Our October walk saw us heading to the Trossachs, a wonderful colourfull part of Scotland. We travelled to Callander where we had our morning coffee stop. After our coffee we travelled up The Duke's Pass to Brig o' Turk where we started our walk.
Leaving Brig o' Turk we crossed the road to head for the road leading to the Byre Inn then onto Achray Farm and the Queen Elizabeth Forrest Park and Achray Forrest. Following the road round we came to Black Water and a lovely old stone humpback bridge where we crossed the Water. We carried on on our woodland walk enjoying the scenery and taking in the magnificent autumn colour display of the woodland. Walking on we came to Loch Drunkie, we continued on the path past the loch, climbing slightly, we then had lovely views of Ben Ann in the distance. We carried on through the woodland until we arrived at Loch Venachar and our lunch stop.
After lunch we continued along the path at the side of Loch Venachar and headed back towards Achray Farm and Brig o' Turk where our bus would take us to our social stop at the well known Lade Inn.

Today our weather was damp with light rain on and off during the day, but it was also very warm. The rain certainly enhanced to colours of the forest and gave us a wonderful days walking surrounded by the most amazing colours of autumn.
Thanks to everyone for their company today.

Our day started with a coach trip to the lovely village of Dunkeld in the Perthshire Hills, here we had our morning coffee stop before travelling on to the Ballinluig hills and the start of our walk at Baledmund and alongside Loch Ordie.
On arriving at our start point there were a few people on the coach wondering if they had made the right decision to walk today. The weather was very wet and windy, but we all finally started our treck up into the hills. Unfortunately there were few views to look back on as the area was covered with mist due to the weather conditions. As we carried on towards to Loch Ordie the cloud broke and blue skies appeared, and what a difference it made to the landscape, the loch appeared blue and the autumn foliage became golden transforming, the landscape.
Walking on round the loch for a short distance we stopped for lunch at the little bridge near Loch Ordie Lodge and the Cairn erected to comemorate where Queen Victoria stood to admire Loch Ordie. She sailed on the loch in 1865 with her daughter Princess Helena and the Duchess of Athole.

After lunch and in brighter conditions we continued on our way down from the hills back to Baledmund and our coach which would take us back to Dunkeld for our social stop before heading home.

A lovely walk even in the wet conditions, as long as you are dressed for the bad weather it's just lovely to be out walking

Our special walk took us to Fife and the Costal Path. We started by walking down to the lovely little harbour to take up the costal path we then carried on through the caravan park towards then on to Fife Ness where we stopped for lunch. After lunch we walked on past Constantine's Cave, passt the golf course then headed uphill past the old RAF station and back to Crail where we had a lovely meal at the Golf Hotel before travelling home.

Our first special walk of the New Year took us to the Scottish Border Country, where we walked a 7.5mile route from Hoddom Castle to Annan, walking along the banks of the River Annan on the Annandale Way
We set off from East Kilbride by coach to travel to Ecclefechen, here we had our morning coffee stop at the Ecclefechan Hotel. The proprietors made us very welcome, on entering the hotel the first thing we saw was a fantastic open log fire, what a welcome, we had great service plus second helpings of scones, coffee and tea for those who wanted seconds.
After our stop we travelled to the entrance of Hoddom Castle where our walk would start. The Castle was built as an L-plan Tower House about 1565 for Sir John Maxwell of Terregles .
We started by walking on the Annandale Way along by the bank of the River Annan to the metal bridge, crossing the bridge we were able to see the Leaping Salmon Pole. The information board told us that although there are few physical obstacles, the salmon struggle past rapids and leap waterfalls to reach the gravel beds in the higher reaches of the Annan’s tributaries, the Salmon Pole shows how high salmon have been known to leap in order to reach their spawning grounds. Crossing the bridge again we headed up through the wood towards Hoddom Castle, walking past the castle and through the caravan park we headed for Repentance Hill.
Climbing Repentance Hill we reached Repentance Tower and St Kentigern’s Graveyard at the top of the hill, unfortunately because of the rain and mist we were unable to see the great views from the top of the hill. After a short stop to allow people to view the area we headed downhill towards Hoddom Mains and the road. This stretch of the walk was very muddy and took some time to negotiate. On reaching the road we headed back to our starting point, crossed the old stone bridge to take up the Annandale Way heading towards the town of Annan.
We continued walking on the Way along by the river, because of the rain the paths were quite muddy today. The river was very quiet with only one fisherman spotted as we walked along.
On reaching Annan we headed to the Queensberry Hotel where our group were having a meal before travelling home. Queensberry Hotel good food and fantastic service.
Hope you all enjoyed the walk, mud and all, and that there was no fighting about who was going to clean the boots.
THANKS FOR YOUR COMPANY TODAY.