NS4177 : Path in Lang Craigs Woodland
taken 10 years ago, near to Bellsmyre, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland
This route is one of West Dunbartonshire's core paths. It starts at the top of Garshake Road. Note that only pictures taken from mid-2014 onward accurately reflect the current situation near Maryland Farm, showing the paths for walkers that were built there when the land became part of Lang Craigs Woodland; earlier pictures show, instead, an improvised but (at that time) officially approved route that served until then, and which led around the margins of a field.
The woodland occupies 240 hectares (590 acres) that were acquired by the Woodland Trust Scotland in 2011. It is named after the Long Crags (or Lang Craigs), a line of cliffs — Link — making up the facade of the Kilpatrick Hills plateau. Lang Craigs Woodland is one of the 13 Commonwealth Woods, and is an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest). New paths have been laid out (waymarkers were added in May 2015), and about 160 hectares of new native woodland planted.