Loch Ardinning and Kilmardinny Loch Day.

                                                  ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.

The week after Alan showed me some places in Paisley I hadn't been before. mainly Stanely reservoir and castle, in the last post, I decided to return the favour as he hadn't visited Loch Ardinning or Kilmardinny Loch. Dumgoyne above with the snow covered pyramid of Ben Lomond in the distance. 

It has been a full month of grey dismal weather recently, mild, around 8c to 10c degrees above freezing and very wet. Good news for people watching their heating bills and scraping car windscreens but not so good for general mood. This post is from early to mid November when we had a run of below freezing days and minus -5c below nights in the cities and towns. Snow over the mountains.

We parked on the A81 layby next to Loch Ardinning which is just east of Mugdock Country Park on the road between Milngavie and Strathblane. Campsie Fells view here with a white van on the B822 descending into Lennoxtown.

The western end of the Campsie Fells from Loch Ardinning. You can do a circular walk here on this attractive upland moor with good views. And it's close to Glasgow so an easy drive and no car destroying potholes on this particular run. ( I've already had expensive car damage just going to the local shops and back, bumping every few days over unavoidable and numerous ruts in the road- which have been there for at least the last 3 years. A first world country? I think not. And any trip on foot from the pedestrian bridge on the River Clyde through the graffiti mess that exists there, then Clydeside itself, then up through the 'four corners'  Union Street and Argyle Street, to end along the hollowed out and crumbling Sauchiehall Street of Glasgow's once glorious 'Style Mile' of shops, (once the largest outside of London) only demonstrates how much online shopping  and other advances in technology/ shopping tastes has hurt nearly every town and high street UK wide.

A frozen Loch Ardinning, above. Around a two hour walk here to do the full circuit across this upland plateau.

Campsie Fells view.

A house sized boulder stuck in a small stream. With no large cliffs for miles around a melting glacier drop is the obvious answer here. Many of the numerous small lochs in this area also formed like this from stadium sized blocks of ice, stragglers left behind, the melting bulk over centuries, already trapped in hollows, creating the network of attractive ponds still visible today in this vicinity.

Ice in the sun. 

Kilmardinny Loch above. We then travelled down a short distance to Kilmardinny Loch in Bearsden. I've known about this place for decades as well. It only takes 10 minutes to walk around this small loch at a fast pace but we went slowly. All the way round various carved animals can be found.

Most of the creatures here come from Julia Donaldson's book series. Although London born and bred her family lived in Bearsden for many years- hence the carved figures. The Gruffalo here. I think. Stick Man. Room on the Broom. Tiddler. and The Gruffalo's Child are all short (20 to 30 minute long) animated films on TV based on the books. All are delightful. Meant for children but equally good for adults. Simple yet funny and clever. They are usually shown around Christmas/ New Year on UK TV. I've seen all of the above and they are on a par with Wallace and Gromit. If you get the chance watch them.

Young badger. A carved bench.

Owls and fox bench.

Blue and green headed male mallard ducks.

Hare and woodpecker.

Some are obviously inspired by Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the like.... Incidentally I just found out Julia Donaldson has overtaken J.K. Rowling as the UK's most read author. She has had a very varied, busy, and remarkable life... and you can read about it here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Donaldson      This is worth reading in full.

The Gruffalo's Child. By a weird coincidence, yet one that happens a lot, I just got back from this walk, switched on the TV a short time later and this story was on. Magical. It is a belter, funny, charming... and with soft Scottish accents. It also manages to capture the beauty and wonder of winter at its very best. If you haven't seen any of the short films mentioned you are missing out.

It also explained , after seeing the film, why some of the creatures had a very stylized look to them, which works well in the film... but not so good here.

I prefer the more realistic older carving of a fox, above....

than this new version. It works well in the film. Not so much in static real life.

But it did explain the various characters dotted around the woods. The end.

Grey Winter Weather. Lesser Known Paisley and Renfrew Walks

                                                  ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.

