Glasgow

Heading South

2010-09-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

Well that's it. Pickfords arrive tomorrow and we drive south as soon as the house contents are packed up and we've dropped the keys off at the estate agents. Norfolk and Suffolk are very different to Glasgow and I wouldn't have missed our year up here. But there is a six foot swell forecast for the Norfolk Coast this weekend and my dry suit is about to be ordered...

Last weekend in Laurieston

2010-09-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

Final weekend on call in Laurieston just outside Falkirk. This was marked as a weir on the OS map and is pretty well in the middle of a rather grey housing estate. It's nice.

There are paths and a bit of parkland above the gorge giving easy access. A path lets you down to the plunge pool.

and you can scramble over the rocks to the side of the drop

Then went and had a look at the viaduct near Linlithgow.

Lovely late summer sky, could have been Glasgow. There was heavy rain overnight, but not today...

Loch Ardinning

2010-07-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

Pictures from a few weeks ago, just downloaded from Daniel's camera.

Loch Ardinning is another local wildlife reserve. You head along the gravel path clockwise around the loch from a layby on the Strathblane road.

The path deteriorates in to a narrow moorland footpath about half way round the loch, but still very obvious. There is even a set of steps to lure you on. It was windy by the way!

After that the path is lost in meadowland,

with plenty of Ragged Robin

and a small stile leads you in to near trackless boggy woodland. This is fine as we'd been mostly looking for toadstools, which Daniel is fascinated by, and there were plenty in the wood.

Obviously, being a wildlife reserve, for wildlife, the track then completely disappears and the last kilometre involves carrying Daniel by piggy back through dense marshland wood. Luckily I was the only one bitten by a mossy (part of the wildlife) and it has just about stopped itching now. We found the car.

Bog Asphodel

and the Common Spotted Orchids are, err, common

The cave with the face near Kilsyth

2010-07-30T13:08:00.000-07:00

We walked up the Garrell Burn above Kilsyth, where there is a cave

with a rather nice carved face:

Here it is in close up.

Then we scrambled up out of the deep valley and over the moor through the cattle

Mugdock Park

2010-07-18T11:04:00.000-07:00

Greater Butterfly Orchid on heathland at Mugdock Park

and Yellow Rattle

A grassy clearing in the otherwise dense woodland, there are tracks to it but they're virtually unused and half overgrown.

The only flowers here so far are a few Common Spotted Orchids and they are soooo common, just about everywhere at the moment, that I skipped the pictures. The Scots love outdoor fires, there's a large fire place, complete with seating arrangements and probably was used to burn the trees to make the clearing...

Mill Glen in the Ochils

2010-07-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

The quarry on the west of Mill Glen. I rather like these disused industrial landscapes.

More distand view on the way back down

The burn is very steep with lots of waterfalls

and water slides

The footpath is well made up, has lots of steps and only in the highest parts of the valley abandons hand rails!

The valley of the Daiglen Burn looks much less accessible...

Bo'ness orchids

2010-07-08T12:16:00.000-07:00

Having had a look round, these seem to be the only easily located Common Spotted Orchids around Bo'ness

Perhaps the gas flares at the BP works keep them warm...

Rain

2010-07-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

It rained, 4 hours worth. Just enough to make the Kelvin run brown without flooding

Around Falkirk

2010-07-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

There's a nice patch of Common Spotted Orchids just off the Bo'ness road. The area is has lots of woodland and is lovely so long as you look in the correct direction!

I'll go back when the light is better for a few more pictures. This is the view if you look round:

There's a patch of ground where a house has been demolished next to where I'm working. Some rather nice Orange Hawkweed. The nicest of the dandelion family, except perhaps Salsify.

EDIT: An old image of Salsify from the Stalham bypass in Norfolk

Feral Pansies

Feral something else

Foxglove

And a random bridge in Kilsyth

Possil Marsh wildlife reserve

2010-06-20T22:17:00.000-07:00

Possil Marsh is just across the main Glasgow Milngavie road from Summerston, on the northern edge of Possil Park suburb. Central Scotland, lots of powerlines. This is looking South across the loch.

And looking North.

And here is a slightly anxious Daniel in the scrub. There is a simple hard surfaced track around the reserve but only one or two places where you can work in to the scrubland and nowhere you can access the water's edge without waders.

And on the meteorite plaque

(no, it's not the meteorite itself!)

