As I was free all day yesterday, and as the weather forecast suggested it might be mainly cold and dry with a bit of snow on the hills, the wee boy in me made an appearance, and demanded to be taken out in search of some of this white stuff!
I therefore got the first bus of the day from Edinburgh to Stirling, where I stopped for an hour's window shopping; and then a number 11 to Balfron, on which I was fortunate enough to get the front upstairs seat with its nice view ahead and tons of legroom! This is one of several interconnecting routes I'd wanted to do for many years - at one time they were all variations of Striling-Glasgow routes via balfron and various other combinations of places; but now most of them run between Stirling or Glasgow and Balfron only, where they connect with each other to permit through travel...
Stirling is a remarkably compact city, the western side of the castle being literally out in the country, and soon we were running along the A811, parallel to the former Forth & Clyde railway - the remains of which is clearly visible on the right-hand side. (Former railway spotting has long been a pastime of mine, as I am interested in railway history). The first deviation was in and out of Gargunnock - a village that an uncle of mine spends a great deal of time in (something to do with it being home of the girlfriend I think). But I could see why he likes it there, the village and its surroundings not being entirely dissimilar to Almondbank, where he himself grew up and lived until not too many years ago. There were also many potential walks in evidence - that's another of his passions. Not much is left of Gargunnock's railway station - on the right of the main road a few hundred yards before you turn left into the village proper; though as the foilage was at its annual lowest, it was possible to see mounds where platforms and loading bays may once have existed - it is over 40 years since the track was finally lifted, after all.
The next station - also to the right but a little further away astride what now seems to be a sawmill - seemed a little more complete and even sported what looked like a former signalbox! This might be a place to return in good weather for a bit of exploration on foot, I thought to myself. The village it served - Kippen, did not disappoint either. Slightly further off the road than Gargunnock - and up a rather steep hill (it is easy to see why motor buses managed to syphon passenger traffic away from the railway as early as 1933, when the passenger service ceased), Kippen is more substantial. Not so long ago it probably had several shops, more than one church and maybe even a secondary modern, as well as a primary school. With lots of attractive cottages and lofty hillside views, this is definitely somewhere to alight from the bus on a warmer day - and maybe catch the next one onwards.
Until now, the road is very flat, but as it begins to rise, a valley drops away to the right as you head west - and here road and former railway part company for a while. Passing Arnprior - one of those typically Scottish road junctions with a few houses and a redundant kirk that for some reason still gets called a village, and then Buchlyvie - a really rather attractive roadside village with a pharmacy occupying a former church building; the top of the hill is just reached when the bus turns left and, having negotiated some pretty steep, sharp bends that must make for some interesting driving on clear winter mornings, enters the large village (or is it a small town) of Balfron.
It's funny how you picture places you've never been in your mind. Knowing that it has a roughly triangular shape on the map and that it was slightly larger than most of the surrounding villages, a bus-interchange point and some considerable distance from its former railway station; I always imagined Balfron to be a pretty, chocolate-box concoction of single storey cottages opening onto a wide, flat main street, with the junctions of the two other roads forming the triangle round the village both visible from the bus terminus. I imagined a few discreet gift or maybe even tea shops occupying some of the roadside cottages in the vicinity...
Now don't get me wrong, Balfron is quite a pretty place - but isn't even vaguely as I imagined! Apart from a 1950s 'scheme' (that's council estate for those of you from south of the border) at the top of the village - which the bus enters briefly, the lengthy main street is on a steep gradient; and most of the buildings are two-storey - and not a few gaps are partially filled with light-industrial and other premises set back from the road! As I expected, there is evidence of various public services such as a library, health centre, council office and public toilets - much of which is in my expected pink-marled 1930s style; but quite a few more modern furnishings and illuminated signs also exist, sadly.
The bus interchange predictably consists of a shelter either side of the road at the top of the hill - but all seems to work remarkably well! No sooner had we arrived but two other double-deck buses (a somewhat generous provision for the intending number of passengers) appeared - one for Balloch and the other for Glasgow! (At certain times in the day, it is also possible to connect for Aberfoyle, or even a direct service to Drymen - not going via Killearn first!) Leaving my nice warm and comfortable front upstairs seat I was pleased to get the same seat on the Glasgow bus, even though it was somewhat harder and in a decidedly cold and damp vehicle! And soon we were off - followed, to my surprise, by the Balloch bus, all the way to Killearn - the next fairly subtantial but somewhat prettier (than Balfron) village.
