22 September 2014 – Loop of Fintry

Since rediscovering the joys of cycling a few years ago, I sometimes cast my mind back to when I cycled as a kid, before giving up when I passed my driving test. Nowadays I cycle much further than I did back then, when my longest ride by far (a shade under 30 miles) was a loop taking in Kippen and Fintry. I retraced that route recently with Colette and decided it would make a good outing for the Lothian Cyclists.

So on a sunny Monday morning in mid-September, a dozen Lothian Cyclists congregated at a car park in Cambusbarron (near Stirling). We set off through the village and down Touch (pronounced “tooch”) Road. Going mainly downhill from the start, it felt slightly chilly, and we would have a little way to go before the first uphill sections would appear to warm us up.

After a while, we reached the A811 Dumbarton Road, where we turned left. In my original route, we went along this road for 5 or 6 miles before turning left for Kippen. However, the main road is quite busy and also straight, flat and pretty featureless. So for this ride, I had worked out an alternative route, bypassing most of the main road, and Kippen as well as it happens.

At the first opportunity then, we left the main road and took a minor road leading to Gargunnock. A bit of positive gradient here ensured that we shrugged off any remaining chilliness, and with the sun on our backs, it was turning into a glorious early autumn day. Passing through the junction at the middle of Gargunnock, there were sounds of relief from some of the group when we took the flat exit rather than the one that goes steeply uphill. Shortly after leaving the village though, we did start going up again with a left turn at Bield Farm. We followed this road for a while, past Leckie House, then turned right onto a rough farm track. This took us to a crossroads, where we followed the sign pointing left for Kippen.

Stopping for a rest on the rough farm track

Stopping for a rest on the rough farm track

The roughness continued for about a mile in total, by which time those who had brought their mountain bike in preference to a road bike were well pleased with their decision. At the end of the track, we took the left turn onto a single track tarmacked road. This quiet road took us upwards past a succession of farms in the shadow of the Gargunnock Hills. The gradient was a little steep in places, meaning that the group got split up a bit. After a while, the leading group paused beside bramble bushes with a heavy crop of dark, ripe berries, and helped themselves to a free snack while waiting for the others.

A view of the Gargunnock Hills

A view of the Gargunnock Hills

Forging onwards, the road levelled off a bit, or at least became more undulating, meandering through lovely peaceful countryside, with the imposing hills overlooking us from the left. One section of the road, maybe a mile long, was gated off at either end and the road surface within was quite broken up in places. That was a small price to pay for a virtually traffic-free alternative to the Dumbarton Road.

From the far gate, there was another mile of single track till we finally returned to “proper” road, namely the B822 coming from Kippen to our north. We turned left there, heading south towards Fintry. One very notable difference from the recce trip of a few months before was the newly resurfaced road, and it was such a contrast to the neglected single track that we had just been cycling along. So it took no time at all to make a smooth descent to our lunch stop at the Courtyard Cafe, just outside the village of Fintry.

Arriving at the cafe, I was surprised to see the car park nearly full. It was hard to explain why it was so busy, just one of those things I suppose, but at least there were a couple of tables free – one inside and one outside, so we split up. I was in the outside group, and was thankful for the sun shining warmly throughout our lunch break. The staff were stretched to the limit so not surprisingly, lunch took a while to arrive. The food was great, but it was over an hour and a half from arriving till we were back on the road again. My legs took a while to wake up again after that!

We continued through Fintry then turned left to exit the village. The road was flat here for a short while, but after taking the left turn at Gonachan, we had to get our hill legs back in gear. At this point, Willie and Keith took off at the front, and were too far ahead for me to let them know that the Loup of Fintry was coming up. The Loup is a waterfall in the Endrick Water just 1/4 mile away from the roadside. A few of us made the short walk to have a look. It was very scenic but I had the feeling that with more water in the river, the whole thing would have been much more spectacular.

Carrying on, we found Willie and Keith waiting just round the next corner, after which we cycled as a group to the dam end of the Carron Valley Reservoir. At that point, I almost missed the insignificant single track road that leads off to the left. With some sudden braking, we were back on track and cycling up this quiet road into the hills.

For some reason, the climb felt harder and longer than last time. When wind turbines eventually came into sight at just about the same elevation as the road, it was a good sign that we were pretty much at the top of the hill. By that time, the group had split up and there was another stop for everyone to come back together. We were accompanied by a large cloud of midges at the stopping point, but for once they seemed more interested in staying in their cloud formation than attacking us. Strange, when you’d have thought that a dozen warm and gently steaming cyclists would have been meat and drink to them!

Red faced (well, me anyway) and ready for a rest!

Red faced (well, me anyway) and ready for a rest!

After our rest, we carried on past the waterfall at Earl’s Burn, then tackled the sting in the tail – a short sharp climb taking us to our highest point, about 1150 feet. From there, the road was predominantly downhill, with some exhiliratingly fast stretches. Coming down some of them, I was thinking this is fun, but I hope there isn’t a car coming towards me round the next corner. Then I remembered feeling exactly the same thing when hurtling down the same stretch of road all those years ago, when still in primary school and riding my tiny red Raleigh RSW14.

When we reached Gillies Hill, the road skirted the side of it, involving a few short but steep uphill sections. With tired legs, these were quite hard, so it was good to be able to turn the corner at Polmaise Road and tell everyone “freewheeling back from here”. Then in no time at all, we were back at the car park again. It was a quite short ride, just shy of 30 miles, but by that time my legs were saying that was enough. Everyone seemed to enjoy it; it was a fun day out with great scenery, great weather and a great food stop. What more do you need?

 

 

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