Loch Lomond and Glasgow

On the way to the Loch Lomond Balmaha Camping and Caravan Club site we nearly ran out of fuel, we always forget we can’t get in little petrol stations with the ‘van on the back!  We had to ditch the ‘van in a forestry entrance and go in search for diesel in nearby Callander.  When we were fuelled up and arrived at Balmaha  the site was lovely and they gave us a lochside pitch, straight away we chatted to our next door neighbours who were at the end of a weeks holiday from Edinburgh where he works for RBS, they had an inflatable canoe which looked loads of fun!

Woke up to heavy rain, so we donned our full waterproofs and took the dogs for a walk along the West Highland Way  heading towards Balmaha alongside Loch Lomond, we walked for just over a mile when Prince hurt his foot on the little stones on the beach.  We decided to head back and Prince was a hoppy spadge all the way, we think he was putting it on though because by tea time he was fine!  

We went out to The Hill House at Helensburgh which is a National Trust for Scotland property and was designed by architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It is deemed to be one of the best examples of Mackintosh’s style with strikingly modern interiors, and even the furnishings were  designed by the architect. It was built for the Blackie family who ran a publishing house in Glasgow. Work commenced on the house in 1902, and was finished by 1904.  It was lovely with a really dark woodpanelled hallway leading into a lovely light drawing room with stencilled walls and angular metal light fittings.  The dining room was again dark wood and then upstairs there was a very modern for its day power shower with side jets!  The main ladies bedroom was lovely and again, very light and pretty.

Up early the next day for our big day up Ben Lomond. We drove to the car park and set off to the summit, a climb of over 3,000 feet.  The route we took is the main tourist route and because it was a weekend it was pretty busy as we set on our way (a lady in the pub later told us that at weekends the path can feel like Sauchiehall Street, which is Glasgow’s main shopping street!).  The track is pretty steep right from the start and it wasn’t too long before we had a great view over Loch Lomond.  A bit further up the rain was just arriving and we swiftly broke out our waterproof trousers. As we walked up into the clouds the rain became heavier and started falling sideways as the winds got stronger, just as we were getting fed up with the cold and wet we saw the trig point at the top.  Surprisingly the wind and rain eased off up here, and we had a chat with a couple who arrived just after us, they were from Dumfries and this was their first time

up Ben Lomond too, we took their photo as they had forgotten their camera and gave them some of our coffee to warm up!  On the way down the wind howled and rain lashed again until we got off the ridge, we got a bit drenched but were still passing lots of people who were heading up.  We spotted some litter on the way down and started picking bits up, and by the time we got back to the car both our hands were full and even Prince was carrying a plastic bottle.  Rubbish.  That evening we relaxed for a bit before going into Drymen for something to eat.  We ended up at The Clachan Inn, a tiny pub in the centre of the village, and one of the oldest registered licenced pubs in Scotland. It was registered in 1794, and it looks more like a bungalow than a pub! While waiting for our food we got chatting to a couple in the bar, the lady was very animated and loved to talk, while her fella was quiet and shy.  He was into bird watching and had even written a few books, she was a cook who mainly cooked for groups on fishing holidays at the nearby lodge.  She was also an avid CAMRA member, and had campaigned for this pub to be in the guide. We had a lovely meal after our hard day, finished off with a wee dram of Lagavulin!

Before we left we went out to Aberfoyle which is a small village recommended as a good place to visit by the Telegraph.  We parked up in the main car park and had a look round the large Scottish Wool gift shop, most of the other shops were antiques shops and tourist shops, so we just skipped past those and left them to the other Telegraph readers!.  Up the road from the village is the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, a vast forestry commission woodland that has all sorts of activities available as well as a forest drive.  We parked in the car park and took the dogs on one of the walks that took us to the Little Fawn Waterfall, given all the rain we have had lately it was a bit bigger than it’s name suggests!  We had a look at the visitor centre before heading back home to take down the awning ready for tomorrows move.

Lovely sunshine when we woke up today.  Yet again, on the way to the little CL by Beith just south of Glasgow, we nearly ran out of fuel- must be the week for it, eventually a lorry driver pointed us in the right direction of a petrol station just before the Erskine Bridge!  We carried on and found the CL which is on a farm down a narrow lane.  The ¼ acre field had one campervan on it, but was looking a little boggy and cut-up, luckily Tonks made easy work of it and we were soon set up and having a brew and lunch.  Afterwards we went out to explore, and after a few closed roads and diversions we ended up at the seaside town of Largs.  A nice little town with a busy little port where the ferry to the tiny island of Great Cumbrae comes and goes every 15 minutes.  We had a walk along the promenade before going into town and doing a spot of shopping. Back on the sea front again the weather was turning for the worse, with strengthening winds and the threat of rain we could see the ferry swaying more and more as it made the crossing.  We got a giant tub of ice cream each from an Nardini’s Italian style glaciere before running back to the safety of Tonks to enjoy them, yum yum!