Before we'd even descended the hill, the main A81 road and the former Aberfoyle railway trackbed could be seen in the valley below. This was not part of the Forth & Clyde Junction railway - which itself ran between Stirling and Balloch and, in common with many railways, was primarily intended to transport coal - in this case between Fife and the heavy industries of the north Clyde; though it did connect with it at Buchlyvie Junction - which like most of the other stations on these lines, was some distance from the village of the same name and no doubt, this oversight would have contributed to the later debates about the lines' viability. I mean, think about it - you're 86 and riddled with arthritis, or even 26 and carrying your shopping and supervising three kids. Do you take the train and walk a mile and three-quarters down a narrow, dark, twisty road, or do you get the bus to your door? I know which I'd choose...
Two more buses passed in either direction on the main road - single deck ones this time. I suspect these were on a route straddling the Kirkintilloch-Lennoxtown-Strathblane-Drymen-Balfron roads...
Killearn is one of those names that sticks out of your childhood memory box for some really obscure reason. There used to be a big hospital here - one of the half dozen or so prefabricated affairs built around the country in readiness for second world war casualties - that in the event, remained open for many years after the war. (There was another at Bridge of Earn, which I'd visited a number of times; and others at Stracathro, near Brechin, Peel - a few miles outside Galashiels, Bangour - next to the mental hopsital in West Lothian, and Ballochmyle in Ayrshire. Strathcathro, Peel and Killearn were built in really rather unlikely, rural locations! Anyway, what sticks in my mind was the campaign led by the Daily Record in the early 1970s, to fight Killearn's closure. I think it had developed some really good specialities - which were eventually relocated in some of Glasgow's hospitals, if my memory serves me correctly.
Blanefield is the next village - though as soon as you get up the hill you realise that the modern blocks of flats on the top aren't as out-of-place as they look because, less than a stone's throw away is the larger settlement of Strathblane. Having disappeared round the back of Blanefield - where I think there was a station, there's now no evidence of a railway having ever existed - and large, mostly detached houses, almost as far as the eye can see! The tall flat blocks of Glasgow now dominate the distant horizon, and, despite a couple of not-terribly-natural-looking roadside nature reserves and a large reservoir, continuous street lighting and an irritating 30mph speed limit herald the outskirts of Milngavie, and then of Glasgow.
This route had one unexpected, if rather subdued, thrill for me, as it traverses Maryhill Road into the centre of Glasgow. A century ago, many of my ancestors lived here, and I'd had it in mind for some time to come and explore the area, and see if I could identify exactly where they had lived and worked. Alas, not a chance - all that remains of New City Road is a stopped-up, recently redeveloped street sandwiched between bits of motorway junction; while numbers 450 or thereabouts to 780 or thereabouts (and quite a lot besides) have been demolished and their sites landscaped; and there is no indication as to which part of Maryhill Road was known as Gairbraid Street - that information was presumably attached to long-gone buildings! Also gone and almost forgotten are the area's railways - the existing 'Maryhill' station having opened as recently as 1987, some twenty or so years after the original Maryhill stations and lines had been closed and redeveloped. The Forth & Clyde Canal and it's basin and aqueduct over the road remain - somewhat bare and forlorn. I imagine my grandfathers and their siblings must have loitered here and perhaps been chased away by workmen as youngsters; while the womenfolk cared for their younger children high up in squalid, red sandstone tenement flats.
I got off the bus a few stops short of the bus station and walked along Sauchiehall Street to Charing Cross, then up trough the Woodlands terraces to the very grand, broad avenues of Kelvingrove Park, before returning via Argyle and Buchanan Streets in light rain, for the 1600 departure to Edinburgh.
Needless to say, I was absolutely shattered last night - but, Kippen, Balfron, Drymen, Balloch - never fear, I will be back to explore some more; hopefully in more inclement climes!
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