Kilpatrick Hills

6 miles/ 10 km

A hard walk

A hard walk with a substantial height difference, 1200 feet/ 350 meters, between the start and the top of the hill, The Slacks. Good shoes and plenty of water is recommended. Walking poles are also recommended.

Train from Glasgow/Partick/Dumbarton to Kilpatrick on the Balloch line 2 times an hour.

This walk is an up-and-down hilly walk, with a height difference of 1200 feet/350 meters. There is also a 1 mile/2 km flat path in the middle on the moor high above Clydebank and Glasgow. This path has one boggy, 10 meters long part and this walk is therefore best undertaken after 3-4 days of sun. Walking poles are recommended on this part of the walk and on the descent down to Greenside Reservoir. Plenty of drinks is also recommended although there is a place 200 meters down from the dam at Greenside Reservoir which offers good, clean water (and/or a fresh cool down). The walk is also very exposed to the sun as the walk up and over the moor is facing south.

The walk starts from the Kilpatrick train stop. Unfortunately, with the steep staircase up and over the railway line if you arrive from Glasgow/Partick/Dalmuir. Head for the Mount Pleasant Drive over the bridge crossing Station Road and then follow that road to the signposts for Loch Humphrey. Follow these signposts.
The route follows first a good small tarmac road and then gradually rises to a cattle grid and the gravel road.




The gravel road steadily rises up along the hillside until it ends up at the foot of the infamous..... drum roll, please.... Cardiac Hill. This feels like the Hilary Step just before the top of Mount Everest. It is indeed the key to climbing The Slacks... Well, it feels like it. Cardiac Hill, which deserves it's name, is fiendishly steep, made a lot worse by the scorching sun and the loose gravel. The secret here is to follow the well-used grass verge on the left of this hill as this grass verge is not as loose as the gravel.
There is a helipad-like plateau at the top of Cardiac Hill where you can rest, admire the view and regain your composure. Well, that is what I do. There is a short, fiendishly sharp climb just above this helipad-like plateau which is actually steeper than the Cardiac Hill. But the road is more compact and does not have loose gravel. This hill is therefore easier than Cardiac Hill.
Congratulations is due here as you have now entered a flat bit in the canyon. A left turn at the end of the canyon follows and the road is climbing again. At the top of this climb and just when the road is taking a 90 degree turn to the left again, you now have to keep an eye out to the right for a path going off the road down and over a small burn. This is where you should use your walking poles and that until you arrive at the dam at Greenside Reservoir.



The track here splits into two parts. One straight up the hill and one far more gently on a terrace going straight south. Follow this path which is a bit scarred by bike wheels but otherwise OK. The path heads south on this terrace before it crests a hill and then turns 180 degrees to the north on a ridge. Follow the ridge until the top of the ridge. The 360-degree views are excellent. To the east, 1 mile/2 km away, you can glimpse a trig point at The Slacks.



The walk over this moor is a bit bumpy with a couple of false summits, including some short and steep climbs, along the way. The walk is also very exhilarating. This walk is a "top of the world" like walk. It is perhaps the funniest, most exhilarating walk in the whole of Strathclyde. The top of The Slacks only comes into view a couple of hundred meters away from the top. Rest and feel fantastic at the top. The views over Glasgow is just fantastic and the best in the whole of the Clyde valley.



The walk down the grassy path towards Greenside Reservoir is on a broad ridge and never really exposed. The walking poles are a very good support here as there are some slippery grass on this descent. Use the heather bushes as a good way to descend safely.



The descent takes you down to the dam after negotiating the final, pretty steep descent. Take the road down the valley. Stop at the river 200 down the gravel road and fill up your flasks or take a cooling-down dip there. The gravel road ends up in Cochno Road which you follow down to Glasgow Road and a bus stop 200 meters to the right... Or you can stop the bus when it is going up the lower part of Cochno Road. The same bus will pick you up at the bus stop at Glasgow Road 5 minutes later.
Bus (40 minutes long) to Maryhill and Glasgow Central Station past Bearsden train stop 4-5 times an hour.

Please note there are at least two other paths between Kilpatrick train stop and The Slacks. I cannot recommend any of them as both paths are boggy, very steep and not that interesting. The route above is by far the best route up and down again from The Slacks.