Tufted Loosestrife

Burr of some sort

Kidney Vetch just in bud

Dog Roses by the Forth and Clyde canal

Water Lilies in the canal

And a mayfly on the tow path

Then back to the reserve for some forget-me-nots

Orange Hawkweed

And what is probably a Pyramidal Orchid, if it was fully opened

Lawn sprinkler!

2010-06-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

This is just amazing. I have no objection to lawn sprinklers. I have no problem with green lawns. I'm just gobsmacked that anyone might NEED a lawn sprinkler on Glasgow. This is just not something I ever expected to see. Amazing!

2010-06-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

Green Alkanet as a roadside weed in Strathblane

Forget-me-nots in the grounds of Ballagan House. I notice the house is for sale, slightly outside my league...

Wild Garlic in the same area. Yes, it smells of garlic

The West side of Ballagan Glen with a slightly wider angle lens on the new camera. Still can't find any of the fossils which are common.

There is very little water coming down the burn at the moment so I decided for a scramble up the stream bed rather than working round through the woods. It's fairly dry but very, very steep. And a bit bouldery

The Spout from just below the last boulder scramble. Bit of a boot full of water and some interesting moves to get up to the base of the Spout!

Got to the base of the fall

View of the Spout from the side as you go on to scramble out of the valley along the foot of a vertical wall (the extension of the shelf which makes the drop) until you get to a very steep wooded slope turning to bracken as you climb. Bracken won't be long in getting to be a real nuisance now

Then up to the open valley and the swimming pool. Yes, it's freezing in June, it's too deep to touch bottom in the middle and there is no great demand for a swimming costume

On the way back down I noticed that sheep don't seem to eat wild Pansies

And that there are still occasional Lesser Celandines in flower, though most of the brilliant yellows are now from the non related Greater Celandines

Bo'ness steam railway

2010-06-03T01:57:00.000-07:00

Steam train at Bo'ness. A bit wobbly at the start as I was moving back, away from the gate, because it looked like the steam cloud was going to be a bit all enveloping. Driver shut it off well before he got to me..... Needn't have budged!

West Highland Way wildflowers

2010-06-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

Wildflowers on the West Highland Way just north of Strathblane.

Butterwort:

Ladies Smock

Greater Celandines

As always the view to Dumgoyne

Edinburgh day trip

2010-04-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh. Very clean. Sanitised?

Glasgow

Last Winter

2010-04-22T13:07:00.001-07:00

This is just a random picture I found which sums up last winter. Probably just after Christmas.

EDIT: And this is the same view in June

Allander Water through Milngavie

2010-04-21T08:40:00.000-07:00

This is today at Gavin's Mill fish ladder in central Milngavie. No rain for over a month and the main drop is dry enough to scramble all over taking pictures.

This was it a month ago with a day's rain and a fair amount of snow meltwater:

This is how it moves

What water is coming down today uses the fish ladder

A little further upstream, a rather nice footbridge and 500m upstream of that a pleasant looking waterslide. Nice sunny day.

The Wee Blether

2010-03-19T09:40:00.001-07:00

Mel sneaked an afternoon off and we took Daniel's seat out of the MX and headed for the hills. That's Loch Ard, west of Aberfoyle, with Ben Lomond in the background. The rain had missed us!

In the car park of the Wee Blether Tea Room:

Which is this sort of place:

It also has a nice view from the windows and a wide selection of gluten free but (very) high carb cakes! Nice though...

You can get there by boat!

More Spring snowdrifts on the Fells

2010-03-08T04:45:00.000-08:00

Snowdrops in Ballagan House gardens. Looks cold, was actually very warm!

I was heading for the moors but the access down to the middle section of the nature reserve looked so easy that I made a detour. This is the upper fall of the section above the Spout. It hasn't rained for ages, the water in the burn is from snow melting:

This was it with greenery last August (in pouring rain!)

Up on the fells there is still quite a lot of snow around

In fact the Ballagan Burn spends quite a bit of its time under a layer of snow!

Crossing the snow bridges is possible but potentially very wet. And, err, cold...

On the walk back to the car I spotted these Lesser Celandine leaves (the ones at the bottom, the upper ones are just some sort of cruciferous plant) in a gap in some dry stone wall by the road. I like Celandines as they are one of the first real Spring flowers to open, if you ignore garden escapes such as Snowdrops and Crocuses, pretty though those are...

