Las Ramblas Ramblers: Return to the Whangie

Sunday 28 August 2016

Return to the Whangie

In a desperate desire to get out of the City for a few hours and introduce a new member to the joys of walking Linda, Neil, Sam, Alfie, Gillian, Alison and Rueben retrace their steps in the Kilpatrick Hills. Gerry Garcia had planned to join us but was somewhat perturbed that he may loose some cash to Satan.

Route

Queen Victoria stood near the start of this walk for her first view of Loch Lomond. She never ventured further up the hill and so missed the opportunity to explore the Whangie, a strange cleft in the rock that has fascinated generations of rock climbers.

Geologists would have us believe that this gash in the rocks, 50ft deep and 300ft long, was caused by a landslide, when the surface layer of black basalt moved slowly over the underlying sandstone. This created stresses within the basalt, which eventually fractured, producing thin slices of slab. However, ask any local about the Whangie and you will be told the truth. It was created by the Devil himself on his way to a witches' coven near Stockie Muir. He got so excited that he gave one flick of his mighty tail and carved a slice out of the hillside creating the Whangie. Whang is a common Lowland Scots dialect word meaning a slice.

Whatever its origin, the Whangie is still a valued training ground for Glasgow rock climbers, successors to the mountaineering pioneers of the 1920s and 30s. These working class men from Glasgow started walking out of the city to explore the surrounding countryside. Clad only in their ordinary clothes and with little in the way of equipment, save perhaps some army surplus kit or an old clothes line, they went looking for adventure.

After a hard week of work they would leave Glasgow late at night, take the last bus to the outskirts and walk into the countryside. Some of the great names in Scottish climbing were amongst these early pioneers, including W H Murray, the celebrated Himalayan climber and environmentalist, and Tom Weir, who climbed with Murray and went on to make a series of television programmes called Weir's Way.