King's Hill

Much of the land here is wet with several areas of open water.

A wooded bing rises above a marshy area of rough grazing.

A monument to John Wharry and James Smith. They were Covenanters and involved in an attack on government troops near here. The inscription reads: "In this field lies the corpse of John Wharry and James Smith, who suffered in Glasgow, 13 June 1683, for their adherence to the Word of God, and Scotland’s Covenanted Work of Reformation: ‘And they overcame them by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death’” (Rev. xii. 11) Halt, courteous passenger, and look on Our bodies dead, & lying under this stone. Altho’ we did commit no deed,** nor fact That was against the Bridegroom’s contract, Yet we to Glasgow were as prisoners brought, And against us false witness they sought. Their sentence cruel and unjust they past, And then our corps on scaffold they did cast. There we our lives and right hands also lost. From Glasgow we were brought unto this place In chains of iron hung up for certain space. Then taken down interred here we ly– From ‘neath this stone our blood to heaven doth cry. Had foreign foes, Turks, or Mahometans, Had Scythians, Tartars, Arabian Caravans, Had cruel Spaniards, the Pope’s blood seed, Commenced the same, less strange had been the deed; But Protestants, profest our Covenants to, Our countrymen, this bloody deed could do. Yet notwithstanding of their hellish rage The noble Wharry stepping on the stage With courage bold and with a heart not faint, Exclaims, This blood now seals our covenant– Ending, They who would follow Christ should take Their cross upon their back, the world forsake."

Hidden in plain sight - these were a familiar sight and I always took them to be water works. One of the network of Royal Observer Corps observation posts.

Harvesting this barley field was stopped, probably due to the waterlogged ground. This was taken on one of the hottest days of the year, but the previous months had been very wet.

The barley had only been half harvested, probably due to waterlogged ground. A bus passes on the A803.

There is a lot of plastic visible in this field, and it looks old. There are some washing up liquid bottles from the past here, and this suggests that this was once a landfill site, like the one just to the north. How long will it be before these are mined for their valuable plastics?

Looking upstream from Inchbelly Bridge.

This building has since been closed, as a new church has been built.

Grassland grazed by cattle.

The bridge has been partly filled and now a pipe takes the Strathkelvin walkway, a cycle/foot path through the arch. There were platforms (still there) on both sides of the B757 bridge.

Now the trackbed is the Strathkelvin Walkway a cycle / foot path. The path is tarred after Lennoxtown.

In the eastern outskirts of Kirkintilloch.

Just north of Kirkintilloch

To the west of the bridge the trackbed is lost beneath a landfill site. The bridge carried a road over the Kelvin Valley Railway.

Trackbed to the east of the A803. On the other side of the road the trackbed is buried beneath a landfill site.

A big shed protects road salt from the rain.