Mike Vickers' Blog

Today, 2 January, is the last of the public holidays in Scotland – a good day for a walk even though the weather doesn’t look too promising.

Where shall we go – not too far to drive – Let’s go to Lewis Hill – a hill a few miles west of Stirling.

The hill runs North South and it’s an easy climb from the South through old trees up to a trig point at the top, 266 metres.  To the west the hill drops precipitously in crags to a man-made reservoir, North Third Reservoir, at the base; beyond the reservoir the land rises slowly to the Campsies considerably higher than the Lewis Hill but largely in the mist although we did have the odd touches of sunshine.

The reservoir was constructed in 1935 for the chemical industry at Grangemouth on the Forth and today it was full to the brim.

The reservoir dams up the Bannock Burn.  For those familiar with Scottish History Bannockburn is further downstream the site of the famous battle between the Scots under Robert the Bruce and Edward 2 King of England ill-fated as the son of the all-conquering King Edward 1, Hammer of the Scots.  Bruce won and Edward retreated back to England – much of the English army was destroyed.  Bannockburn took place on 23nd and 24^th of June 1314 and its 700^th anniversary will be celebrated next year.  Next year is auspicious as it’s the year the Scottish Government under Alex Salmond has decided to hold a Referendum on whether Scotland should seek independence from the UK and England in particular: the choice of year has not escaped the public’s attention more is it intended to!

However before then we have to live through 13 September when 500 years ago the English routed the Scots at Flodden and all the Scottish Nobility was literally wiped out in one day.