I’ve been trying a few new dog walking routes out lately. I try to keep things interesting and if I can include some art and artefacts along the way, so much the better. There are quite a few artworks dotted around the area and many of them are made from iron and steel – marking Falkirk’s history as a centre of heavy industry. I’ve been planning a long dog walk for a while and I came up with a route that would take in much of Larbert and Carron and on to the canal which provides a nice long (and very flat) off road path for the dogs to wander along. As for the art and history bits I’ve managed to tie up a few things and come up with a route that arbitrarily starts and ends at Larbert railway station (in fact it starts and ends at my house but I‘ve missed that off):
The route is a shade over 10 miles long and took me just over 3 hours to walk. After starting off from Larbert station (1) I headed east along Main Street to my first point of interest: the cannons outside the Plough Hotel in Stenhousemuir(2).
Just a minute’s walk from the carronades are the first of the art installations: Stenhousemuir’s iron highland cows (3). This piece represents two aspects of the town’s history: firstly as the location of the Tryst, a large field where highland cattle would be driven to be sold on to Lowland Scots; and secondly to mark the town’s history as a location of iron foundries. Evidence of these can still be seen in the street ironworks (storm grids and the like) but most of the foundries have now given way to high density residential housing estates. As it was December, the council workers had fitted them with suitable headgear.
Walking on from Stenhousemuir centre I cut through the Carron Dam (4). This was originally a reservoir to feed the Carron Works which produced the famous carronades but is now a nature reserve. This is the first place in which it is possible to let the dogs off the lead. There are two ways around the Dam (long and short) but both lead to a stairway on the far side.
Up from the stairway leads to a cycle path. Turning left leads to the back of the Carron works (and I would advise having dogs and children on a leash again as there is traffic). This is also the entrance to a landfill which isn’t particularly pleasant but it does have this magnificent iron Grahamston Gate (5), originally designed for an exhibition in Edinburgh.
The old Carron works clock tower is still standing on Stenhouse road (6) and can be seen with a short diversion. The are two more larger carronades behind the gates. Heading back down Stenhouse Road and over the bridge leads to the start of the Helix North entrance next to the church.
There are a few ways to walk through the Helix but I chose to follow the path next to the Carron. The next point of interest is the Love And Kisses sculpture (7) which looks like a heart from the end but is actually a very large pair of iron lips. It’s actually very clever once you can see what it is.
Just down from the sculpture is the human sun dial (8). It was completely overcast on this day so it just looks like a rather strange iron standing circle.
Walking down towards Grangemouth we get to The Kelpies (9). There still seems to be a lot of work going on about these but at this point the route is pretty much dictated by the Forth and Clyde canal. The footpath for this passes under the A9 and on back towards Falkirk.
I did find the next section of the walk a bit dull. There is a lock (10) which brightens things up but it is a reminder that whilst there is a lot of industrial history around Falkirk there is also still a lot of industry. For the most part the canal path keeps away from the road but I did put the dogs back on lead for a while.
The next item of interest is the disused Rosebank distillery (11). This is actually starting to look rather forlorn and I believe any attempts to restart production have failed. No doubt it will be converted to luxury flats at some point which is a pity as the whisky produced there was highly regarded amongst Lowland whiskies. Unfortunately the return on investment of micro-distillery is much longer than micro-brewery so starting production looks remote without a benefactor.
Heading off from the Rosebank there are a series of locks and also these three curious chunks of iron (12) representing Robert Barr (of Irn-bru fame), Dr Harold Lyon who established the Strathcarron Hospice and Reginald Adams, the swimming coach. Barr is the chap in the top hat on the right and Lyon is next to him.
Further down is the Falkirk Wheel (13) an engineering project that is also a stunning work of art. It seemed very quite on the morning I was there although it can be mobbed in the summer. At this point I put the dogs back on their leads although I think they were too tired to run off anywhere.
Getting back to Larbert I walked down through Camelon and up Lochlands Loan (which feels deceptively quiet until someone tears up in a truck). This leads to Larbert a spectacular piece of Victorian engineering in the shape of Larbert viaduct (14). It may be 19th century but this is arguably the most important bit of engineering still in use as it allows for rapid train travel to both Glasgow and Edinburgh city centres. After being a cattle market and a foundry town, “commuter village” is Larbert’s latest incarnation.
There is just a short walk up back to Larbert station (1) which does have it’s own, rather dark, historical note as it was from here that a train service departed to Liverpool in 1915 carrying soldiers en route to Gallipoli. It crashed at Quintinshill near Gretna resulting in 226 deaths and 246 injuries – by far Britain’s worst rail disaster. There is a commemorative plaque on platform 1.
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