The Falls of Clyde

 

Hi there, reader

It sure got cold during the night. The temperature dropped to zero for four or five hours, and I was forced to get out of my sleeping bag, turn on the gas cooker and reheat my hot water bottle. I'm keenly aware that I'm down to my last two cylinders of butane gas and most of the big shops like Home Bargains have stopped stocking them (because it's no longer camping season). I need to restock soon. I think Argos has them, but at twice the price of everywhere else.

I had planned to move on to Peebles in the morning, but my friend, Jenny, and the librarian, Elena, at Lanark library told me that The Falls of Clyde at New Lanark were well worth a visit. Elena was interested to learn about my travels and my blog. It turns out she's a blogger herself. If you're interested in veganism, cooking, yoga, rock music and/or cats, this is the blog for you.

This is the village of New Lanark on the River Clyde, approximately 1.4 miles from Lanark, in Lanarkshire, and some 25 miles southeast of Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded in 1786 by David Dale, who built cotton mills and housing for the mill workers.

The Falls of Clyde

This was another woodland walk alongside the River Clyde, and this time I made sure to set out an hour earlier to avoid a repeat of the previous day's Blair Witch experience.

In walking these paths, I was following in the footsteps of writers and poets, such as Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Artists came here too, wanting to capture the power and the romance of the landscape. Paintings of the falls by Paul Sandby, Jacob More, Alexander Nasmyth and JMW Turner hang in galleries worldwide.

I left the van parked near the visitors' centre and started along the route. There are several waterfalls to see on this stretch of the Clyde. 

The first waterfall you come to is the only one you view from river level.

After this, you climb up some steep steps and the rest of the walk allows you to view the river and its falls from a high vantage point.

It was really a lovely walk and I appreciated the sun shining. 

I liked the red leaves growing across the gable end of this cottage, and I thought it would make an artistic shot to capture them reflected in this puddle. 

I was hoping to catch a glimpse of some of the wildlife that lives in the woods. According to a sign I passed, these woods are home to roe deer, badgers, foxes, red squirrels, bats, otters and peregrine falcons. In the end, all I spotted where lots of ravens and this huge badger.

The path through the gorge had lots of viewpoints along the way, and it took about half an hour to walk to the last waterfall.

I don't think my iPhone camera does this place justice; you really have to experience it for yourself. If you find yourself passing through Lanark, try to allow an hour or two to do this walk. I'm certainly glad I checked it out before I moved on.

Usually I would have liked to stroll at a leisurely place, but I walked quite briskly, aware that it would be dark by 5pm and I'd have to retrace my steps to get back to the van.

As it turned out, I had plenty of time and it was still daylight as I made the return journey. Much more enjoyable than the previous day.

At one point, I was able to get down to the river's edge and I dipped my hand in to see how cold it was. I was expecting it to be Titanic icy, but it wasn't too bad - about as cold as water from a cold tap at this time of year.

Here are some videos to give you an idea of the power of the waterfalls.

And here's the final waterfall at the end of the route... 

Now, I must return with haste, for the fiery ball weighs heavy in the sky.

Thanks, Jenny and Elena for recommending The Falls of Clyde, and thanks to you for reading.

Brian

Lost in the woods in Lanark

Hi, reader

Today I'm in Lanark in the central belt of Scotland. I arrived the night before last and used the Park4Night app to locate a quiet car park at the side of Lanark Loch. I couldn't see anything of my surroundings in the dark, but I woke up to a beautiful view. Take a look at this:

I'd been the only vehicle in the car park last night, but there were now about twenty cars and lots of people out for some morning exercise. It was a fresh, chilly morning with the sun out and blue skies, so I decided to go for a walk around the loch before breakfast. 

The loch has a footpath all the way round it, so I didn't have to wear my hiking boots. 

It didn't take long to walk around this little loch. It's not much bigger than Roath Lake in Cardiff, but it felt good to rack up some steps right at the beginning of the day. A positive, healthy start.

Then back to the van for some breakfast.

I walked down into Lanark and found the library. It's in a lovely big category B listed building and they had a spacious IT room where I could plug everything in to charge and work on my blog.

From there, I went to the Tesco Superstore to check out their vegan all day breakfast (my late lunch) as recommended by my Mum. I wasn't disappointed: two vegan sausages, half an avocado, flat mushroom, baked beans, wilted spinach, roasted tomato and toast, all for just 5.50 pounds. What a bargain, and it tasted great. I'm already planning to have it again today after I finish this blog post.

By the time I'd blogged, eaten, called my son and organized everything in the van, there wasn't a lot of daylight left. I drove over to nearby Castlebank Park for a look around and a walk.

