Glen Finglas

John Ruskin was here

Millais painting of John Ruskin

It was my birthday and whilst we are beginning to think that we should be staying at home as Covid spreads at an alarming rate, we decided to take a walk to some old haunts. It could be our last for a long time. The Trossachs is where we were married at the Trossachs church. Aileen's parents lived in a cottage on Loch Venachar and we spent many days here when the children were young. When we moved to Aberfoyle, the Brig o' Turk Tearoom became our local bistro after walks, cycle rides or when we were too lazy to cook.

 

Above Brig o' Turk is the Glen Finglas Dam built in 1965 as a means of creating a reservoir to top up Loch Katrine, the main supply of water for Glasgow and its environs. Just below the massive 35-metre-high dam the river Turk snakes its way through a raw highland landscape of rocks, sessile oaks, scots pine and birch trees. It is where Walter Scott, John Ruskin and other Victorian luminaries spent time communing with nature.

There is an easy walk up to the dam from Brig o' Turk and the Woodland Trust, who own the Glen Finglas Estate, have a small car park halfway up to the dam. On a rare sunny morning, it provided an easy and attractive walk. The scale of the dam and the placid waters of the reservoir were in the foreground of the snow-covered hills to the north. It revived our spirits at a time when coronavirus, declarations of global catastrophe, the collapse of the financial markets and Donald Trump's ever more imbecilic Tweets were all threatening the will to live. 

 

We had decided against a birthday lunch although it looked as if the nearby cafe had yet to open as the majority of the public had begun to self-isolate. This is not surprising, watching events in Italy made us wonder why the UK government had not taken similar action to restrict the movement of people. We returned home to enjoy a simple lunch and a few hours of hard work in the garden to take advantage of the dry weather.

Finglas dam overflow in full spate

Geese on the Finglas Reservoir

Loch Finglas from the dam

River Turk below the dam

Concrete Gravity Dam with steep side

Valve house and Generating house next to spillway and steps