Clackmannan and the Towers

[Dunfie]

Its been difficult trying to get out with the kids social life and all but we had a clear day and I was determined to get out for a wander. The Two Towers walk seemed ideal - long enough to blow away the cobwebs and a few points of historical interest thrown in.

The walk started off well with a nice walk up and past Clackmannan Tower and down to the Black Devon burn but as the paths and farm roads are all popular with local walkers and we were experiencing a thaw it became fairly treacherous under foot and turned into a bit of a slog trying to get the kids back along the long foggy path from Alloa back to Clackmannan.

We parked on the street and headed towards the Clach Mannan Stone and the Clock Tower before heading up past the old Clackmannan Parish Church and onto the entrance to Clackmannan Towers itself.






The fog was fairly thick so as we approached the tower we could just make out the sillouette which became clearer as we approached.




I got a snap of the wee one in front of the tower and then is was on along the brow of the hill before the drop down to the woods.




It was at this point that things started to get a bit silly. The path down tot he burn was icy but it was nothing compared to the actual path that ran along beside the burn.


We then scrambled along the over the ice until we came to the new housing estate with the cycle path running through and leads to the older estate in Alloa. It was at this point we made the mistake of listening to the moans of the kids and decided to take what looked like a shortcut. What we didn't do was read the route instructions which told us that we were supposed to go past Alloa Tower and that we were missing it out. So what I managed to get was a picture of the top of the tower over the houses.


Finally it was a long icy walk bag through the fog from Alloa to Clackmannan. We could really see much but there was definitely a couple of birds of prey making themselves heard as we carefully walking along the side of the farm track. However I did get this picture which was influenced by Dian Fossey (sorry, I'll get my coat).