Beakel one

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 100.00% of reviewers

A delightful, but foot-only, route between two towns on the outskirts of Glasgow.

It starts with a paved road walk through the residential streets of Bearsden, until we get to Cairn Hill. After descending some steps into woods, and once past some car parking for flats, we're into a peaceful and nature-filled woodland area, with many carved sculptures.

The woods are broken only once by a road crossing, where we pass into the thin strip continuation of the same woodlands. Ending at the dual carriageway of the A739, there are no nearby crossings, but we can use the central reservation to break our crossing. Ahead, we enter Dawsholm Park, another lovely leafy area, surrounded by nature reserves.

At the Kelvindale end, the approach to the station appears to be an unpaved road, but it is perfectly safe to cross, given the road markings are in the pedestrians' favour.

A good walk, and with so much green cover, easy to forget you're in suburbia.

Walked from Bearsden to Kelvindale Station on a hot summer’s day.
The first part of the walk was on roads, past Bearsden station, and up and down a hill or two!
Around a quarter of the way in the path went into woodland and it more or less ran through woods all the way after that.
There were lots of woodland sculptures to see, and it was very pleasant indeed.

There were a couple of places where the path came out of the woods to cross a road - one of these was a dual carriageway, but there was a big central reservation, not much traffic, and it was easy to cross. There were traffic lights about 100m along if necessary.

I did go a bit astray in the woods near the turn off for Westerton station - the route could be more precisely drawn at this point, so keep checking your gps tracker before you go too far along the wrong track! I think this is less likely to happen if walking direction from Kelvindale towards Bearsden.

The short section without a pavement at Kelvindale - the road is wide enough for cars to give walkers some space; I walked facing the oncoming traffic and it was fine as these things go, all the drivers saw me and gave me space. But - I would advise against walking with back to the traffic here, even for the few metres involved.

Access: some steps, some steep hills, dual carriageway crossing.
Refreshments: apart from at Bearsden station nothing. Plenty at Bearsden.

A note on Kelvindale: there is a railway station with occasional trains to Glasgow; that’s about it! But - it’s a great place to connect to other Slow Ways, especially using the canal. For good refreshments, buses, frequent trains, go to nearby Anniesland.

Review of SlowWays Route Beakel1 (Bearsden to Kelvindale).
This route begins at the war memorial in Bearsden and heads south before turning west along Station Road. It then winds through some suburban streets, enters what appears to be an enclosed housing estate, but then exits the estate by a flight of stone steps down to Cairnhill Woods (careful attention to the map is necessary here). The middle section winds its way through pleasant and apparently well-used woodland until it emerges on one side of a busy dual carriageway (there is a pedestrian crossing 50 metres south of the mapped crossing point). Once the road has been crossed, the route enters Dawsholm Park and follows a straight path all the way to the park’s southeast corner. The route finishes with a short section along the busy and pavement-less Dalsholm Road which could be a safety concern for anyone accompanied by small children.
I enjoyed this walk and the fact that it utilises a long strip of woodland and a public park to minimise the time spent pounding pavements. The sections through Cairnhill Woods and Dawsholm Park might feel a little remote in places but in practice appear to be well-used and are nowhere far from adjacent housing. My main gripe is the pavement-less section which is a disappointing end to an otherwise excellent route.

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