Week 13 - I’ll take the flat road
After last week’s (week 12) rather strenuous efforts, this last week has been considerably slower and easier; only 74 miles and a paltry 2709 feet of climbing in slightly under 30 hours of actual effort. While not exactly a feet up and sit in the sunshine holiday it’s been nice to have an easier few days.
The Pentland Hills, last bit of hill walking before the flat bit.
The easy week came curtesy of Scotland’s geography; after a week of walking across the Cheviots and Southern Uplands there was one last day of effort over the lovely Pentland hills before descending to the central belt. This is the area between Glasgow and Edinburgh, the Forth and the Clyde it’s low lying, industrialised and highly populated. When planning the route the only feasible way of avoiding a lot of walking on busy roads was to take to the canals, fortunately there are two main canals which cross this section, the Union Canal running from Edinburgh to Falkirk and the Forth and Clyde Canal joining those rivers. These two waterways meet at Falkirk and are linked by the magnificent Falkirk Wheel.
The amazing Falkirk Wheel
This happy accident of geography and engineering meant that once I’d come down off the Pentland Hills I could get on the Union Canal tow path about five miles east of Linlithgow and enjoy three easy days of walking. There is however one major downside of canal walking, especially through old industrial areas, maintenance; after the canal system fell out of commercial use post second world war, they were allowed to become little better than watery dumping grounds for all sorts of rubbish. Fortunately the last 30 years or so has seen a renaissance in the canal system, driven by the leisure industry and a broad realisation that pootling through the countryside at 3-4 miles and hour is a pleasant way to spend days, weeks or even years.
The Union Canal just outside Linlithgow.
The Union Canal through Falkirk’s long tunnel (634m)
Many canals have now become narrow nature reserves, ribbons of quiet and havens for wildlife when a few feet on either side everything is hustle and bustle. The Union and Forth and Clyde canals were wonderful examples of this, there seemed to be relatively few boats using them and it often felt that we were walking beside a river deep in the country rather than a canal between Scotland’s two principal cities.
Swan on the Forth and Clyde Canal
In addition to the pleasant walking life was made even better when we were visited by friends and family who live in this area of Scotland, first Carne and Ward Burke popped in to see us when we were camped at Beecraigs near Linlithgow. It was great to see them, especially as they brought a fish suppers and a map for the last section of the walk, Inverness to John O’Groats. Our second visitors were Julie and Ian Phillips, who met me at Falkirk, took me back to Beecraigs and then ferried me, Sandra and Arthur around so we could spend a delightful day walking from the Falkirk Wheel to the impressive roman head sculpture on Croy Hill.
Sculpture on Croy Hill, it’s looking west, along the line of the Antonine Wall that ran across Caledonia at this point and was manned by the romans for a few years until the midges drove them south.
Eventually I left Scotland’s southern canal system (the Caledonian Canal awaits) and joined the West Highland Way; I’ll be following this for a week until I get to Fort William but there was one final and utterly unexpected surprise. Duncan Allen and Martyn Burgess travelled north in Duncan’s vintage Land Rover to visit us at Milarrochy Bay on the shore of Loch Lomond. It was great to see them and a huge effort on their part to get here from Kendal, it was really nice to see them.
Duncan and Martyn relaxing after braving the two hundred mile trip north in Duncan’s vintage Land Rover
Important milestones this week were passing the 900 mile and two million paces marks, the first was an enormous boost to my morale while the second left me wondering just how accurate the step counter on my phone is, I suspect not very.
Sandra swimming in Loch Lomond
The tally of paths continues to grow, in addition to the West Highland Way I’ve followed, for a greater or less distance, the John Muir Way, the Thomas Muir Trail (no relative), The Thieves Road (across the Pentland Hills) the Pentland Path, the Union Canal and the Forth and Clyde canal.
Hairy Coos on the Cross Border Drove Road/Thieves Road/Pentand Path
This week’s and trip totals.
Week’s Total :- 74 Miles 2709 Feet of Ascent, 161,682 Paces, 29.25 Hours of Walking.
Walk Total to date:- 948 Miles 98,448 Feet of Ascent, 2,122,462 Paces, 425.25 Hours of Walking.
Land’s End to John O’Groats walk approximately 73 % completed.