John Muir Way: Strathblane to Longcroft

Monday 25th August 2025

Over the summer I had felt very tired, drained of energy, possibly from the heat or simply stress, which is not unusual for me, so I needed a holiday that would not be too strenuous where I could disengage my brain and allow the lack of pressure on the trail to restore my mind and body. The trail I picked was the John Muir Way which celebrates the Scottish-born naturalist who pioneered the environmental movement and traces the journey from his birthplace in Dunbar to the port on the mouth of the Clyde where he set sail for the New World. I had set off from Helensburgh two days previously, climbing over the hills into Balloch at the southern end of Loch Lomond, and then the following day I climbed over the northern slopes of the Kilpatrick Hills on a long stage of the trail that eventually brought me into Strathblane. There are no mountains on the John Muir Way and the hills that I had crossed on the first two days were less than a thousand feet high but were still the highest points on the whole trail. The third stage of the John Muir Way couldn’t have been gentler as I soon joined the Strathkelvin Railway Path, which follows the route of the disused Blane Valley Railway line and is now a cyclepath. The steep hillside of the Campsie Fells escarpment lines the northern side of the valley but was no comfort for me as I walked through the flat-bottomed valley past a mixture of farmland and woodland.

This was too easy a walk for me and I would have perhaps found it better to have been following a trail with a little more undulation, but instead I was stuck on the level, which was very dull while passing through farmland, but later I came into woodland and alongside the Glazert Water, whose environs were more natural and pleasing to my eye, and made the walking much more pleasing. There is something very soothing for me to be walking through woodland and, despite passing the built-up areas of Lennoxtown and Milton of Campsie, the railway path continued to be lined by trees with the river never far away, but the miles began to drag as the cloud began to clear and the sun shone for the first time on this holiday. By the time I reached the end of the railway footpath, after almost eight miles, I was in a daze from the heat, barely able to walk in a straight line, with no strength left. Finally, I reached the town of Kirkintilloch and after climbing past some industrial units I arrived at the Forth & Clyde Canal where I collapsed onto the first empty seat to rest and have something to eat. It was still hot but after eating I felt much more refreshed and able to resume the trail which follows the towpath beside the wide ship canal for more than three miles with stunning views of the trees that run alongside.

My walk beside the canal came to an end near the village of Twechar where I turned right over a bridge and up the hill, soon turning left to continue climbing along a track. After four hours of flat walking I was overjoyed to finally be climbing a hill, which was also providing me with a cooling breeze and brought me to Bar Hill Roman Fort on the Antonine Wall. This briefly superseded the much more famous Hadrian’s Wall before being abandoned when the Romans retreated to that wall in England. There is not much left of the Antonine Wall and Bar Hill contains some of the best preserved examples. I could see the foundations of the fort on top of the hill while on the northern slopes I found a large ditch with what appeared to be the foundations of the Antonine Wall itself at the bottom, though probably not. I was fascinated by it all. I have previously visited Hadrian’s Wall a couple of times but I had never seen the Antonine Wall so I was glad that the John Muir Way was making me take this diversion. The trail continued to follow the remains of the wall through woodland and past more mundane farmland before reaching a road near the village of Croy where the third stage of the John Muir Way ends, but I wasn’t ready to stop yet, despite there being a convenient railway station at Croy, so I kept going to follow the ridge up to Croy Hill.

This was an enjoyable walk as the path undulated around a series of small hills that interpretation boards claimed were the remains of Roman forts, but to my untrained eye I could not see any sign of this. It was still a great walk through fabulous landscape until it all came tragically to an end when I finally descended back down the hill to the canal. The tedium of walking along the towpath beside the Forth & Clyde Canal resumed, eventually passing under the M80 motorway and I finally left the canal at Underwood Lock to head into Longcroft where I caught a bus to Stirling. It is surprising how tiring it was for me to be walking on the flat, though the hot, sunny weather was perhaps to blame for this. The repetition of every footstep being identical to the one before was exceptionally tedious but with navigation being easy beside the canal or along the railway path I was able to switch off my brain and allow my legs to do the thinking, repeating the same action again and again. My rehabilitation was underway.

