Give Way

This morning, au velo, a road sign taking a break (the pole it was on had been knocked horizontal by a car). It read 'Give Way 50yds' and I thought, chance would be a fine thing. Naturally, I'm speaking social distancing: never let another person get so close as to prevent an unimpeded take-off. And then I imagine some overblown cliche telling me that I'm afraid of commitment. Commitment, however, under the mandate of the inversion, is a form of madness. To be committed is to be strait-jacketted if not placed in an institution. And of course, the strait-jacket is simply the false technology, the accessories and dolls, the tools and toys, that you the consumer have been conditioned to buy into. And the institution (the asylum) of course is society, where all the mad people congregate in their newly contaminated forms. So, by all means, beware of commitment, beware of other people who have been institutionalised (the social and sociable), beware of busyness and business, and get away from commitment, get into stillness, get into that vast unconditioned space called Freedom.

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life... ;)

Exit Through The Car Park

As I got off the train at Central Station today I wasn't looking for a way to avoid the ticket guys waiting at the barriers. I actually had the correct fare in my pocket ready. It was just that as the train pulled in to platform 15 (the furthest west) it also pulled up alongside the rather narrow slipway into the NCP car park. Naturally, I was curious, so I pushed the bike up the ramp, in through the doorless doorway and voila! I slid quietly down and out (imagine the circular slides you sometimes see in the park) into the brightly lit and empty Oswald street. It was only upon getting home that I realised that that was the first time ever I had cycled through a car-park (of course it was!). And that there was nothing quite like it. I felt like a child again, avoiding authority and finding a hole in the fence that led through to a paradise. It wasn't just the fact that I had made off without paying my train fare (I'll pay them next time) but that I had instantly taken the hole in the fence as soon as I saw it. No hesitation, just pure spirit. And it was good. So good that I simply had to write this to tell everyone else how good it was. Try it, next time you pull into platform 15 (I was coming back from Lochwinnoch), and your door lines up with the car park, and you'll see what I mean.

I did it the next day too! (Yep, it was that good). My train door this time didn't quiten align itself with car park exit but who cares... [Ramp straight ahead in picture]

There's something about the polished finish of car park floors that reminds me of holy shrines. They have been smoothed so much by slowly passing cars that they have gathered an aspect to them that loves the bicycle wheel. Just don't go too fast.

No sooner am I ejected out into the empty Oswald Street than I am on the cycle path alongside the river. Another ten minutes and I am at Bell's Bridge, and five minutes after that I am home in my flat in Cessnock. It's hard to believe that half an hour prior to arriving home I was in Lochwinnoch. Never buy a car.... Bike + Train = Brain....!

Top Tier: Mike's Sacred Bike n' Hikes #3

The top tier refers to the highest terrace of the Kilpatrick Braes. Here the cycle begins at Dalmuir or Kilpatrick train stations and involves cycling up the Loch Humphrey path until the gate into the hanging wood. This is just before the very steep shoulder. Look out for trees and the old limerock quarry. Follow this grassy path up past St. Patrick's well and up to Castaneda's waterfall. Here, go up to the waterfall and climb up the five metres of brae face to the next tier. Be careful if you do climb. Otherwise, you can just follow the path for another few hundred metres and it will turn left and up onto the next tier without you risking life and limb. Once onto the second tier above the waterfall, you will see a fallen log above you straddling the stream. This is the corrie of the fallen log. You might see a makeshift path through the brush which you can follow up to the log. This is the third tier. From here, it's simple enough to just walk up to the fourth tier from where we can see the whole strath and more. There are stones and thrones all over the place. Sit down on one and inhale the valley. Now, like the birds, you are a sacred being.

Carman Hill Raindance

Cycling up from Cardross onto Carman Hill Road and then the desolate Carman Hill, I perform a raindance. We've had five weeks at least now of rainlessness and it's time for some rain. The rain makes Glasgow after all and without it, well, Glasgow just isn't Glasgow...

At any rate, it didn't rain, but it's in the post...

And you can do a lot worse than coming up here to this always peopleless hill.... and doing a little dance. 'Always dance alone', the Iroquois tribe of North America used to say. Now's your chance...

Could be Brittany.... (actually Cardoss)... When that overcast sky clears up, you could be anywhere really. Just needs a little imagination.

The old bombed out church on the main road. Carman Hill Road is on the right here.

The old Roman fortlet remains on Carman Hill. For more info. check out Susan Hothersalls wonderful Archeology Around Glasgow.