Snow and the MX5

2010-03-01T07:23:00.000-08:00

Another typical Glasgow day, 1st of March and time to get the soft top down on the MX5

And without playing with the pop-up eyes headlights

Then a quick spin north for a couple of pictures of the Campsies in snow, no time to walk today, an appointment at Sainsbury's this afternoon!

Yes, you do need hat and gloves!

High Ballagan waterfall

2010-02-18T05:54:00.000-08:00

I was out looking for the jasper outcrop on the Campsies above Strathblane. I didn't find it but did stumble on this rather nice little sun trap.

I'd walked out to Ballagan Glen, crossed to the west side and walked up the fence just outside of the reserve. The freezing fog of the last few days is minimal today but some was still hanging about in the valley around Dunglass.

I worked from outcrop to outcrop, looking for the red and yellow band of crystal. No joy. Must be further East. Found lots of nice rock to scramble through though.

In the end I gave up when confronted with a vertical drop with no easy route down, plus the suspicion I was in the wrong place! So up to the open tops via sheep tracks and stream beds. Then down in to the very boring open valley of the Ballagan Burn

Except for this rather nice little waterfall

Up here things only thaw if they get direct sunlight at the moment. The fall gets very little except late in the day

The plunge pool is deep enough to swim in come the summer. Roll on.

Then back down the valley, through the reserve and back to the car in Strathblane for the drive home.

With a stop for some snowdrops I'd noticed the other day. Ballagan House grounds are now carpeted with them but these came out as a rather better image.

Strathblane Hills

2010-02-12T05:18:00.000-08:00

Up on to the south edge of the Campsies today, Strathblane Hills. We looked at two houses at the foot of these hills before an attack of common sense had us buy a house within easy distance of the vet school... And a very nice house it is too, just 15 minutes south.

The walk out from Strathblane shows Dumgoyne as you might expect around here.

Once you clear the houses the track skirts the lower edge of the rough hillside and the view of the walk shows nicely. An easy one up the left skyline.

On the shoulder of the hills the view north opens up to Ben Lomond, the rest of the Trossachs and the Arrochar Alps. Solid snow above about 2000 feet from the look of it.

I think I could actually see the hills on Arran way off to the south west, that's really the mark of a clear day around here...

There is some snow still in pockets in the Campsies and damned unpleasant walking it makes too, more like packed ice...

The Daniel Stone at the top of Slackdhu

I had originally planned to walk around the full edge to Ballagan and back along the main road, but this grass slope between the crags tempted me and, as I was a little time pressured, bottom scooting was the way down. The route is just to the right of the highest point in the head picture.

The slope faces south west and the wind, bitter on the tops, was northerly so here it was totally sheltered and the moss was warm to the touch. In Strathblane gardens the snowdrops are in flower and the daffodils well above lawn level. Up here nothing is growing yet, but a few more warm days like this and the foxgloves, last year's biennials, will get some new leaves up and working...

Northern Campsies

2010-02-04T07:04:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to have a look at the northern edge of the Campsie Fells for some time. Today I got the chance. It was a bit of a grey day in Summerston and you couldn't actually see the Campsies. This usually implies it's raining, but today it was just murky over melting snow from the flurry last night. Roads were clear so I headed north. It was worth it:

I parked at the distillery and things were looking a bit misty from the field you cross from the road to get to the open fells. That's the peak of Dumgoyne showing through the cloud.

Climbing up the fell it became clear that most of the mist was in the valley. That's the neat conical plug of Dumgoyach showing through

A little higher and you get that superb view on to the top of the fog with a brilliant blue sky above it. That sky is so blue. It's quite different from the blue over Heathrow!

Looking back past Dumgoyne. Too blue! With just a little mist still around the peak.

Then you weave through assorted small hills, climbing slowly all the time until you get to the small cairn at the top of Garloch Hill. This is just a selected area from the head picture.

Then back down.

I noticed this rather nice winter tree, even if it is an Ash. Ash trees have such nice jet black leaf buds all Winter. It's a pity they're the last to open in Spring!

The big thing I learned today is don't hill walk in wellies unless you enjoy falling on your @rse in the snow four times during the descent!

Kelvin Walkway to Milngavie

2010-01-27T12:32:00.000-08:00

Walked the Kelvin Walkway from my house to Milngavie (pronounced Mill Guy!). The river is not exactly pretty on a grey day in late January... But it will make great flat water canoeing ground for the open canoe in summer!

