine down and only ever put it up in heavy rain but it was never considered soft to wear such clothing.
There was a day when I got absolutely drenched out walking in a thunderstorm - possibly the same one. I’m glad summer has now arrived for a last hurrah, I don’t remember that info board at Mugdock either, so I think it must be new.
Evening Carol,
It was mainly my car I was worried about. My car's an old banger not worth much but imagine just getting a new car then running into flood water and drowning it just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time as there was no easy way out of that area without driving into two foot or more of water as I had to do eventually and the recent floods in London looked even worse.
Probably was Anabel as there has only been that one day so far of really heavy rain. I've really enjoyed this summer despite not being able to travel far.
Mugdock Loch was a regular jaunt of ours when we lived in Milngavie.
Flash flooding can be really frightening. I was in Genoa, Italy many years ago when it suddenly started to throw down buckets of rain. Within no time at all I found myself marooned on a high pathway beneath a bridge in the centre of the town with a river rushing past instead of the road.
Hi Rosemary,
I always thought about unexpected heavy rainfall when I went caving underground years ago. Not something you want occurring when it can take hours to get back out again. Another way Scotland is becoming more like Italy is temperature. For the past four months it's been warm enough day and night to sit with just shorts on in the house or garden- nothing else- yet never feel cold. That is unheard of in Scotland over such a long sustained period of time. Last time I put any form of heating on in the house was early April.
Oh boy, that was scary! You deserved that good meal. The power of water is incredible. I think I've read that just six inches of water on the road can damage the underside of your car. When thunder roars, head indoors! And this...turn around, don't drown! Be careful out there!
Hi Kay,
Luckily, it is an infrequent occurrence in Scotland as we get a lot of winter rain and in the main our rivers and roads manage to handle it generally. Apart from one at the rest and be thankful which is getting an upgrade.
I'm moving up to Scotland Central Belt ref. your comments to Rosemary about your weather. Our summer didn't even think about starting until the very end of May - up till then it was definite winter - especially temperature-wise. Then we got a lovely hot June, a mostly cold July and we've just had a week of just 'warm'. And we're not far south of you!
Yes Carol,
but this has been a very unusual summer due to a stuck jet stream which has given both of us unusual conditions. Normally we expect to get one half decent summer in every four and it's usually too cold or windy to sit around outdoors in a tee shirt except for selected infrequent days. The Central Belt East Coast (east of Edinburgh direction) is noted for it's dry sunny conditions though getting half the rainfall of the west coast and it does have attractive villages, towns and beaches.... or Largs or Oban on the west for the great scenery and easy access to islands.
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