Nestled in the Campsie Hills is the Carron Valley and reservoir. Having visited these hills frequently as a child it came as a surpirse that I had not known of such a large area and happily set to exploring so as to fill that gap on my mental map. It's a fairly easy walk the whole way round the reservoir and a popular mountian biking area. It took me just over 3 hours to go round, this was walking on the road on the return to the car which made it a bit quicker than returning through the forest track. I had parked at the Tod Holes end (as it's closer to the lovely
Courtyard Cafe which sells Katy Rodger's ice cream! a must for all passing through Fintry), however there is also a Forestry car park at the other end of the water.
The track through the forest is mostly gravel and undulates a bit but there are plenty of spots to stop and admire the views over the water or up towards Meikle Bin. Supposedly you can see some osprey in this area, possibly because of the good trout fishing I don't know, but I did see a peregrine falcon, deer, and possibly heard a woodpecker so there was some wildlife about.
On the way back over the road we came across Kirk o' Muir cemetary which had some really old overgrown gravestones. Someone had obviously been there at sometime and folded back some of the grass and moss to uncover the flat stones (as below) and i discovered that interestingly there is some information about the site online and its probably at least 300 years old, kind creeped me out where there were spaces underneath the old stones between the ground. Someone fairly well off must have lived around there though a the metal fencing around a couple of tombs, while now had rusted away, at one point would have stopped any grave robbers. Which reminds me I must find out more about Burke and Hare and the murder dolls.