The Central Lowlands do power lines, lots of them!

This is the Balmuildy Bridge carrying the A879 Glasgow to Milngavie road.

Right along side is the main water supply to Northern Glasgow, and the Kelvin Walkway footbridge.

A tree which seems to have had a hard time at some point in the past!

The walk up the Allander from the Kelvin to Milngavie is quite flat and largely straightened for a big chunk of the way, but the reward is the mill weir in the carpark of Tesco's:

Quite possible in flood, looked OK last week with just an extra 3 or 4 inches on the main drop...

Ballagan in T shirt weather (January)

2010-01-18T08:09:00.000-08:00

Another walk to Ballagan, this time dragging along my son David. As always, the walk from Strathblane and through the grounds of Ballagan House:

having seen from the road that plenty of water is coming down:

Once in to the reserve we dropped straight down to the burn and followed the bank up in to the gorge. This is the unstable sedimentary west bank. We were about 100 yards on from here when the noise of a rockfall echoed round the glen. Impressive. Keep off of the west bank!

An older minor fall had turned this young birch upside down. Not keen on reverse gravity, it soon found its way back upwards!

The excellent well made up footpath demonstrated here. We'd been pushed away from the water by narrow waterfalls and were scrambling round them. Not vertical but a lot steeper than it looks. The white blur through the trees in the background is the stream, about 150 foot below us...

Getting closer to the main falls, which clearly shows as a triple drop here:

The main fall from close to. Worth the scramble.

View back on the scramble out

A minute icicle still here after three warm days. In the deep frost I suspect the Spout was a 60 foot icicle. A sad fact of practicalities that there was no chance to get here then!

Lower Campsie Glen in December

2009-12-03T07:43:00.000-08:00

In celebration of completing our house sale I took an hour to see lower Campsie Glen with a little more water coming down. The Tolkein steps:

And the view from on the steps:

Looking back down the glen

A tributary hangs in the air

Just looking for footprints in the deep leaf mulch makes me think I am the only person to walk here for at least 4 weeks....

Snow on Ben Lomond

2009-11-30T06:27:00.000-08:00

I went to visit "our" house in Summerston. It's a crystal clear day with what to a southerner is a hard frost, still on the ground at 2.30 and not looking like going. As you drive out of what will be our drive you can see Ben Lomond in the distance. SNOW!

EDIT: Had to drive north to Stockiemuir to get a decent view. This is not from my front drive, unfortunately!

Campsie Glen after a day's rain

2009-11-04T06:59:00.000-08:00

I drove past Ballagan en route to Campsie Glen. It was raining and I didn't have a lot of time so a quick trip was in order, just to see if any water was coming down the falls. The white smudge in the centre of the picture is the Spout.

Yes, there is some water coming down, the heavy rain was just one day and that was two days ago. Wonder what a weekend of really heavy Winter rain will look like...

This is the same palce the last time I was here:

This is the set of falls I scrambled up last time too! Not today.

Lower drop of the easy access section of the gorge.

The flat picnic rock. A bit damp today!

Kelvin in Partick after a day's rain

2009-11-02T06:20:00.000-08:00

First real rain for a while yesterday. No time to get out to the Campsies and the water levels are dropping already, so probably not worth looking for falls in flood tomorrow...

Here's Partick today.

2009-10-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

Looks promising

And enjoying himself (none of this was set up by me!)

Busy chap

More Summer flowers in October

And yes, the sun does shine in Glasgow

Upper Ballagan Glen in Autumn colours

2009-10-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

Friday the 16th of October and nice fresh borage flowers. Summer is late in Glasgow!

We've had a gale and many of the trees in Ballagan Glen have lost their leaves.

The walls of the gorge below the Spout of Ballagan are fossil rich sedimentary. I really must look up the geology of the Campsies. Mixed sedimentary/volcanic.

Looking down in to the gorge, lots more layers!

Today I climbed right to the top of the wildlife reserve then scrambled a few meters down to the burn and sat in the sun for half an hour. No UVB but plenty of infra red. Might not make any D3 but very pleasant. Today was flat calm and not a cloud in the sky and undoubtedly the hottest day since we arrived here at the end of July! This is looking downstream from the top of a fall of about 12 foot in to the main pool here:

Just upstream was a pair of Goatsbeards in flower, Summer trying to hang on for a few days longer!

