The Fintry Loop** (did you see what we did there?)

Saturday’s ride out was a fully circular route out the north side of Glasgow through Kirkintilloch and Kilsyth, Denny then out to Carron Bridge and along the Carron Valley to Fintry where we stopped at the Courtyard Cafe, at Knockraich Farm ( a wee gem of a find by Paul the Road Captain for the day, if I do say so myself*).

*this route is a regular route for your humble scribe as it’s all local to me and nice roads but never have I even noticed the cafe! Doh!

One wee mention too for the road from Fankerton out to Carron Bridge. If you have ridden it at all in the last three years at least you can’t be unaware that it was like the surface of the moon all potholes and craters and really quite dangerous… not now it is lovely billiard table smooth grippy tarmac!

The road down into Fintry as it exits the Carron Valley road however is still a bit of a pothole fest from about the Fintry Loup ( the waterfall) to the junction of the Campsies road ( Fintry- Lennoxtown) so be aware.

The weather had somewhat changeable ideas but by some miracle ( a miracle that eluded your humble scribe on the way down to Glasgow when we had to shelter from the torrent in Stirling Services with lots of other motorbikes), it stayed dry despite threatening for the entire ride out. In fact it was incredibly hot and sitting outside at the Courtyard was very pleasant indeed….and the scones were good too.

**PS for those that didn’t see what we did there… this is the Fintry Loup (notice the “u” not an “o”)- a waterfall between Fintry and Carron Valley Reservoir. Well worth a visit but be prepared for the midgies.