Day 28, Thornhill to Muir Dam

Muir Dam with Ben Ledi beyond

Monday 20 April 2020, Day 28 of Lockdown

We were served another bright spring day with strong easterly winds, clear skies and extra clear visibility. After 10 days of not going out apart from daily exercise I had three places to visit in Stirling to collect essentials including some materials for house and garden DIY tasks. The traffic was almost non existent, the click and collect procedures of the stores I visited were excellent with a far quicker turnaround than in normal circumstances. The professionalism, care and friendliness of the assistants was quite exceptional. I returned for an afternoon of hard work in the garden before Gregor and I set out for our daily exercise, a walk to the Muir Dam. It was only the second day Gregor had not run all year and he relished the relaxation of a walk to hidden places.

We passed a couple of people I know trailing their dogs around the North Common before crossing the fields and beginning the walk up the Cessintully burn. The evening light was exceptional, the only particulates being the tree pollen and ammonia brought over in the strong easterly winds from farming activity in Eastern Europe. In the 4 weeks since my last visit, conditions had changed remarkably. The ground was rock hard after 10 days of dry weather and strong moisture extracting winds. The fields had been sown, the leaves were budding and the colour palate was splashed with the vivid yellows of the gorse bushes and the white blossom of the blackthorn. 

After clambering over the four or five crumbling stiles that need replacing, a job when lockdown eases, and crossing a wobbly two plank bridge over a burn that had now become a bog, we made our way over the hill and far away to a place that looks like teletubby land, all green and gentle. After enjoying the spectacular 360° panorama of views, we headed down towards the Muir Dam. There was a tall stile to climb to reach a splendid birch wood that extends down to the reed encircled bird haven that is the Muir Dam..

It is about a kilometre from the dam along forest paths and eventually a track to the road. We passed the several fields of Christmas trees and the large modern Scandinavian looking house that is hidden in the estate and found our way to the road. It was traffic free and therefore a pleasant walk back to the village; all downhill with hedgerow birds, lambs and distant tractors the only sounds apart from a game of croquet that was taking place in the garden of one of the farmhouses. It was the perfect spring evening bereft of all the intrusions of modern life.

Crop drills

Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Gorse

Gorse time

Towards the Ochils and Stirling

Thornhill and Campsies

Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorlich

Braes of Doune Windfarm

Muir Dam

Lambing time

Campsies from Braes of Boquhapple

Tree of Life and the tip of Ben Ledi