The Falls of Clyde

Monday 27th May 2024

I didn’t stay in one place for very long during my holiday in Scotland, so after just two nights in the town of Moffat in the Southern Uplands I drove north through heavy rain to the World Heritage Site of New Lanark beside the Falls of Clyde. When I got there I was pleased to find that I had left the heavy rain behind and the sun was breaking through the clouds as I made my way down the hill to the village that was founded in 1785 to provide housing for mill workers. I had planned to visit this area at Easter in 2020 at the end of the Clyde Walkway but after that holiday was scrapped because of Covid I found I was no longer interested in doing the Clyde Walkway, though I still wanted to visit the Falls of Clyde which had perhaps been my only motivation for doing the walk in the first place. It was not New Lanark that had interested me, rather it was the waterfalls on the River Clyde that attracted me to the area, and so I was soon past the buildings and joined the route of the Clyde Walkway into the Falls of Clyde Nature Reserve and fabulous woodland. Some bluebells had survived the hot weather of earlier in May along with several other woodland flowers, but generally most of had gone to seed, though this failed to detract from my enjoyment of the walk. An excellent path afforded me with viewpoints into the gorge where I was able to get a glimpse of the awesome spectacle even though the views were sometimes obscured by rapidly growing vegetation.

The first waterfall is Dundaff Linn which could be seen from New Lanark but a closer look was not possible due to intervening trees. Beyond, I walked along a wooden boardwalk that helped me get close to the water, which at this point was gently moving and hardly hinting at the ferocious power of the falls upstream. Corra Linn was the next waterfall that I saw and this was spectacular in its woodland setting falling into a vast, steep sided bowl that forced me to climb high to get around it. The path always kept me safely away from danger but sacrificed up close views that would have been more dramatic. When I had finally had enough of the scene I resumed my progress along the path, always keeping right whenever I reached a junction to maintain my course beside the river even though this sometimes only led me to a viewpoint whose exit was the way I had come. The third and final waterfall was Bonnington Linn which was broader than Corral Linn and encompassed several branches thanks to a small island in the river where a now derelict bridge would have previously taken people across the waters but no more. I was able to safely cross the river just above Bonnington Linn and from there I returned along the opposite bank where more viewpoints afforded me with stunning sights of the waterfalls, though overgrowing vegetation proved constantly frustrating.

After passing Corra Linn I settled into a pleasant woodland walk that would have justified coming here even without the waterfalls. A few fallen trees provided me with a tricky obstacle to circumvent especially as I couldn’t see the path on the other side but once I passed I was able to continue the walk beside the river and past New Lanark where there is no way across the river. After passing New Lanark the path widened underneath thick woodland and while underneath it started to rain heavily, so clearly the heavy rain that I had encountered on the drive north from Moffat had now caught up with me, so while sheltered under the trees I put my waterproofs on before continuing along the trail through the woodland with little or no view of the river to my right. Eventually I emerged onto a road where I turned right to reach Clydesholm Bridge where I was in doubt as to the onward route back along the northern bank of the river. There was no sign to indicate the route of the Clyde Walkway and the most likely route was through a shut gate beside a private residence. After a long time spent wandering around and looking at maps, I eventually decided there was no other place to go so I went through the gate and soon I was beside the river on a very wet path that was clearly the Clyde Walkway.

As the rain began to ease I climbed the steep bank to reach a road before descending a zigzagging path through Castlebank Park that brought back down to the river and after passing through Braxfield Park I climbed once more to reach the New Lanark Road. This was an amazing walk that saw me pass stunning scenery through the narrow valley of the Clyde where several waterfalls mesmerised and enthralled me. I was fortunate to have sunshine while passing the falls and for the rain to wait until I had reached the less interesting section of the walk, and I thought that I must have been benefiting from the large amount of rain that had fallen this year to produce such spectacular waterfalls that were worth the wait.

