Sunday 24th August 2025
After a good night’s sleep at the Glasgow Youth Hostel I caught a train back to Balloch where I resumed my trek along the John Muir Way. I was surprised to see that the ground was wet in Balloch despite it being dry in Glasgow, perhaps from the mist that was still hanging around the southern end of Loch Lomond at that time of the morning, which was leaving a damp feeling to the air. I set off along the trail into Balloch Castle Country Park beside the water, which was already providing me with the feeling that this was a pleasant walk for a Sunday morning, but at a boathouse I turned right to climb up the hill past the fenced off castle and along the access road that took me out of the park. My route continued along quiet country lanes that lacked interest for me, but since I was just walking through gently undulating farmland then walking along a road was better than crossed an endless series of fields as now I could easily maintain a brisk pace and get it other with as quickly as possible. This went on for about six miles with strange-looking dummies outside some of the houses failing to relieve the tedium. After passing Wester Cameron Farm the road came to an end and I finally began to climb, so I stopped to eat some of my lunch, and look at the views north towards the Loch Lomond Hills. Unfortunately, grey overcast skies and the distant hills across low-lying farmland meant this view was not particularly picturesque.
Soon I set off again and turned right into a conifer plantation climbing Tombocle Hill on a forestry track before branching left onto a more interesting path that weaved a course through a felled part of the plantation, which provided me with extensive views over the small regrowth and plenty of flowering heather to decorate the landscape. The good footpath took me over the Carling Burn and after passing over Rough Burn took me out of the plantation and towards the dam for Burncrooks Reservoir. With the weather briefly threatening to rain, I followed the path around the reservoir that sits on the northern flanks of the Kilpatrick Hills, and is as hilly as the John Muir Way ever gets. Conifers were never far away and soon I was back amongst the trees and eventually left the reservoir behind descending on the access road for the dam, past the filter station and eventually reached Eden Mill Farm Shop where I couldn’t help stopping to have a cup of tea and a rest. A short walk from there brought me onto the A809 road and into the Carbeth Hutters Community, a delightful place where many wooden huts provide tranquil solitude for their owners, except for those huts disturbed by those on the John Muir Way that I passed while following the path around the wooded landscape of Carbeth Hill.
I had a brief glimpse of Carbeth Loch before turning left onto a wide path that is the route of the extremely popular West Highland Way. I didn’t stay on it for long as I soon turned right to continue walking through woodland but then the path widened onto a forestry track which eventually brought me into the village of Strathblane where the second stage of the John Muir Way ends. The weather, which had been poor all day, rallied at the end with the sun attempting to push through the clouds and, though blue sky never made an appearance, I had good views of the Campsie Fells escarpment with Dumgoyne Hill drawing the eye. This made for a welcome improvement to what had been a dull day with long stretches of monotonous walking, but perhaps this was exactly what I had needed. Coming into this holiday I had been feeling very tired so I needed something to help me relax and disengage my brain and, since the John Muir Way is very well signposted, navigation was never a problem for me so I was able to blindly follow the directions and not have to think about anything. Ironically, this is one of the longest and hilliest sections of the whole trail, but compared with the Cambrian Way, which I had completed earlier in the year, it was easy and just what I needed.
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