John Muir Way: Longcroft to Linlithgow

Tuesday 26th August 2025

After spending the night in Stirling I caught a bus back to Longcroft, between Cumbernauld and Falkirk, where I made my way back onto the Forth & Clyde Canal to start day four of my walk along the John Muir Way. There had been a lot of canal walking on the trail the day before so I was glad, after little more than a mile, to come off the canal at Bonnybridge, dropping down to a tunnel that passes underneath before climbing gently up a hill, at first past residential homes, then industrial units and finally after crossing a railway line reaching the countryside and part of the Antonine Wall. This lesser known Roman wall briefly superseded the better known and much longer Hadrian’s Wall before being abandoned when the Romans retreated back to England. There is not much trace of this wall now, which was never as well developed as Hadrian’s Wall and consisted of a deep ditch on the northern side of a high turf wall with a timber fortification on stone foundations. The ditch is the clearest remaining sign of the wall now and I had a tremendous time exploring the area, walking down to the bottom of the ditch and gazing east and west along the impressive line of the wall. Eventually I made my way up to Rough Castle, where indentations in the ground are the foundations of a Roman fort, but you need a lot of imagination to see the area as such. I wasn’t in a hurry so I just wandered around, taking in the scenery and enjoying the sunshine until eventually I continued along the John Muir Way, which headed into lovely woodland.

The best bits of the John Muir Way were when I was on a good footpath passing through woodland and this delightful section brought me to one of the most astonishing sights in modern day Scotland: the Falkirk Wheel. This enormous piece of engineering transports boats from the Union Canal down to the Forth & Clyde Canal and lifts them back up again. I have seen pictures of it many times but it was awe-inspiring to see it in person and when it appeared before me I just stood and gazed at it for ages, unable to take in what I was seeing. Soon after I arrived, a boat passed along the upper aqueduct into the wheel and, thinking that I had to stay and watch the whole, spectacular mechanism turn, I made my way down to the basin at the bottom where I waited for wheel to turn. While I waited clouds filled the sky so that the sunshine that I had been enjoying during the morning finally disappeared, and eventually the wheel began to turn, slowly and possibly silently, certainly quieter than a nearby noisy lawnmower. Once the boat was down I climbed back up to rejoin the John Muir Way, which climbs up to the Union Canal, but doesn’t follow it into a tunnel and instead heads through gorgeous woodland on a wide straight path that was a pleasure to walk upon. All too soon I came onto a road that took me over a railway line and the canal to more lovely woodland.

I was enjoying the variety on this day’s walk, which was a marked difference to the previous day which had been very flat, but now the path took me up a hill and past Tamfourhill Wood to reach the monument to the Battle of Falkirk from the Jacobite Rebellion. It then started to rain, which I hoped would be a short shower, but it eventually became very heavy. The trail took me through the parkland of South Bantaskine Estate and back down to the Union Canal, soon branching off to reach Falkirk High railway station, on the edge of Falkirk. Soon after I reached the station it started to rain heavily and this continued while I made my way along several roads to reach Callendar Park. In the poor weather conditions I needed clear signposts indicating the route of the John Muir Way, but I did not have that in the park as if the signs refused to acknowledge the John Muir Way. While passing Callendar House the rain eased slightly, but after passing a lake it began to rain heavily again as I climbed into Callendar Wood, so I just kept my head down and hoped that I was on the right route. When I exited the wood, and the park, I crossed a road to enter a delightful wood and follow the Westquarter Burn, which was a spectacular stream, along a fabulous footpath, despite not being sure that I was on the John Muir Way. The stream went through a tunnel under the railway line with the footpath on an excitingly narrow terrace beside it, but soon I emerged beside the Union Canal where the John Muir Way was clearly signposted.

Normal service now resumed as I walked along the towpath for many miles while the weather eventually cleared and the sun came out. It was much more enjoyable walking beside the Union Canal than beside the Forth & Clyde because it was narrower and lined by thick vegetation and tall trees. While brief showers came and went I followed the canal, during a generally sunny afternoon until eventually, after almost five pleasant miles, I crossed the Avon Aqueduct and dropped down to the side of the River Avon for a lovely walk that brought me into the town of Linlithgow where this stage of the John Muir Way ends. Unfortunately the railway station was on the other side of the town so I had to walk all the way through to reach it and catch a train back to Stirling. This was a very enjoyable walk compared with my previous days on the John Muir Way as it had the added interest of plenty of woodland walking, as well as the Roman wall and the Falkirk Wheel, which I loved see being able to see for myself.

