For much of 2020 travel was restricted to one’s local area and so many of my walks during ‘lockdown’, as it was called, took place within a relatively short distance, in fact mostly walking distance, from home. A few of my walks in lockdown – or ‘walkdown’ as I came to call it – took me up to the reservoirs above Denny: Little Denny Reservoir and Drumbowie Reservoir.
These two reservoirs lie on the eastern edge of the Kilsyth Hills, between Denny to the north-east and Banknock to the south-west, and can be reached by a relatively short, but fairly steep, walk from where I live or a longer, more gradual, ascent if one approaches from Head of Muir.
A regular door-to-door round-trip taking in both reservoirs is slightly longer than 8km. However during lockdown I visited the reservoirs using a variety of routes: my shortest walk, a straight there-and-back from home, was just over 7km, while my longest, on one of the sunnier days of the year, was around 10.5km as I extended the route to pass Myot Hill and ended up walking home from Denny.
When the restrictions were lifted a little and one was allowed to travel by car, I did that on the odd occasion and drove to one of the parking spaces nearby to start my circular walk from there. Saved all that bother about uphill walking! Sometimes a more leisurely walk is called for and appreciated.
The China Penguin 