This weekend was the first time I have left Glasgow to explore just beyond the city, rather than getting right away, for example back to Inverness or Aberdeen.

On Saturday it was a church barbeque at Mugdock Park. The walk from Milngavie train station to the park was actually quite enjoyable, with green fields, blue skies and no less than two castles. Then yesterday I went with a couple of church folk for a lovely hike round Loch Chon, in the Trossachs (above, and more on my pictures page).

I have been amused by comments from many new friends down here that “one of the great things about Glasgow is that you’re only half an hour’s drive from the countryside” (which ignores the fact that Inverness is only five minutes away, and half an hour is probably further away from the countryside than any other point in Scotland). And I must confess in my highland ignorance I thought all the bandit country around Glasgow was just post-industrial ghost towns that had lost their coalmining and steelworks to Australia, and their Glasgow daytrippers to Lanzarote.

Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it’s quite pretty.