An afternoon walk from Killin to the shore of Loch Tay…
The crannog on Loch Tay
- Post author By Marc De Ridder
- Post date October 26, 2020
Category: Stirlingshire
Autumn colours at Ballagan.
The aniseed toadstool is a regular mushroom in the forest behind our garden.
Call Taggarrrt! Therrre’s been a murrrderrr.
Shortly after catching the murderer in the act and putting the phone call in to Maryhill Police Station, the murderer disappears into the deep, dark forest, taking the body with her.
Taggart arrived swiftly and expertly starts the investigation of the little evidence that is left behind on our lawn.
Taggart confirmed in a press conference this afternoon that a female pheasant, positively identified by its distinct down feathers, has been brutally murdered by a yet to be identified hungry female goshawk.
There is nothing nicer than an early morning walk with Lola when the ground is frosty.
The Spout of Ballagan in the Ballagan Glen nature reserve that is managed by the Scottish Wildlife Trust.
Ballagan House at the foot of the Campsie.
Maggie’s Cove is a delightful cove on the South shore of Loch Tay some 5 miles East of Killin.
The walk along a short stretch of the West Highland Way between Easter Carbeth and Dumgoyach is becoming one of our favourite short walks for a Sunday afternoon wander. The views to the Campsies and even Ben Lomond in the far distance when meandering down the well trodden track towards Dumgyach are simply stunning. I will never tire of these views. Especially with the ever changing and unpredictable Scottish weather. The light hitting the mountains and the atmospheric cloud formations are just never the same.
This is the view to Dumgoyach, Dumgoyne and Dumfoyne taken early on in the walk on a dreich day with flat lighting at the end of June.
Two weeks ago, a mixture of sunshine and fast moving clouds created a spectacle of light spots and light trails travelling across the forrests and the mountains. The monochrome photo above is, without a doubt, my favourite shot of the day, capturing a narrow band of light moving swiftly across the trees and foot of Dumgoyne and Dumfoyne. Below is the colour version.
It is not just the views that make this a wonderful walk. A slight detour from the track into the field to the South East of Dumgoyach is well worth it to explore the standing stones and admire Dunthreath Castle in the shadow of Dumgoyne. But I’ll keep those for a future post.
With the unpromising weather forecast this weekend, we changed our minds and took a wander across Muirhouse Muir instead of venturing further afield as intended. We started off at the lay-by on the A81, about a mile South of Strathblane, and headed through the delightful little Nature Reserve and along Loch Ardinning to the Muir.
The circular walk over the Muir is on of my favourite walks in and around Glasgow and always makes for a great afternoon walk with superb scenery all around from the Kilpatrick Hills to the West, the Arrochar Alps and Ben Lomond to the North and Drumgoyne, the Campsies and Kilsyth Hills to the North and East. To top it all, the walk circles not just through a varied mixtures of moorland, but also through Scots pine and broad leaf forests with little lochs, pools and peat black streams in abundance.
The afternoon turned out to be dreich, lacking the scattered showers and spells of sunshine as predicted. It stayed dry all afternoon, with a very heavy and often very dark and brooding cloud base. The sun was notable for it’s absence with only two extremely brief, very localised appearances. So much for the weather forecast!
Thankfully, we were in the right location coming down from the Muir to Loch Ardinning when a spot of sunshine travelled swiftly from West to East, providing a brief opportunity to capture the spot hitting the Campsies above Dunblane and below the Slackdhu Crags under a very dark and brooding sky.
I am very pleased with the unexpected photo, warranting an framed enlargement or even a print on canvas.
It had been quite a while since we had a wander out over Muirhouse Muir, but on Sunday we decided to head there instead of going further afield due to the weather forecast as you may already have read in my previous post: Spot of sunlight on Slackdhu Crags.
We did not just venture out on the Muir, but took time to get to one of my favourite photographic spots on the Muir, located in the dip behind the rise from Loch Ardinning and flanked by the central heights with the cairn to the East and the forest at Craigmaddie burn to the South.
When following the path circling round the dip, through the forest and up to the cairn, this Scots pine (and it’s substantial neighbouring bushy tree) will look boring and unpromising, but venturing of the path into the dip and closer to the two trees presents wonderful opportunities.
The Scots pine can easily be singled out from varying angles (to get rid of the uninspiring bush) with fantastic backdrops of Drumgoyne, the Campsies and/or Ben Lomond. On Sunday, it was overcast with dark skies and limited visibility, so it proved to be a great opportunity for a monochrome image with a backdrop of Drumgoyne and brooding skies above.
These are some of the images from my archive showing the same location at varying angles at different times of the year throughout the past 11 years.
The first shot was taken on Sunday.
The second shot, taken on film in 2003 shows the absolutely wonderful tree stump as well as the ‘lonely’ Scots pine with the adjacent bush.
The third shot taken in 2008 shows the same view, with the bush now doubled in height and the ‘long gone’ tree stump. Today this bush is doubled in height again.
The last three shots show the Scots pine isolated from the uninspiring bush from different angles and at different times of the year taken between 2009 and 2013.
On a day of snow showers and sun, we headed up to Loch Ardinning and Muirhouse Muir to walk to the cairn on the Muir. When driving up through Milngavie, it became very dark and grey. Shortly after, the snow hit us. We drove on, as the day had been a mixture of snow and sun, hoping it would shortly clear up again for our intended walk.
We parked at the weir at Loch Ardinning and waited for about ten minutes in the car until the snow wore off before heading along the path beside the loch.It wasn’t long before we were walking in glorious sunshine. With Lola mooching through the high grasses, we were admiring the views to Drumgoyne and Arthur’s seat with a fresh covering of snow.
We reached the cairn and after a brief rest, headed back. As you can see in my previous post, the snow storm started to approach us fast shortly after leaving the cairn. Thankfully, when the snow hit us, we already had past the turn and had the strong wind behind us for the walk back to the loch and the car.
Not just cold and miserable, the horizontal snow across the loch was nearly a white out.
Walking back in the snow storm didn’t stop Lola from venturing of the path and running through the undergrowth and high grasses in search for phantom voles and rabbits. We marched on to the dry comfort and warmth of the waiting car.