flanders moss

a lone birch amidst the bog

 I am lucky enough to live in an area of Scotland where, in a trice, then a blink, followed by a coffee, I can transport myself and my dog, to some wonderful spots. A couple of weeks ago I was stravaiging in the Kippen area and decided to take in a wander around the National Nature Reserve site at Flanders Moss, situated on the Carse of Stirling, about ten miles or so west of the town of Stirling. Or should that be city? 

buff tailed bumble bee?

So what is special about Flanders Moss? Apart from simply being just a nice place to be, it teems with history, geology, wild life and plant life. 

 Here are just a few examples of why one might find this an interesting place to visit and wonder, well perhaps wander, but always to wonder.

looking west over the moss

north facing escarpment of the gargunnock hill

The Carse lies between the Ochil Hills to the east and the Gargunnock Hills to the south, both near and visible from the moss. Interestingly the Ochil Hills, with their fault line scarp being one of the best examples of such a feature in Britain, display their steep side, the scarp, to the south. The Gargunnock hills on the other hand are the exact opposite. In their case the fearsome crags tower along their northern aspect, with their more gentle features rolling to the south. Geographically the steep sides of both lie along the same plain and at the same angle. The impression being that at one time they formed the same range and were torn apart by a geological fault over many millennium. I have no idea the truth of that impression, however when standing atop the steep escarpment of one and looking along to the other, it seems to make sense.

The boggy feature of the Carse formed some fifteen thousand years or so ago after a short global warming period which caused Scotland's ice and glaciers to melt. The melting ice flooded the Carse and the sea flowed in from the east. Over the next three thousand years the land rose, the sea retreated and left the Carse under a layer of estuarine mud. Plants, then mosses colonised this, and a thick layer of peat was formed. The climate then chilled again and glaciers returned, in an event known to geologists, of which I do not number myself, as the Loch Lomond Readvance. Then, if that was not enough, particularly if one owned a holiday cottage on the Carse, the ice age really did retreat and the north sea flooded in, almost to where Aberfoyle now stands. Over time the north sea retreated. So by a quirk of nature, Aberdour became that nice wee seaside place with a beach and Aberfoyle became that wee place for bus trips and bloody midges. But, that's how the cookie crumbles. As the sea retreated more peat formed and a network of bogs formed across the Carse of Stirling.

Apart from features, like raised beaches and areas of marine sediment found some forty metres or so above present day sea levels in areas east of Stirling, that are more for the geologist, the best clue for the layman like myself as to where the sea extended west of Stirling, is the Blue Whale skeleton that, until recently, hung in the Chamber Street Museum in Edinburgh. The skeleton was unearthed from the boggy carse in the Blair Drummond area. Even I know it did not fly there. Other clues can be found in place names, one being Hill of Row, between Dunblane and Doune. Row sits to the north of the Carse on raised land opposite Kippen, itself on raised land on the south of the Carse. It is my understanding, although I forget the source of that understanding, that the word Row is from the Gaelic or perhaps Norse and means a promontory over water.

So who or what might have cast an eye over these famous bog lands. History buffs amongst anyone reading this will know that there was much Roman activity in the area. Sometime about 305 the then Roman Emperor, Constantius 1, would have surveyed the Moss during his successful punitive campaign against the Picts north of Antonine's wall. The Carse would have looked somewhat different then as much of it would have been covered in dense forest. A serious barrier between the Romans and the wild northern tribes.  

antoninus pius

 Antoninus Pius that famous 'brickie' who built Antonine's wall to keep the wild tribes of Slamannan and Avonbridge away from the genteel folks of Cowie and Fallin, was obviously there before Constantius 1. Antonine's adoptive father Hadrian, built that other wall a bit further south, seems to run in the family. Agricola was also in this area even before then. But enough of the Romans, what did they do for us?

A famous Scot was seriously close to the Carse in 1745. General Montrose and his Jacobite army had to wade across that dangerous bog in the summer of 1745 on his way to do battle with Baillie and the Covenanter Committee of War headed by Argyll, at Kilsyth.

montrose

 Montrose recorded a famous victory. His last as it turned out. Why did he cross the Carse? He had to keep away from the sentries at Stirling Castle and making that 'impossible' crossing kept him out of their sight and gave him the advantage of surprise at Kilsyth. Not a bad thing really.

During the Clearances several families moved south onto the Carse and cleared away much of the bog, turning it into one of the most fertile areas in Scotland and famous for, amongst other things, Timothy Grass. I do believe that is a crop and not a police informant. Who knows? The hard working clans people responsible for this transformation will forever be known as the 'Moss Lairds'.

ben lomond on a stormy evening

 Don't take my word for it, go, have a look and walk through the National Nature Reserve that is Flanders Moss. It is a wonderful place, just let your imagination go free and remember who was there before you.