Shaman rain-dancing on a glacier....

Passing through Dumbarton....

Blairskaith Boogie & Back Via Balmore and Cadder

Cycling is a form of dancing. It is also in the manner of making music a form of playing an  instrument. As such, all these cycling excursions beyond the mop and mob of the city, are 'boogies' and dances, and today, this beautiful May Sunday, we did the Blairskaith Boogie with a couple of twists.

Bottom left, our starting point, Milngavie Train Station. Head straight north up to Mugdock (or Dogmuck, whichever you prefer) and down the Old Mugdock Road to Strathblane. Here we join the Thomas Muir trail east towards Lennoxtown before cutting up into Lennox Plantation and Blairskaith Muir (note trig marker 218m in centre of map). The blue dotted line is simply the insertion of a path that isn't on the map. It's all cyclable and walkable although a mountain bike would be better suited to some of the bumpy terrain up here. Down from Blairskaith, instead of normally heading back to Milngavie station, today I cut through Baldernock School and the lovely Balmore Golf course. (See map beneath) - Cut through Balmore village, and onto the path that cuts through some fields towards Cadder. Here there's a little bridge over the little Kelvin which takes us into the course which is also lovely (moreso because there's no golfers, and walkers and cyclists have retaken the land!). JUst follow the path out of the course and onto the canal towpath. Here, I headed south back to the city (and my gaff in Cessnock) via the towpath which considering it's pretty much flat and all downhill once you get to Maryhill only takes a forty minutes or so. All in all, at a leisurely pace, leaving my gaff at 10.30am and catching the 10.42am train from Partick to Milngavie, it took around fours hours door to door. This little pastoral excursion was so exciting that I completely forgot to drink my coffee!!!

Heading up to Mugdock using two outriders to catch any polis that might be waiting (two weeks ago when I came up here there were three polis wagons between the train station and Mugdock village). The good thing about coronavirus though is that it tends to be car drivers who get stopped and not the (saintly) cyclists, exercise and your own steam being essential and the car being superfluous and non-essential. Never abandon your lifeforce to a machine !

It's hard not to stand here and be amazed at the sheer hulk of earth in front of you. I can see it from my living room window in Cessnock which only makes getting up close and personal all the more amazing. This is on the Thomas Muir trail heading towards Lennoxtown.

Blairskaith trig.

Baldernock School. Take a left into the school and follow the track through to the golf course which has a path that will take you out at the clubhouse.

Balmore Golf Course, the 17th.

Balmore Clubhouse.

Balmore Village. Another example of a car-centred place with a rather dangerous main road (not this one pictured) driving straight through it. Once crossed the road, and past the Coach House, you will find a well sign-posted train (below) that will take you over the Kelvin to Cadder and the towpath beyond.

The idyllic Cadder golf course.

Exploring the Local: Honeybog - Byres - Bathgo

Take the black outline from Ibrox through Govan, Cardonald, Hillington to our three muses and some well-deserved open space.

Pretty straightforward. Just sign on the dotted line, the black dashes from top right down to bottom right.


It's days like today when you go out for a short cycle, exploring the local (is there any other work?), that you realise how little you know of this vast network of hills that is ordinarily referred to as 'Glasgow'. That's what Glasgow is, aside from its grey-green hollow nomenclature, a vast landscape of lumps and bumps, knocks and knolls, hills and spills. When you see one of these hills naked (the hill not you) you kinda realise how many of Glasgow's hills are invisible insofar as they are built upon or travelled across by car thus effectively flattening it. I always wonder what Glasgow would have looked like 1500 years ago when Serf's bull stopped up at the Molendinar Burn where Glasgow Cathedral is now. I wonder what this hill-strewn landscape must have looked like with the narrow shallow Clyde and the even narrower and shallower Kelvin (et al.) cutting through her. All her hills would have been visible, and in the winter, with that illuminating raking light, the land in which the city of Glasgow now nestles must have been quite something to gaze over.

It still is, to be sure, but you do require a little imagination sometimes to get rid of some of these modern edifices that can block your entry into the infinite. Especially, if you're scaling hills that are inside the city like today and not on its periphery as I am used to doing. Nevertheless, today was a surprise, if only to see the naked Honeybog hill squatting all alone like some great Buddha as I exited the congested little Hillington residential estate. It was like being spat out of a gun barrel into open space. The release was quite something and so for that reason I suggest (as is marked on the map beneath) to take Queensland Drive  and Chirnside Road just after you pass Cardonald train station which will take you through Cardonald and Hillington estates. Pass straight over Sandwood Road at pedestrian crossing and straight into Linburn Road in Penilee. Follow it along past Hillington West train station and in a minute or so you will be ejected into space. It's worth it just for this 'ejection' (and spiritual ejaculation). Then, it's straight into the field and up Honeybog Hill.