Southern Upland Way: past the halfway mark

Saturday 27th May 2023

Despite a lovely evening beside the Potrail Water near the Dalveen Pass, I did not get a good night’s sleep before this walk and therefore I was very tired as I set off along the Southern Upland Way for my seventh day on the trail. During the previous couple of days I had climbed over some of the highest hills on the trail including the top of Lowther Hill, which at 725 metres is the highest point on the Southern Upland Way and at the end of the day I had camped at the foot of the hill within sight of the golf ball shaped radar station that is at the summit. Since my second day on the trail I had been ahead of schedule but I was booked to stay in Moffat so I would have to give it all up, which I was happy to do as I felt like I needed an easier walk after the previous couple of days. Initially I headed into Watermeetings Forest, which, on paper, is a conifer plantation, but in fact I found a lot of deciduous trees had been planted alongside the trail on an excellent path that was a pleasure to walk upon. The track soon left the wood and crossed the northern slopes of Comb Law before reaching a post that proclaimed that I had reached the half way point on the Southern Upland Way, 107 miles from Portpatrick and just 107 miles to Cockburnspath. Since it had taken me just over six days to reach this point, I figured I would reach the end of the trail around midday on Friday, which was exactly on schedule.

The southern hills of the grassy Lowthers dominated my view south and were pleasing to gaze upon but the views north were ruined by the vast Clyde Wind Farm. At a junction I came across a sign that diverted me away from the dam for Daer Reservoir, due to construction works, and took me down the road, across the Daer Water and up towards the waterworks buildings. On the way I passed an old Southern Upland Way signpost which reveals that the diversion was actually taking me along the original route of the trail. After crossing Hapturnell Burn, at the gates to the waterworks, a signpost directed me up the hill, around the buildings and slowly up the grassy slopes of Sweetshaw Brae. Behind me were stunning views across the Daer Valley and towards the Lowther Hills where the golf ball was still clearly visible, and I was prompted to stop many times to take in the view during my ascent. Eventually I rejoined the current route of the Southern Upland Way, beside a fence, and followed that up the hill and along the wide grassy ridge. The wind picked up as I cruelly climbed again to reach the top of Hods Hill where the fence turned to the south and the views east were revealed across Annandale and towards the Moffat Hills which include some of the highest hills in the Southern Uplands. However, to the south the view extended all the way down Annandale to the Solway Firth and on the horizon was a line of high hills that I realised, with excitement, were the fells of the Lake District.

My tantalising glimpse of that most beautiful of landscapes was soon lost as I descended alongside a conifer plantation and after passing over Beld Knowe I turned into Greskine Forest to slowly descend through a delightful landscape decorated with the yellow flowers of tormentil and broom. Large areas of the plantation have been felled, which gave my descent an airy feel and afforded me with good views down the valley and across to the high Moffat Hills. Soon after crossing the Cloffin Burn I turned off to head along an astonishingly muddy path towards Brattleburn Bothy, which was a disappointing place, but I stopped there to have my lunch. After returning to the Southern Upland Way, I found that this path was also boggy and frustratingly climbed over Craig Hill before crossing into the valley of the Garpol Water. I was now in thicker woodland that was less interesting to walk through but at least provided me with some shade from the sun. I slowly made my way through this dull terrain past tall trees that were blocking all my views so I was relieved when I eventually reached the Earshaig Lochans and the Crooked Road. Turning right, I joined the long distance trails of, first, the Romans and Reivers Route, and then the Annandale Way as the road weaved through the landscape and down into the valley of the River Annan with views across to the Moffat Hills.

Eventually I reached the village of Beattock where this stage of the Southern Upland Way ends having come twenty miles from Wanlockhead, where I had originally planned to start, even though I still had several miles to go until I reached my overnight accommodation in Moffat. With hindsight, it is a good thing that I was ahead of schedule as this was not turning out to be a short day even with starting after the Lowther Hills. It is amazing to think how strenuous this day would have been if I’d walked all the way from Wanlockhead over the Lowther Hills, the highest point on the whole trail, and then around the hills that surround Daer Reservoir.  Fortunately I had been ahead of schedule so it was only mid-afternoon when I reached Beattock and after passing below the motorway I turned off the Southern Upland Way and followed the Annandale Way into the town of Moffat. There was little of interest on this walk, but most significantly I passed the halfway point so it was all downhill from here on!