But in the woods the colours are nice if autumnal.

From the road walk, a very strange looking rock, in total isolation in the middle of a very tidy sheep field.

Up here should have a nice view over Strathblane, I'm thinking ahead to the next walk...

Upper Campsie Glen

2009-10-06T12:49:00.000-07:00

For the Upper Campsie Glen I parked in the main car park on the B road from Lennoxtown to Fintry. There's a good path and stepped descent down to the plunge pool of the first of a series of falls.

After that it's scrambles around each fall and a hint that someone might have walked up the rough grass some time ago once the trees stop!

When the trees stop it's a moorland valley. The B road is high on the right.

Nice flat rock for a picnic:

Tributary valley:

When I got up to where the stream joins the road I found I had actually been walking an "informal route". Very informal methinks, excellent:

Walked back down the road to the car to have a quick look at Jamie Wright's Well

Tastes fine.

Dawsholm Park

2009-10-02T02:57:00.000-07:00

I got some meals cooked and frozen for my next on call set of shifts, so it was time for a quick walk yesterday afternoon. I'd noticed this electricity substation supplying the Science Park as I drove by the other day after looking at a house in Summerston (the least rough bit!).

That got me out of the house and so I carried on round through Dawsholm Park, just south of the Garscube Estate and the vet school. Bridge over the Kelvin in the park. Autumn is coming but so far very slowly.

Anything not in active use gets covered in moss pretty quickly. No, it doesn't rain all of the time, but certainly some of it! These are random steps from one bit of derelict tarmac to another in the park...

Round via the Kelvindale Maze

Which turns out to be quite easy when seen from the air:

Though an attempt with a skateboard or in-line skates would require a very accurate and fully up to date train timetable for "stations via Maryhill" before the attempt... Perhaps not!

After that it was a canal walk past the gasometers to have coffee with my wife at Lock 27. Very civilised!

Anderston

2009-10-01T00:55:00.000-07:00

If you have ever been on the suburban train out of Glasgow Central Low Level station towards Bearsden you will have gone through Anderston station. If you were wondering what you were missing, this is it:

It comes out under the M8, on the northern edge of the Kingston Bridge, as in Rico's "Black Limo".

I was in Anderston as it is one of the closer train stops to the new A&E clinic where I'll be working from now on.

Next to the clinic is the Harley-Davidson centre, which doesn't photograph well, and next to that is the Mitchell Library, viewed here across the M8.

Crossing the M8 then gets you on to Sockie Hall Street (Sauchiehall, don't pronounce it, this is Glasgow!), probably back in to Rico land... Live music is alive and well in Glasgow, mostly in real dives. We've not been to a rock gig since our son was born but these venues look tempting.

Not sure I'd want to live on the Sockie Hall, but an occasional visit would be nice...

EDIT: Forgot to mention the Healthfood shops. There are LOTS! And I don't mean the Noodle Bar in the background!

Chrichton's Cairn

2009-09-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

I parked in the carpark at the bottom of Campsie Glen. The path started gravelled and neat, the scenery was pretty and so

I was expecting something a bit more home-counties than usual, what with the car park and all, but a few hundred yards and I'm clearly still in Scotland:

A bit of muddy scrambling gets you to these rather Tolkeinesque steps, leading up to the plunge pool of a small waterfall.

This is the waterfall that steepens the path.

And above the plunge pool the path became a little steeper and a bit of a scramble, not exactly paved!

Above the fall the valley opens out and the path climbs to cross the main road and up the edge of the hill to Crichton's Cairn.

Classic Glasgow weather, sun, drifting rain and (slightly) broken cloud

Then it's back down the hill, across the main carpark, scramble down the burnside path and back through the raised hands to that neat tidy path to the car...

Stockiemuir

2009-09-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

No they're not palm tree fronds, though Autumn in Glasgow is about a month behind the SE of England and it's still quite warm. Which is nice, especially as Spring will be late. Stockiemuir is just north of the farm shop where we get our gluten free sausages. Not as good as from Pickerings in Norfolk, but more convenient!

Oh, Loch Lomond just visible in the background.

Ben Lomond

2009-09-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

The top of Ben Lomond is on the right, the slightly spikier peak on the left is Ptarmigan. I walked up the main path to Ben Lomond peak then down the scramble to Ptarmigan. There is a path down from here making a nice circular walk. The weather started glorious for the climb.