Our neighbours in the small campervan were up early, but unfortunately for them they got stuck in the mud as they tried to exit the field! He asked Phil if we could use Tonks to give him a tow, which we happily did, Tonks to the rescue again!  After our heroics we set off for Glasgow.  We had researched car parks the night before, so we tapped the postcode of a city centre car park into the sat nav and found it no problem- a bargain at 60p an hour. From here we went for a walk round the city centre, starting with Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow’s main shopping street which is over 1.5 miles long.  On to the School of Art’s Mackintosh Building, which is one of Charles Mackintosh’s iconic buildings, we had a walk around the outside and continued on to the Tenement House.  This is a 19^th century furnished historic house which is now in the care of the National Trust, the
whole building would have been divided into 8 flats which were called

tenement houses not flats. We took it in turns to go in and have a fascinating look at what life in the city over 100 years ago. The house has a completely original interior including the cast iron range and the box-beds built into the walls, as well as an inside bathroom which was very luxurious for its day. The 4 room flat would typically house a 10 member family!  It was owned by a coal merchant who bought it from a struggling builder and he rented the entire house out to 8 families. The lady who rented these rooms was a Miss Toward who was a shorthand typist in a shipping firm and as such would have been considered quite wealthy at the time. She originally moved in with her mother ,who was a dressmaker,  in 1911 and after her mothers death she continued to live there alone. After we both had a look we continued our walk to the banks of the river Clyde which we followed until we reached the rail crossing where we turned back into the city centre past the huge Central station and back to the car park. 

We drove out of the centre and parked up at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, a huge imposing red sandstone building built in the Spanish Baroque style in 1901.  The museum is Scotland’s most visited attraction and hosts over 8,000 objects which even includes a real Spitfire hanging from the rafters!  The hour and a half we had left until it closed was nowhere near enough to do it justice and we had to reluctantly leave when we heard the calls from the stewards.  We then took the dogs for a walk in the lovely Kelvingrove Park, an 85 acre park which straddles the River Kelvin, we had a lovely walk around the many paths which we shared with other dog walkers, cyclists and runners who had just finished work. We stopped for a while to watch a load of skaters and BMX riders at a skate park, one young lad who was no more than 10 years old was showing them all up on some in-line skates, doing front flips and 720’s off the concrete ramps! 

The next day we programmed the satnav for Pollok House and Country Park. When we got there we took the dogs for a walk along the river and past the Clydesdale horses that were in the stables.  We left the dogs in the car while we went into the house for a look round.  The house is still the ancestral home of the Maxwell family built in 1752 and only gifted to the National Trust in 1966, we saw most of the rooms, with only the top floor still being closed to the public as a private residence, first we saw the kitchens and servants quarters, then up to the hall and dining room, library, morning room and then upstairs to see bedrooms.  The staff were nice and friendly and told us lots of interesting snippets about the house, but as we got upstairs a bus load of Italians turned up, so they were busy after that.  We went back down to the kitchens where we had a brew and a bit of cake each! We drove round to the car park for the Burrell

Collection, and after letting the dogs out for a run headed inside. Sir William Burrell was a wealthy ship owner and owing to his travels all over the world amassed a fascinating collection of over 9,000 pieces. He gifted them to the City of Glasgow in 1944, and they are now housed in a specifically built gallery which is free to enter. It is an amazing collection of all sorts of items including complete stone doorways and window arches, fully furnished rooms, decorated ceilings, ornately embroidered clothing, Chinese sculpture, ancient egyptian mummies, paintings, armoury, and on and on… It was a fascinating place, and highly recommended to anyone coming to the Glasgow area.  We were in there until we got chucked out, and then went back to the car to take the dogs for a walk.  We took them round the other end of the Park this time, taking in one of the ‘extreme’ mountain bike tracks they had on offer.. Only a mile long, and the puddles were about the only ‘extreme’ feature, Phil was glad he hadn’t brought his bike specially!  Back at

the car we used satnav to guide us to Castelvecchi, a chip shop in Paisley which is owned by Paulo Nutini’s mum and dad. Unfortunately they weren’t there (I don’t think they ever are nowadays) but we ordered our take away and went off in the rain to find somewhere to eat it. In his haste Phil drove through a red light and got beeped at by a taxi driver, whoops!  On the way home we stopped in a car park at the Gleniffer Braes Country Park which had a fantastic view over the twinkling evening lights of Glasgow, and we could even see the lights of planes coming and going at the airport. 

We have now moved to a Caravan Club site in Ayr.