This is Castlebank House in the grounds of the park. It looked like it was in residential use.

There were some nice rose gardens to the front of it, and I also found this impressive wooden sculpture of Braveheart, Sir William Wallace.

This is the sunset view of the woods from Castlebank House's rose gardens. Looks lovely. At the time I took this video, I didn't yet realize I'd soon be navigating those woods in near darkness.

I followed a little path called the 'Dell Path', leading to the Clyde Walkway which goes along the banks of the River Clyde and loops back to Castlebank Park ... if you follow the correct route.

Unfortunately, when I got down to the Clyde, instead of following the fork to the right, which would have returned me to the park (The Clyde Walkway), I turned left and followed a path which went along to New Lanark about 1.5 kilometres away.

I really enjoyed my walk through the woods, and it wasn't too muddy with a carpet of leaves and pines along the paths. After ten minutes or so, I'd zig-zagged down the slopes and was near the banks of the Clyde. It was fast-flowing and looked icy cold.

As I walked on, I was aware of the light starting to fade and I increasingly wondered when the path was going to loop back towards the park. Eventually I realized it wasn't going to rejoin the park and had almost certainly taken me beyond the edge of the park's boundaries.

I came to a handy wooden platform which gave me this elevated view of the Clyde. As you can see, there was still plenty of light at this point, so nothing to worry about really.

It was maybe another fifteen or twenty minutes before I came out the other side of the woods. I found myself with a few houses dotted around and lanes going off in several directions. One of them was signposted for New Lanark. 

At this point, I discovered I couldn't get a signal on my phone, so I couldn't access Google Maps and work out the best lane to take me back to Castlebank Park and my van. My walk through the woods had left me disorientated and I didn't want to pick a lane at random that might take me even further from the van as the evening turned from cold to freezing.

I made the decision to retrace my steps back through the woods. I calculated that I'd been walking for about forty five minutes and if I set a brisk pace I could be back at Castlebank House in thirty minutes. With any luck, I'd have enough remaining daylight. 

In the twilight, the lovely autumnal woods suddenly became sinister and eerie. Just like in a horror film, there was an occasional owl hoot and the sounds of woodland animals in the undergrowth. To make things worse, once I got into the trees there was very little light at all and I wasn't following just one single path; there were a number of forks where I had to try and recall which route I'd come along.

This is the last picture I took on my phone, as I was saving my battery in case of the eventuality of having to use the phone's flashlight to navigate in the dark.

I love walking through woods and forests in the daylight. In the nighttime, not so much. The path through the trees got really creepy and I was so relieved to find my way back to the Dell Path and up the slope to Castlebank Park. The walk wasn't that long, but I don't care to repeat it.

I got in the van and returned to the Inn on the Loch car park with my heaters blasting on full. It had been a cold day, with the temperature staying at 6 degrees or lower, and I knew I was in for a very cold night. 

Shout out to my brother's friend, Rich Cox, who sent me a kind message to say he's enjoying the blog. Thanks for reading!

Till next time, stay warm everyone,

Brian

Scottish Slang

Hi, reader

Yesterday I woke up in Aberfoyle and decided to drive to my next location before breakfast. I headed off south on another lovely drive through the Scottish countryside. After a while I arrived in a small village called Balfron. 

This town seems to be made entirely of hills and I had to drive around for a while looking for a parking space that wasn't on a steep slope. Eventually, I found this nice spot and made my breakfast. Lovely sunny sky and a nice view as I had my porridge and a cup of tea.

I didn't do any sightseeing the rest of the day, and I was mostly concerned with refilling and refueling. 

I spent time in the Balfron library, writing a blog post about Aberfoyle and playing Sudoku online. The rest of the day was spent driving south, stopping at a Morrison's on the outskirts of Glasgow for groceries, the John Wright Sports Centre in East Kilbride for a shower and shave (only one pound!) and a petrol station to fill up on diesel and put air in my tires. 

Finally, I got to a town called Lanark, which is where I am now. I found a place to park, called my Mum, made dinner and got warm for the night. I've started reading Complicity by Iain Banks and I also watched the season one finale of Kingdom (Korean zombie series) and an episode from season two of The Boys (I've already seen it, but it's so good it's worth another watch).

Slang

Since I don't have any scenic pictures or videos to share from yesterday, I thought you might like to test your knowledge of Scottish slang. 

I mentioned in my Oor Wullie post that those comics are written in full-on Scottish English; they're full of slang terms and lots of the English is spelled phonetically to reflect the Scottish accent. By the time I was ten, I was pretty well-versed in some of the more common Scottish slang words.