Of course the views down Loch Lomond are always beautiful.

Even as the cloud cover builds. This is Scotland after all!

Ben Lomond is the southernmost Munro and is basically in the outer suburbs of Glasgow. OK, perhaps as far out as Potters Bar from central London.

So it gets a lot of feet and has to be managed. Hence the stepping stones at 800m above sea level...

The hills carry on to the North, more walking to be done there.

And of course it rained...

2009-08-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

Another sunny day on the edge of the Campsie Fells, I think it was Monday that the sun last shone... Forgot the pictures on the day but found them again when transferring today's rainy pics from Ballagan.

Ballagan Spout main drop

2009-08-26T07:19:00.000-07:00

Another scramble through untracked, steep, birch, oak and bracken woodland to the bottom of Ballagan Spout. Worth the scramble. About two hour's worth of Glasgow rain to get this amount of water going down.

The only dry place outside of a house for several miles, tucked under the overhang where the burn drops down. Fantastic place. I hope it will be easier to get to in the Spring before the bracken grows.

Bit of a rough landing for anything going over the fall. There is a flat, non slippery boulder (probably recently fallen!!!!) that you can sit on, in full waterproofs, in the spray drift at the bottom of the drop.

Some idea of the fall.

Kelvin seat

2009-08-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

Are you sitting comfortably?

The short clip gives an idea of how the water is moving around the chair Not sure who put it there, but quite an achievement!

Dumgoyne under the clouds

2009-08-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

Dumgoyne and the base of the Campsie Fells in a gap in the rain today. River is up. It's raining again in Bearsden, where the picture was taken.

Ballagan Spout

2009-08-14T06:16:00.000-07:00

Ballagan Spout is a waterfall in a Scottish Wildlife Reserve on the edge of the Campsie Fells. It's not like a wildlife reserve in Berkshire. There are no paths. The only semblance of a track is up the fence on the Eastern edge. The valley itself is mostly shoulder deep bracken.

This is the whole of the reserve pretty well.

You can get access, if you are very persistent, to the burn just above the big drop. Careful boulder hopping lets you go downstream...

or upstream

Upstream a few tens of yards gets you to this small waterfall and plunge pool

Downstream you come to the Spout. First drop is about 20 feet, the lower one with the burn disappearing is, apparently, 20m or about 60 feet. You can't get to to sill as far as I can see.

Magical place. Next trip I'll struggle down to the burn at the bottom of the reserve and try walking/scrambling upstream to the Spout.

No car park, no footpaths, no boarded access tracks. Wild. Near Glasgow!

Kelvin rain shower

2009-08-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

We had a night of heavy drizzle in Glasgow which might have been rain in the Campsie Fells.

It was enough to convert this almost dry waterslide in to this:

Still not looking remotely dangerous. More water to cover the scrape down rapids too!

Dumgoyne

2009-08-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

Dumgoyne is a small hill just outside of Glasgow, I see it in the distance taking Squiggs to nursery every day. It's on the edge of the Campsie Fells.

View from just outside Strathblane, about 15 minutes drive from home.

The track to the top goes pretty well up the middle.

View from the top along the edge of the Campsie Fells, hot weather!

Towards Glasgow

Or towards Loch Lomond

Kelvin Walkway

2009-08-09T13:56:00.001-07:00

I took the train to Partick, picked up the Kelvin Walkway and walked home, shifting to the canal towpath in Anniesland.

This is the last drop on the Kelvin. Mostly it's a bit too dry, rocky and has an unknown depth of water at the bottom. I gave this one a miss and got out at the Transport museum when I made the paddle down from Bearsden.

The last easy shoot weir. No problems.

This one becomes a serious play hole in serious flood. Will need a paddling buddy for that time.

Water slide by the Arboretum. Probably a drowning pool in flood. Fun, if a bit steep, in these conditions.

First water-slide below the Vet School in Bearsden. Fine in low water, might not be so much fun in flood...

Flight of locks on the Forth and Clyde canal. This is by the gasworks, but looking the other way!

Anniesland Gasometers

2009-08-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

These are down the road from our rental house. Glasgow is a very mixed city, with the salubrious close to the rough stuff and industrial areas, what little is left. I think the gasometers are derelict or moth balled as we run on North Sea gas and there's a lot of grass growing on what looks like a brown-field site. The structures remind me of the gasometers in Nottingham from my childhood.