John Muir Way: Strathblane to Longcroft

Monday 25th August 2025

Over the summer I had felt very tired, drained of energy, possibly from the heat or simply stress, which is not unusual for me, so I needed a holiday that would not be too strenuous where I could disengage my brain and allow the lack of pressure on the trail to restore my mind and body. The trail I picked was the John Muir Way which celebrates the Scottish-born naturalist who pioneered the environmental movement and traces the journey from his birthplace in Dunbar to the port on the mouth of the Clyde where he set sail for the New World. I had set off from Helensburgh two days previously, climbing over the hills into Balloch at the southern end of Loch Lomond, and then the following day I climbed over the northern slopes of the Kilpatrick Hills on a long stage of the trail that eventually brought me into Strathblane. There are no mountains on the John Muir Way and the hills that I had crossed on the first two days were less than a thousand feet high but were still the highest points on the whole trail. The third stage of the John Muir Way couldn’t have been gentler as I soon joined the Strathkelvin Railway Path, which follows the route of the disused Blane Valley Railway line and is now a cyclepath. The steep hillside of the Campsie Fells escarpment lines the northern side of the valley but was no comfort for me as I walked through the flat-bottomed valley past a mixture of farmland and woodland.

This was too easy a walk for me and I would have perhaps found it better to have been following a trail with a little more undulation, but instead I was stuck on the level, which was very dull while passing through farmland, but later I came into woodland and alongside the Glazert Water, whose environs were more natural and pleasing to my eye, and made the walking much more pleasing. There is something very soothing for me to be walking through woodland and, despite passing the built-up areas of Lennoxtown and Milton of Campsie, the railway path continued to be lined by trees with the river never far away, but the miles began to drag as the cloud began to clear and the sun shone for the first time on this holiday. By the time I reached the end of the railway footpath, after almost eight miles, I was in a daze from the heat, barely able to walk in a straight line, with no strength left. Finally, I reached the town of Kirkintilloch and after climbing past some industrial units I arrived at the Forth & Clyde Canal where I collapsed onto the first empty seat to rest and have something to eat. It was still hot but after eating I felt much more refreshed and able to resume the trail which follows the towpath beside the wide ship canal for more than three miles with stunning views of the trees that run alongside.

My walk beside the canal came to an end near the village of Twechar where I turned right over a bridge and up the hill, soon turning left to continue climbing along a track. After four hours of flat walking I was overjoyed to finally be climbing a hill, which was also providing me with a cooling breeze and brought me to Bar Hill Roman Fort on the Antonine Wall. This briefly superseded the much more famous Hadrian’s Wall before being abandoned when the Romans retreated to that wall in England. There is not much left of the Antonine Wall and Bar Hill contains some of the best preserved examples. I could see the foundations of the fort on top of the hill while on the northern slopes I found a large ditch with what appeared to be the foundations of the Antonine Wall itself at the bottom, though probably not. I was fascinated by it all. I have previously visited Hadrian’s Wall a couple of times but I had never seen the Antonine Wall so I was glad that the John Muir Way was making me take this diversion. The trail continued to follow the remains of the wall through woodland and past more mundane farmland before reaching a road near the village of Croy where the third stage of the John Muir Way ends, but I wasn’t ready to stop yet, despite there being a convenient railway station at Croy, so I kept going to follow the ridge up to Croy Hill.

This was an enjoyable walk as the path undulated around a series of small hills that interpretation boards claimed were the remains of Roman forts, but to my untrained eye I could not see any sign of this. It was still a great walk through fabulous landscape until it all came tragically to an end when I finally descended back down the hill to the canal. The tedium of walking along the towpath beside the Forth & Clyde Canal resumed, eventually passing under the M80 motorway and I finally left the canal at Underwood Lock to head into Longcroft where I caught a bus to Stirling. It is surprising how tiring it was for me to be walking on the flat, though the hot, sunny weather was perhaps to blame for this. The repetition of every footstep being identical to the one before was exceptionally tedious but with navigation being easy beside the canal or along the railway path I was able to switch off my brain and allow my legs to do the thinking, repeating the same action again and again. My rehabilitation was underway.