Perhaps the most well known is 'wee' meaning 'small' or 'little'. You hear it all the time here in Scotland, and we also used it in Ireland, where I grew up.

"I'll be back in a wee while."

"I'm going for a wee walk."

"She's a lovely wee woman."

"Ye wee scunner!"

Quiz Time

Along my travels, I've been noting down examples of authentic slang which Scottish people have used in conversation with me, or that I've seen written down somewhere. 

Here are ten from my notebook. How many do you already know and how many can you guess from context?

1. whisht

example: "Och, wisht, woman."

2. cluny

example: "I'm awae to the cluny."

3. crabbid

example: "I dinnae like the hot weather. It makes me awfy tired and crabbid."

4. bawheid

example: "Alan's a right bawheid."

5. scran

example: "That place does some great scran."

6. messages

example: "This bag's handy for my messages."

7. the stair

example: "Wait for me in the stair."

8. sook

example: "He's jist a big sook."

9. braw

example: "It's a braw day for a walk"

10. blether

example: "She always enjoys a good blether."

********************************************************************

Spoilers ahead

Here are the answers:

1. whisht

An exclamation requesting silence, similar to 'hush'. In Oor Wullie, characters would often say 'Haud yer whisht!' (hold your whisht) instead of 'shut up' or 'be quiet'.

2. cluny

I'm not definite about this one, but I think a cluny is a toilet. When I Googled, it came up with cludgie as the Scottish slang for toilet, but I'm sure I've heard it called the cluny. When I saw this house name in Drumnadrochit (near Loch Ness) I was quite surprised.

But as I got closer, I spotted this wee man sitting on a toilet in the garden.

I messaged my Scottish friend, Lori, to check and she confirmed that a cluny is a toilet (Lori's from Nairn).

3. crabbid

Also spelled 'crabbit'. It means ill-tempered, grumpy, curt, disagreeable or in a bad mood.

4. bawheid (ball head)

This is a derogatory term and it can mean a person with a chubby face (shaped like a ball) or stupid person.

5. scran

Scran is food. This term is used in other parts of the UK, but it originated in Scotland (according to the internet).

6. messages

'Messages' are 'groceries' or other things that you'd get from the shops. 

7. the stair

I can't find much about this online, but I think the stair refers to the hallway of a block of flats. The area outside the door of the flat where the shared stairs are. Irvine Welsh used this quite a few times in his book 'The Blade Artist' and I saw this sign in Edinburgh.

8. sook

A crybaby, a shy or timid person, a coward, a softy. A lady in Inverness told me her dog was 'just a big sook' who always wants attention.

9. braw

Fine, good, or pleasing. Oor Wullie says braw a lot.

10. blether

A long-winded talk with no real substance. Chit chat or gossip.

How did you get on? That's all I've got for now. I'm off to find some lunch, take a look around Lanark and decide where to visit next.

Thanks for reading,

Brian

The Legend of the Fairy Minister

Hi, reader

I've moved on again, saying goodbye to Callander earlier yesterday afternoon.

The drive from Callander to nearby Aberfoyle was spectacular. It's a winding road through forests and along the sides of lochs. I had the whole road to myself for most of the journey; I think I only saw three other vehicles, and it felt like I was in a car advert.

Just like Callander, Aberfoyle is a very picturesque little town, sitting against a backdrop of forest-covered mountains. Aberfoyle describes itself as The Gateway to the Trossachs', and is well situated for visitors to access attractions such as Loch Lomond and Inchmahome Priory at the Lake of Menteith. 

There's a free car park behind the main street and I set out right away on a walk to get some exercise. There are many hiking routes signposted from the town and I picked one at random. 

Turns out I made a good choice, as I ended up learning about an interesting local legend. This is the supernatural story of Doon Hill and the Reverend Robert Kirk (9 December 1644 – 14 May 1692).

Doon Hill

The walk starts off on a small road. I was thinking people reading this blog might be getting bored of seeing photos and videos of autumn colours and moss covered woodland. If so, scroll on down. I can't get enough of walking through nature in autumn. Anyway, here's a quick clip of my approach to Doon Hill.

Fairy Folk

It wasn't long before I left the road and found this wooden sign.

It reads 'Look after our forest. Please stick to the paths. More than just fairies live here.' At first I thought that sounded a bit sinister. What else lives in these woods? Then I realized it's referring to wildlife.

I started up the path through the woods, keeping an eye open for fairy folk.

Soon enough, I started to come across fairy houses and other decorations.

