Drumpellier Country Park

Drumpellier, country park on the grounds of the former Drumpellier Estate. My wife is a stickler for pronunciation insists its spoken as it is written with not a hint of French which I cannot help myself slipping into. Maybe that should not surprise me. I remember a woman I used to work beside said there was a nightclub in Dundee named Ici ("Here" in French) and the locals referred to it as I.C.I- now "Delux". I'm conditioned that way. Aren't we all. I remember when I first used to talk to friends about the Dutch team Ajax and used to say the name like it was the bleach (younger readers won't remember that) or the the rocket ship from Flash Gordon (again younger readers won't know what I am talking about but if you ever hear the song "Flash" by Queen listen out for the sample). Drumpellier. Not that it matters in the written word. I am not talking to you but your inner narrator.

Last night we decided to go somewhere new for a drive. Usually I do the planning. I like to look for things near at hand to go to. The perimeter of "near at hand" has increased a good bit over the past couple of years but even at that Drumpellier would have been off my radar. It was my wife's suggestion for a change. Its quite a distance away but its not long away if you catch my drift. It does not take that long to get there on a Sunday evening when the roads are quiet and the road is a straight motorway drive there. Usually I do all the planning and make sure I am comfortable with it and all the rest. As it was all my wife's doing I did less of that and just worked out the straight (-is) route there.

As simple as the journey was it did not stop us getting lost and taking a wrong. My fault. There was only one turn and I made it the wrong way. We ended up in some big deserted place outside of Gartcosh. It was like something out of 28  days later. There was this massive empty building and a little train station. It was only when we turned at the train station that we finally saw people. Police. Lots of police. All very bizarre.  Turns  out after Google search today that the building is called "The Scottish Crime Campus". That would explain the police presence.

We were soon away from there and finally at the country park. As usual the weather turned and a nice night went into a cold windy one. Still though it was nice to walk somewhere new. There was though not a lot to it. Not much variety if I am honest. Busy though so much have something about it. We walked the perimeter of the loch and by then were too cold to do anything else. As always I took my camera and so there are some photos below.