📌 Kilpatrick Hills, Stirling
★★★★
The Whangie is one of Scotland’s more bizarre landscape features, with a bizarre name to match. This unexpected rocky cleft with 50-foot walls in the middle of the grassy Kilpatrick Hills is probably the result of a gradual landslip, though folklore tells of the devil’s tail cutting the hillside apart in an angry outburst. You can walk straight through it, but it’s worth checking out the boulders and cliffs to the west too. The northern vista looks superb for the entirety of the circuit, while a boggy detour to Auchineden Hill’s summit on return rewards with views of Glasgow laid out to the south, just ten miles distant.
📷 Chronological photo guide
🌍 Location
📌 Start / finish at Queen’s View, A809 4 mi west of Strathblane
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NS 511808
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 55.997292,-4.389329
❌ No public transport within 1 mi
🚗 Car park (gets full)
📝 Key info
▶ 5 km / 3 mi | ▲ 250 m | ⌛ 1.5-2 hr
Features: △ Auchineden Hill (357 m); 🧗 The Whangie
⬤ Moderate | Clear though fairly rough paths – rocky on outward route, boggy for return.
Download file for GPS➡️ Anticlockwise lollipop circuit: start – The Whangie (lower end) – Auchineden Hill – The Whangie – start
🥾 On our last visit
Wildlife: A weasel at The Whangie. A buzzard, a kestrel.
Weather: 15°C, sun & clouds, light breeze.
September 2023
