Saturday 7 February 2026 - University of Stirling parkrun, and Lewis Hill

With the weather forecast predicting 100% chance of rain in Stirling, Sue and I set off to Stirling University with the wipers on and waterproofs at the ready. The parkrun route is two laps of the small lake pictured above, plus an up and down dogleg to get the distance up to 5km.

Just as we parked up, the rain stopped and all we had for the rest of the day was a bit of drizzle. 

Sue took 26:08 and came in 80th out of 286 finishers. I was in position 210 in a time of 34:04. Here's a picture of the finish.

After that we drove to the other side of Stirling to meet with Richard, Jenny and Julie for a 10km walk over Lewis Hill. The path soon became narrow and steep. Quite thrutchy in places.

There were initially some views over the nearby countryside but we were soon cloaked in cloud and only just able to make out the waterline of the nearby reservoir. 

Sue found a giant mushroom - a Birch Polypore weighing in at over a kilo.

Other items of interest seen during the course of our walk are shown below.

Trumpet lichen

Netted Crust

Conifers (lots)

Scarlet Elf Cups

Despite the low light that we endured all day, the green moss on the trees, rocks and path added a little colour on the gloomy day.

After a few more thrutchy climbs we eventually came upon the trig point at 266 metres signifying that we had conquered Lewis Hill. We celebrated with coffee and snacks.

Continuing along the escarpment we eventually reached a road that in a short distance we left in favour of a path that led to a nice lunch spot.

Just beyond the lunch spot, a small weir was accompanied by the remains of a fish ladder.

The attractively named 'North Third Reservoir' was arrived at via a few duck boards and a lot of mud. Binoculars came out to confirm the identity of a flock of greylag geese. An oyster catcher objected to our invasion of its privacy, but the great black-backed gulls, mallards,  Canada geese, various gulls, and other laid back residents didn't seem bothered by our presence.

There were more board walks. 

The reservoir was last enhanced in 1934. It is 49 feet deep at the tower.

Beyond the reservoir a muddy path led in a couple of kilometres back to the cars.

This was a lovely walk from which there are alleged to be fine mountain views. We'll need to visit it again to benefit from those...

Here's the route  - 10km with 250 metres ascent, taking us 4 hours.

A few folk were seen today - dog walkers, and mountain bikers enjoying some tricky singletrack routes.

Friday 6 February 2026 - Callander to Tigh Mor

Whilst others went kayaking, Julie, Tom, David and I left a car in Callander and walked back to Tigh Mor along the Great Trossachs Trail, though David left us at Brig o'Turk and I took a short cut at the end of the walk. 

We set off past a small lake then along a disused railway track. 

After a short way we left the railway track and spent the rest of the walk on well maintained undulating forest tracks. There were good views back to Callander until we turned a corner. 

We took a diversion to Samson's Stone.

Skeletal trees lined the route.

We looked across Loch Venachar to summits that Sue and Phil were climbing today.

A suitable bench for elevenses was found.

There were good views from this high, contouring path. 

After descending through the forest we said goodbye to David and continued past the Byre Inn. It was very shut. An abandoned London bus lurked outside.

Achray Farm offered a sighting of goats and foals.

The path ran beside Loch Achray, with good views to the distinctive form of Ben A'an. 

Here's my route  - 17km with 400 metres ascent, taking about 5 hours.

Thursday 5 February 2026 - Stank Glen

Given the continuing dreich weather, we decided on another low level, short, walk.

This time we drove to the Ben Ledi car park and took a stroll up Stank Glen, heading first along the road to the Strathyre cabins.

Leaving the tarmac, we enjoyed a well graded 300 metre ascent through woodland that was as pretty as could be expected on a wet day in February. 

We soon passed a waterfall that was clearly connected with the local hydro works.

We mostly followed the blue posts, but on reaching one where there was a 'Danger - Landslip' sign, we took a higher path as planned.

A good single track path led around the head of the Glen. We didn't reach the cloud base, but any attempt to go higher today would have resulted in a few complaints about temperature and wind levels. 

Soon after 11am, Mike lay down on an elevenses rock, only to be ignored as the rest of us plodded past to a better spot by a river. It's pictured below, after Mike had caught up and assumed his trademark prone position.

Luckily, the river was not in spate, so crossing it was a formality.

After contouring gently around the head of the glen, we descended past the Danger Zone, observing that the landslip had destroyed a bridge and left the track rather difficult to cross. 

Near here we encountered a couple of friendly mountain bikers who were the only other people seen on today's walk. 

We continued down to the cabins and a couple of kilometres of road walking back to the cars.

En route, we uncharacteristically failed to pause at a café, in the knowledge that refreshments and lunches awaited us in our Tigh Mor houses.

Here's our route - 8.5km with 300 metres ascent, taking us rather less than 3 hours.

That was a nice morning's outing for a wet day.