Day 20 Milngavie to Kilsyth ( Twechars) Wednesday 1 June

Distance 13.74, cumulative 340.05 miles, 7 hours 40 mins, walking time 4hrs 30 mins, pace 3.1 mph, B&B Twechar Farm.
Another blue sky day. 
For the next week our route heads east towards Edinburgh using disused railways and the canal network, then heads south east across the Southern Uplands leaving Scotland and into Northumbria to meet the Pennine Way. 

The whole day was spent with views of the Campsie Fells to our north a ridge which marks the southern extremity of the Highlands. We continued by following the John Muir Way, initially along the path of a branch line of the old Strathkelvin railway which used to connect Glasgow and Edinburgh. On reaching Kirkintilloch we took a bit of a break as today was a shorter day. 

Kirkintilloch is the central canal capital of Scotland and the place were the red telephone boxes were made. Until 1967 it was a ‘dry town’ fortunately no longer the case as we spent a long lunch in the ‘Kirkby Puffer’ a Wetherspoons pub. As previously mentioned Lynn is a Wetherspoons fan and today was Chicken Club day. 

The route moved onto the Firth and Clyde canal and we passed a beautiful old building the ‘Shirva stables’ which was accommodation for the horses pulling the ‘Swifts’ canal barges, the high speed couriers of the day, so the horses pulling the barges were changed often. The ‘Swifts’ had right of way over other traffic, a bit like BMWs today.

We had planned to camp but when we rang to book the proprietor said there was no running water but he would supply a 2 litre bottle each. Alarm bells sounded and we booked a B&B. Out of curiosity we visited the site having checked into our very comfortable room and it just goes to show how misleading websites can be. The ‘site’ was next to a waste management facility and looked like a scrapyard. There was no evidence of any other campers. Avoid the ‘Spotty Dog’ campsite.