It's been a run of poor weather ( grey skies, storms, heavy rain, just miserable all round) for about a month now so this is a walk I did with Alan late October/ early November when the trees still had leaves. We stopped first in Paisley, Seedhill Road, next to East End Park where he showed me some murals designed by local primary school pupils. After a think Alan decided, as it was a rubbish day, he would show me some of the lesser known delights of Paisley. Areas that I didn't know about.

So this mural wall came first.

Which was not far from the Anchor Mills building. Paisley was once a cotton, thread and textile powerhouse, exporting its products worldwide including the famous Paisley patterns, psychedelic looking shirts which the Beatles had on in photographs during the mid to late 1960s. The hippie era when Paisley was still a textile powerhouse and had a working dock area. Something we both explored years ago by kayak.

On the opposite side of the road was this unusual info board.

A neurodivergent communication board which left me baffled and increasingly confused after the top row.

Some of the old mills still stand in Paisley and this is one next to East End Park.

Using the trusty vehicular transport of modern times to get around and skillfully avoiding the heaviest rain showers we next headed to the Gleniffer Braes where, despite many decades of exploring this area, we found a new walk.  First we walked from the main car park across the upland plateau then crossed the deep cut burn to descend the Tannahill Way, (A local poet/ songwriter late 1700s) a tarmac ribbon running diagonally down to Glen Park. But before we reached Glen Park we found this lesser known ( and little used) faint path running left and back through the deep woods to the waterfall. In its heyday it would have been a well known established path but now it looked forgotten.

Fairly exciting when you follow a vague path with no idea of where it will lead. A Scottish jungle trail in this instance, running just above and parallel to the Glenburn housing estate in Paisley.

At its end we found this old gate, which could even date to the Victorian, pre/ post WW1 or WW2 period for all I know... or the 1950s/ 1960s. No idea. This took us up back onto the plateau area and back to the waiting transport.

It was back at the vehicle, looking down on Paisley's Stanely Reservoir, seen above, that I happened to mention that years ago I'd tried to find my way into it to visit the castle there. I had been unsuccessful as my attempt had started from the western end, where the castle was located.

It turned out Alan knew the way in, which was from the eastern end, near the high rise flats, where we parked next.  High rise flats above.

"Follow me." said Alan.  "Ah, wait a minute " I protested. " my balance isn't as good as it used to be."     " I didn't expect a circus act.!"

Turned out he was joking and the way in was easy, although remote and wooded, a trail running along the southern edge of the reservoir until eventually we reached the castle. 

 This used to be on an island in a marsh reached by a causeway but now due to the reservoir, completely cut off and abandoned.  Castle info here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanely_Castle

After so long wanting to explore this reservoir area and the castle it was good to finally fulfill that ambition, although you would need a boat/ kayak to reach it and the window slits look small. An adventure for a younger explorer than myself. And it's probably not allowed anyway being a reservoir and an ancient monument.

It's also guarded by a flock of Canada geese, seen here.

Next up was Robertson Park in Renfrew and this entrance mural at the bike hub building

.Other side.

Then a walk from Renfrew's old swing bridge down the White Cart Water to the new Renfrew road and pedestrian swing bridge across the River Clyde. Nice reflections here.

Very still grey day. No wind at all.

Two sculptures along this path. With no name on it this could be 'The Watcher' or 'The Narcissist' as it's either a mobile phone or a small vanity mirror. One a modern version of the other in many ways.

The Watcher. Riverside path.

'The Raptor.' A bird of prey sculpture with Clydebank's Titan crane and Clydebank viewed across the River Clyde.

I've been trying to eat healthily but sometimes fruit, nuts, spinach and brown rice is not enough. 'Why does the devil have all the really tasty food? ' I wailed. Just occasionally a guy needs a proper splurge.

Breakfast of champions. And it was fantastic! Apple and pork sausages. Yum yum.