Glen Douglas

This is intended as an exercise in “stream of consciousness” and description. The location is real, but I am not going to “let the facts get in the way of a good story”. Don’t take it seriously!

The A82 road runs along the west bank of Loch Lomond. At Inverbeg, just south of Tarbet, there is a turning off to the left which is marked on Google Maps as “Tulloch Road” and I remember being signposted as “Glen Douglas”. The geographic features in that part of Scotland mostly run roughly north-south Glen Douglas is an exception, it cuts across the mountains to the eastern arm of Loch Long and the A814 heading north towards Arrochar. Although it is a more direct route, it is the long way round. I had noticed the sign-post over the years and one time decided to explore it on my journey to the west.

When you turn off the main road, the road through Glen Douglas rises steeply through a couple of hairpin bends. After that it continues for several miles along the bottom of a flat-bottomed Glen. The single track road (“with passing places”, the signs remind you) runs along the bottom of the valley with the river at the left and the mountains rising steeply on either side. There are places where the road is “grass up the middle”. There are few houses on the road and only a few farms off to the side. You are unlikely to meet another vehicle. Apart from a few trees in the shelter of the valley bottom the vegetation is mostly rough pasture and heather. All is quiet and the landscape is beautiful, in the rugged way which is typical of that part of Scotland.

As you continue west the first indication you will get that something is changing is the presence of a fence on your left separating the road from the river. The fence is over 2 meters high, made from chain links. The posts are concrete with a crank at the top to support several strands of barbed wire. The fence is old but well maintained. From time to time, the fence and the river change places. Sometimes the river is between you and the fence, sometimes it is the other way round. From time to time you may notice small clusters of buildings in fenced compounds on the other side of the fence. They are usually screened by stands of conifers.

The next thing you are likely to notice is two rows of electricity pylons. They cross the valley from North to South and at the point they cross there is a private road turning which crosses the fence in a cluster of buildings and is sign-posted “Private Road. DM Glen Douglas”. As the road descends to Loch Long it enters a conifer wood and there is no view to either side.

 (30th December 2016 – 443 words)