Photographs, route description and map of a circular walk around Auchineden Hill and the Whangie on Dumbarton Muir

Rock Pinnacle at The Whangie.

A popular walk and location for practice rock-climbing.

The Whangie is a huge slab of rock

that has become detached from the rest of Auchineden Hill,

leaving a deep narrow fissure around 100 metres long and 1 metre wide

bounded on both sides by steep walls of rock.

Local folklore says that The Whangie was the work of the Devil.

After hosting a gathering of witches and warlocks in the Kilpatrick Hills,

Satan was flying to another such meeting at Strathblane,

and flicked his tail, renching apart the hillside below him.

The Whangie was actually caused

by a geological phenomenon called glacial plucking.

During the last ice age,

Scotland was covered in huge glaciers

that carved out the lochs and the highlands.

The extreme cold froze the glacier to the side of the hill.

As the glacier began to move,

it plucked the hillside, causing the long fracture to appear.

These pinnacles were rendered from the rock by the movement of the glacier,

and sit on the opposite side of the slab of rock from the hill itself.

Whangie is Scots for a slice, eg "a whang o'cheese".

This is a circular walk to the trlg point on Auchineden Hlll. It is a challenging walk of about six miles and about three hours duration in the area known as the Whangle.
The walk starts from the Queen's View car park off the A809 Stockiemuir Road just north of Carbeth.
lt leaves the car park and turns right onto the busy A809 for a short distance. Take care and walk in single file beside the grass verge.
It then turns right into Cameron Avenue, part of Auchineden Estate and after passing Auchineden North Lodge turns left to either climb over the deer fence stile or pass round the fence to join up with the start of the forest track.
The forest track runs through a small tree plantation which is contained within the deer fence and at the end of the track the walk leaves the plantation on climbing over a stile, turns right onto the works access route through the estate and then takes a left fork for the Edenmill Farm Shop ( an alternative route other than the main driveway to the reservoirs ).
It passes an impressive farm house on the right and before the facing gate, turns right onto a narrow path to enter an enclosed parking yard with large outbuildings.
To leave the yard, it swings left and exits between the caravan and the row of polytunnels to reach and turn right onto a rough vehicle track.
Leaving the Farm Shop territory the walk climbs over a hgh stile, turns right at the next junction and passes through a facing gate beside a lodge house to enter a forest drive.
At the end of the forest, look out for the impressive open view of Dumgoyne at a different angle from usual!
The walk turns left at the next junction to rejoin the normal route to the reservoirs and passes by the Burncrooks Water Treatment Works.
It goes through a gate onto open moorland, climbs up the rough track and ignores a track entrance on the left.
Very soon the walk leaves the track on the right to take a feint narrow path across the moor and onto a facing ridge on the left. It continues to climb on this path and veers to the right as it changes onto a higher level on the hill.
Keep looking back on the climb as the views of the surrounding landscape continually change from the Campsie Fells round to the Burncrook and Kilmannan Reservoirs and further round to Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond.
Eventually the path reaches a gate in a deer fence and the trig point at the top of Auchineden Hill becomes visible ahead.
The views from the tap are quite stunning with Loch Lomond , the Islands and the Luss Hills worth reﬂecting over for some time.
The route for this walk by-passes the Whangie ( left angle path ) and continues straight ahead to pass by the cairn.
The path is likely to be muddy in places hence the reason for good footwear. It continues along the top in the direction of Dumgoyne and the aerial mast and eventually starts to descend. From here the car park comes into view.
The rest of the descent is fairly gradual. The walk is ﬁnally completed on passing through the gate at the foot of the hill, crossing over the sleepers and then climbing over the steps on the wall back into the car park.