A trip down Memory Lane

Susan lived in Bearsden for all her formative years, only coming south to Kent with her parents when she was 17. Her returns to the Glasgow environs have been few and far between so she was keen to revisit old favourites from all those years ago.

First off was Queen’s View on the A809 north of Milngavie. She remembered it as a low hill with fine views. Try as we might we could not find the view, except from the carpark. However, we did walk to The Whangie and back over Auchineden Hill which gave us some spectacular views north towards Ben Lomond and Loch Lomond. The Whangie was interesting with slabs of rock forming a series of serrated slices sticking out of the ground. A whang (as in a whang of cheese) means slice in Old Scottish.

From there we went to look at the Carbeth Huts, an eclectic collection of wooden building scattered across the hillside. The first huts were built in 1918 and over the years have survived attempts at removing them. Being just outside Glasgow they were a retreat to the countryside from the city. Recently their future has been secured. Susan and her family used to walk around the Huts on their days out from Bearsden. They reminded me of the cottages found around the lakes in central Ontario where city dwellers from Toronto used to come. The extras are of one of the huts in traditional green and a shot of Carbeth Loch.

Our final destination was Mugdock Country Park, another place she used to visit. Good views were to be had to the south over Glasgow and the Clyde Valley and of the Campsie Fells which had kept us company for the whole day.

On the way back to Edinburgh we called in for a doorsteps chat with a friend who in currently in Milngavie looking after her ailing father. She was delighted to see us despite the cold evening air. She lives in Hampshire but has spent several months with her father, occasionally travelling south with him so that she can get things done and see her family. It’s tough, tougher than we’ve been having it and we’ve had it tough.