EK News Article by Eric Kent: This week’s walks were in the Stirling area. The main walk was from Logie Kirk to the Village of Kinbuck (6.76miles) and the alternate walk was the Logie Kirk circular (8.2miles).  The weather on the day was dry, mild and generally overcast with occasional sunshine. The coach dropped both walking groups at Logie Kirk which has been a place of worship since the 12th.century. The current church building has been at this site for 200 years. The main walk headed up past Logie Kirk on the old road to Sherrifmuir and a few hundred metres later passed the site of the original Logie Church with its ancient graveyard with grave dates back to the fifteen century. The original church was founded about 1380.  Shortly after this we turned west into a lane which runs between the estate of Aithrey castle (now the University of Stirling grounds) and the Hermitage wood. This lane continues on until it reaches a quiet road where we took the turning heading up to Drumbrae farm and riding centre.  Shortly after passing the farm we turned down on to a path on the left hand side called the Copper Mine path. This path passes through mature woods known locally as the Mine woods.  The names give the industrial past away as copper was mined in this area for a short time around 1810. The walk down through the woods ends at Well Road where we again continued downhill into Bridge of Allan. We walked west along the main street for a short distance to reach the Allan Water before crossing the bridge on the main street where we turned down in to Darn Road to follow the ancient right of way between Bridge of Allan and Dunblane. The path goes along the river past a cave which inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to use in his book Treasure Island. The path then continues over the Wharry Burn on past the golf course on the right and the Keir estate land on the left. The woodlands in this area are interesting as there are some very old oak trees in the area and some of the oldest larch trees in Scotland which were introduced from Austria around 1738. The route finally comes out at the B8033 road.  We crossed over the dual carriage way with care and walked down the obvious road on the left side into Dunblane past the Stirling Arms Hotel which was built in 1770. This hotel claims to have had Robert Burns stay under its roof not very long after it opened.  We crossed the street from this hotel and from there we could see the Allan Water and we walked down to the river by the obvious path and after a short distance we passed close by Dunblane Cathedral which was founded in 1237 by Clement, a Dominican Friar who appointed Bishop of the diocese in 1233. Technically the building is no longer a Cathedral as it as there are no bishops in the Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian denomination. We continued along the river under the railway bridge into Laighhill Park. After crossing the Scouring Burn we turned right following the sign marked for Ashfield and then over railway again using the footbridge.  We soon turned to the left after the footbridge and followed the river passing under the A9 until we reached the planned village of Ashfield. This village was built in the late 19^th century to house workers at a nearby silk dyeing mill on Allan Water. The houses in the planned village were built around a communal village green. From Ashfield we followed the road out of the village until we reached the railway bridge and then we followed the path between the railway and Allan water past Craigton Farm to the point where it meets the B8033 road just before Kinbuck where the walk finished. The alternate walk starting at Logie Kirk passed by the old graveyard of Logie Kirk and climbs up steeply through mixed woodland. The route after some hard work climbing up for about 10minutes soon lost its severe steepness and the woodland became more open as we continued to gain height. We stopped among the trees on the top of the rocky crag, known as the Witches Craig. The devil, in the guise of a black dog, is said to dance with the witches on the Witches Craig. A young Robert Louis Stevenson, who often holidayed at nearby Blairlogie, heard this story, and Black Dog became one of the characters in his book, Treasure Island. The views at this point over the forth valley to Stirling and beyond are outstanding. We continued through the woods until the trail joined on to one of the main routes up Dumyat close by the ruins of an old farm. Soon after this we stopped in silence on the hillside of Dumyat at 11am to acknowledge our debt to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for our freedom on this Remembrance Sunday. The name Dumyat is thought to originate from Dun (hill fort) of the ancient Scottish tribe called the Maeata. Dumyat has two principal summits Castle Law on the west, and Dumyat proper on the east. On the summit of Castle Law the remains of an ancient hill fort, originally occupied by the Maeatae, are still clearly discernible. We soon after arrived at summit of Dumyat where we enjoyed looking down into the forth valley and Stirling. We then headed down into Menstrie Glen aiming towards the Loss burn reservoir which is one of a number of reservoirs in the Ochil Hills that supplies water to the towns in the surrounding areas. The route down to the reservoir was made easier by following a rough track down of the slops of Dumyat. We crossed the Menstrie Burn just below the Reservoir dam and followed the track leading to the ruins of Jerah farm which was formerly a sheep hill farm.  In medieval times, much of Menstrie Glen was Crown land and used mainly to pasture sheep. The Campbell’s of Argyll had come into possession of the land east of the Menstrie Burn by the early 14th century and, up to at least 1530, the lands of Jerah were controlled by the Cistercians of Culross. After Lunch we climbed up hill from the farm to reach the ruin of a farm building where we joined on to a fine track which wound its way around the easterly side of Menstrie glen passing by the slopes of Myreton Hill which is a favourite haunt of the hang gliders who lift off close to the summit when the wind conditions are right. Unfortunately today there was insufficient wind today and we were not able to enjoy this spectacle. This track in the eastern side of the Menstrie glen was originally built during the Napoleonic Wars for access to some mine workings, which produced calcite and some copper. However, the volume of material mined was rather small in proportion to the effort needed to build the road, so the venture is unlikely to have been economic. There seems to be no record of why calcite was considered to be sufficiently valuable to have justified the considerable effort. All too soon we had descended down to Menstrie enjoying the views down into the Forth Valley. In Menstrie we walked along the remains of the old main road for short distance then crossing the old bridge over the Menstrie Burn to climb again almost immediately up a short very steep path, up on to the south eastern slopes of Dumyat to an area known locally as the “Kips” to an old drove road. This drove road served as a convenient route for highlanders driving cattle and horses via Sheriffmuir to markets in the Carseland of the Forth Valley and also to towns in the south such as Falkirk which was famous at that time for its horse markets. After a short break immediately after our climb we headed west on the drove track down past Dumyat farm towards the village of Blairlogie which lies under the steep southerly slopes of Dumyat. The rock scenery of Dumyat is very impressive on this stretch and especially as you pass by the ravine known as Warlock Glen. Just before a bend in the old drove track we branched off on to a trail on the right side which starts off rather obscurely and widens out after a short distance. Continuing downhill we soon reached the outskirts of Blairlogie. The village is a delight to explore and we admired a number of the old houses which were built between the 17th-19th-century. We left the village using the old right of way which goes Logie Kirk through a field and woods and in the end we were glad to get back to the coach after an interesting but hard walking day.