The funny looking flats in Chirnside Road at Hillington East. Must be some view from the top floor though.

The ejaculation from Penilee's cosy little residential estate to this, the gentle rise of Honeybog Hill.

Looking over Oldhall to Ralston golf course (note Bathgo Hill in the middle of picture) and further towards the crag and tail of Duncarnock Mount in the centre of horizon.

Looking towards Paisley from Honeybog Hill.

Leverndale Tower.

From Honeybog, it's simple enough to go down and back up Byres Hill to the trig marker. Great views from here over Paisley and beyond and back to Glasgow, and also to the north. In fact, all around! Another hill with attitude (not altitude), which, at 54m, is all you need to space the self out and become all things ;)

Looking north over Arkleston from the cleavage between Honeybog and Byres Hills.

Honeybog Hill: Hardly an Everest, but you only need a few metres elevation to space out...

Byres Hill trig. At 54m you don't need a climbing rope or an oxygen tank to get here.


From Byres Hill, it's down towards Barshaw Park which we will pass through and exit taking a left onto Glasgow Road. Take the next right into Alton Road, second left into Newtyle Road and down a few hundred metres to Marchbank Gardens where you can lift the bike over a small fence into the golf course. Bathgo hill is right in front of you, and a mere 41 metres above. From here, more wonderful views, especially towards Paisley and to the Glennifer Braes to the south.

From the well-manicured Ralston Golf Course (here at its highest point, Bathgo Hill) looking north over the gentle Honeybog Hill (centre) with Carneddans Wood (Kilpatrick Hills) and Dumgoyne Hill (Campsie Fells) as the pillars of Hercules in the centre of the horizon beckoning the way to the highlands.

Looking over Paisley from Bathgo Hill.

The little bridge over the Paisley Canal railway line. This takes us from Ralston Golf Course onto the narrow lane of Scott's Road. Take a left after the bridge and follow the lane to Crookston where you can rejoin the sustrans path into the city.

From here, you need to go downhill towards Leverdale tower and the little bridge that will take you across the railway line to Scott's Road (more a lane) which will take you to Crookston and onto the sustrans path towards Pollok Park and Glasgow. You will see this cottage beside the green and there is a small opening in the hedgerow with a few steps. Go through and this will take you over the bridge and onto Scott's Road (lane). All in all, from my gaff in Cessnock, a with a few stops en route, it was a pretty quick two and a half hours.... And yet.

The Great Emporium: Saturn (just behind Cambuslang)

The eco-existential emporium is open! By this, I mean the universe, I mean 'You'. Is this not what an emporium is, the word deriving from Greek emporion 'trading place, market,' from emporos 'traveller,' from en 'in' + poros 'passage,' related to peirein 'to pass through.' Is not the emporium the place that is passed through by the traveller (travel being natural work, natural migration, natural locomotion)? In this sense, this original sense, the emporium can't be anything other than the cosmos, and 'the place that is passed through and travelled' by a multitude of forms, each one you as you dissolve and reconfigure, decompose and transform. 

For the moment (and momentum) however, let us consider the emporium as the strath, and the strath as a galaxy whose stars are hills....

Today, we travelled to Saturn, just behind Cambuslang, and known to the locals as Kirkhill Golf Course... Saturn's rings were visible all around, rings of hills, that gently hold this planet in place. Is this not what a cyclist is really: an astronaut without having to leave the Earth... an astronaut who homes with his own body? An astronaut who is not floating off into another world (because he has been so disenchanted with this one), but who is grounding himself into the Earth, and who is uncovering the cosmos (and its enchantment) beneath the paved man-world... and who is landing his 'eagle'?

Yes, that is smoke and not a cloud emanating from the other side of the strath (just above the central high-rise in the foreground. I did spot it pretty quickly, but then thought it might be a cloud forming (which I guess it is only a smoke-cloud). I only discovered it was a fire when I was up the Kilpatricks in early May and I saw a forestry contractor who showed me the crown of Cochno Hill all scarred in black and told me there had been a brush fire there about a month previous. It was then that the penny dropped and I realised I had not just seen it but had filmed it too....