Blanefield to Killearn

March 15th 2008

Dear fellow ramblers, due to the fact that I have missed out on the last two walks either through other commitments or cancellation I thought it best to dig into the archives and retrieve this walk to fill in the blank spaces that I have created.  The walk itself started from St. Kessogs Church in Blanefield, which was built in 1893 by Navvies who were working in the area at that particular time, and ended in the Village of Killearn . The weather on that day, if you can cast your mind back as far as March, was overcast but dry, though we had encountered some bad weather on the week leading up to the walk which, as you will notice by the pictures, made the track to Killearn very muddy in parts. As usual though it didn't deter us one bit as we followed part of the route taken by the 26 mile long water Aqueduct from Loch Katrine to Glasgow which was the brainchild of a Manchester engineer called John Fredrick Bateman. The work to supply Glasgow with fresh water from Loch Katrine was started in late 1855 and took three and a half years to complete and it was finally opened at a cost of £918,000 by Queen Victoria on October 14th 1859, the design and construction of the works were acclaimed as a marvel of engineering in its day. So next time you turn the tap on remember the Navvies who gave not only Glasgow its water supply but also our very own (must I say it again)" Sherpa" Sadie McGarry to make the most welcome tea & coffee for the seventeen of us who turned out for this quite challenging but very enjoyable walk to and from Killearn Village.

Joe Roche.

Last Updated Sunday 23rd August 2009

Scottish Charity No13514