Category: Landscape

Dunglass from the John Muir way

With the car booked in for an MOT in Lennoxtown on a spectacular sunny day, I decided to take the morning off work, drop the car off at the garage and walk home along the stretch of the John Muir Way running from Lennoxtown to Strathblane that is locally also known as the railway path.

Not long into my walk along the railway path, I caught the first glimpse in the distance of Dunglass, a spectacular volcanic plug that is partly quarried and marks the point where I would need to leave the railway path to cross the fields for the last stretch home.

Dunglass darts in and out of my view along the route, but shortly after passing Craigend Farm, the view of Dunglass with a lead in of the meandering Pow Burn, a tributary to the River Endrick, was simply stunning.

I was so glad I made the decision to walk home and take my camera, as the weather and views were spectacular.

Fiery sunrise

This morning’s sunrise was quite spectacular.

Autumn colours

Autumn colours at Ballagan.

Frosty mornings

There is nothing nicer than an early morning walk with Lola when the ground is frosty.

Spout of Ballagan

The Spout of Ballagan in the Ballagan Glen nature reserve that is managed by the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

Maggie’s Cove

Maggie’s Cove is a delightful cove on the South shore of Loch Tay some 5 miles East of Killin.

Sunlight striking Dumgoyne and Dumfoyne

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.

Spot of sunlight on Slackdhu Crags

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.

Lonely Scots pine on the muir

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.

Mugdock bluebells

On our regular walk at Mugdock, Lola and I decided to divert and go through the woods up the hill along a very narrow trail rather than our usual walk along the loch. And a good choice it was, as the wooded area, completely out of view from the main path below was carpeted with bluebells.

Dunure Castle sunset

The coast at Dunure castle is one of my favourite locations for a Sunday afternoon, wandering round the old harbour, exploring the castle, scrambling along the rocky shore and admiring the views across the water to Ailsa Craig. In winter time, the Sunday afternoon’s wander becomes even more rewarding with the sun setting well before it is time to head back to the city for a Sunday night roast.

On the afternoon of the second Sunday in November, I took a large amount of photos round the harbour and the castle, but these two sunset photos are my favourite.

Clouds over Ailsa Craig

The island of Ailsa Craig is a prominent feature visible from nearly everywhere along the Airshire coast. The dome shaped island is a volcanic plug left behind by an extinct volcano in the Irish Sea and is nick named Paddy’s milestone because is is halfway between Glasgow and Belfast, as the crow flies.

If you like solitude, the 220 acre island with a ruined castle, a small cottage, a lighthouse and a granite quarry is for sale for a mere £1.5m.