This pebble has been painted with the words 'Robins appear, when loved ones are near.' It reminded me of a story my mother has told me, when a robin landed very close to her while she was gardening, not long after my grandmother passed away. She felt that the robin was her mum coming to say hello.

Lucky Coins

Here's another decorated fairy house. If I zoom the video in close, you can see that it's another example of many coins being hammered into a tree for good luck. I also saw these at The Falls of Bruar , Killikrankie and The Hermitage at Dunkeld.

The Hilltop

It's not too strenuous a walk to the top of Doon Hill. If you're visiting Aberfoyle, it's a lovely walk that takes about an hour and a half. When you reach the top, you're rewarded with some beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.

And in a clearing at the top of the hill you can find the Minister's Pine! This tree is said to house the soul of Reverend Robert Kirk, also known as The Fairy Minister. Reverend Kirk wrote a book called Secret Commonwealth, about the lives of elves, faunes and fairies. One year later, he passed away while walking on this very hill. Legends arose after Kirk's death saying he had been taken away to fairyland for revealing the secrets of the Good People; here's the tree where his soul now, supposedly, rests.

Evening was drawing on, and as I made my way down the hill I was treated to a great sunset.

Robert Kirk's Grave 

On the way back to town, I passed the Aberfoyle cemetery and popped in for a look at the Fairy Minister's grave. This is the third cemetery I've visited in a week and some readers may be wondering if I have a macabre fascination with graveyards; maybe I have.

Robert Kirk's memorial is easy to find, as it's covered in coins.

You can also identify the stone by this carving which is covered in moss and faded, but still visible.

Here's Doon Hill as viewed from the cemetery.

Back in Aberfoyle, I opted for a takeaway dinner, chips and curry sauce. Three pounds fifty. Very unhealthy, totally delicious. 

That's my short stop in Aberfoyle. From here, I'll be heading back south, though not sure where yet.

Thanks for reading,

Brian

Hello, November

Hi, reader

Today I've escaped the city and am about an hour to the north in picturesque Callander. It was a pleasant drive with quiet roads and beautiful scenery.

I took a walk through some woods to view the Bracklinn Falls. It was a fairly short walk and there were quite a few other people out. The woods looked amazing in the late afternoon.

Most of the trees were completely covered in a dark green moss. Signposts told me to keep an eye open for red squirrels, but I didn't spot any.

I came across a rope swing, but decided not to have a go because the seat was wet and my fingers were already freezing cold. Autumn will be winter in no time.

Here are the Bracklinn Falls. The name Bracklinn comes from the Gaelic word Breac, meaning speckled or tawny and refers to the colour of the peat-tinged water, and from Linn meaning pool.

Let's see how powerful the current of the Keltie Burn is at this time of year, and after so much recent rainfall. 

The gorge has been formed over many years by the action of the water on soft 'puddingstone' which has eroded much faster than the surrounding rock.

A little further along is this spectacular wooden footbridge. There was originally a cast-iron bridge, built for a visit of Queen Victoria in the 1870s, but it was destroyed by flooding in 2004. This replacement wooden structure was built in 2010.

The bridge is currently closed pending a structural survey, but I took a short video of the foaming waters passing underneath it.

Back in Callander, I took a stroll around the town while there was still some daylight. 

Here's St. Kessog's Church in Ancaster Square. It's a category B listed building, built in 1883. Saint Kessog was an Irish missionary who is said to have preached in the area in the 6th century.

Not far away, I found this cool sun dial. According to a nearby signpost, it dates from 1753. 

There's a rhyme engraved on its base, which reads like a riddle. You can't see it clearly in this picture ...

... but it reads:

"I mark not the hours unless they bring light, 

I mark not the hours of darkness and night. 

My promise is only to follow the sun, 

and point out the course his chariot doth run."

Finally, here's a nice shot of the River Teith, which runs through Callander. I think the bridge over there is called Callander Bridge.

So after spending three nights in an Aldi car park, I really wanted to find a nice view to wake up to the next day. I drove about eight miles out of town to the shores of Loch Venachar. I found a small car park right on the water's edge. There were two other vans parked up, and a guy from Belfast, called Mark, had a campfire going. I sat and chatted with him about van life for an hour or so. Like me, he's been living in his van for just over two months.

How about this for a view!

It was a quiet night but windy. The waters of the loch weren't so tranquil this morning.

Where to next, I wonder? Surely Peebles can't still be flooded. Maybe I'll head back south to the Scottish Borders, or I might drive over to Aberfoyle, which I'm told is also very beautiful and not far away at all.

Anyway, thanks for reading. See you next time.

Brian