The Campsie Fells (also known as the Campsies;
Scottish Gaelic: ''Monadh Chamaisidh'') are a range of hills in central
Scotland, stretching east to west from Denny Muir to
Dumgoyne
Dumgoyne is a hill prominent on the edge of the Campsie Fells and is a well-known landmark visible from Glasgow. It is a volcanic plug and is high. The plug is readily reached from a path beside Glengoyne Distillery or via a water-board track ...
in
Stirlingshire and overlooking Strathkelvin to the south. The southern extent of the range falls within
East Dunbartonshire. The range overlooks the villages of
Strathblane,
Blanefield,
Milton Of Campsie,
Lennoxtown and
Torrance to the south;
Killearn to the west, and
Fintry and Strathendrick to the north. The
Fintry Hills
The Fintry Hills form the western end of a range of hills which stretch west from the city of Stirling, Scotland. They culminate in the peak of Stronend, which overlooks Strathendrick and the village of Fintry.
The northern, western and souther ...
lie further to the north;
Kilpatrick Hills
The Kilpatrick Hills are a range of hills in central Scotland, stretching from Dumbarton in the west to Strathblane in the east. Strathblane divides the Kilpatricks from the Campsie Fells to the east, while to the north is part of the Loch Lom ...
lie to the west and the Kilsyth Hills to the east.
Walking
Earl's Seat
Earl's Seat (578 m) is the highest hill of the Campsie Fells in Central Scotland. It lies on the border of Stirling (council area), Stirlingshire and East Dunbartonshire in central Scotland. Located on a plateau in the heart of the Campsies abov ...
is the highest point of the Campsie Fells, measuring 578 m (1,896 ft).
On the top of Earl's Seat is a
trig point.
Two main ways of climbing Earl's Seat are by going past Dumgoyne from the
Glengoyne Distillery[ or going up the Fin Glen from ]Clachan of Campsie
Clachan of Campsie or Campsie Glen ( gd, Clachan Chamais) is a settlement in the East Dunbartonshire area of Scotland. It was formerly part of the county of Stirlingshire. It is situated to the south of the Campsie Fells at the foot of Campsie Gl ...
.
Etymology
The name is taken from one of the individual hills in the range, called Campsie; meaning "crooked fairy hill", from the Scottish Gaelic ''cam'', meaning "crooked", and ''sìth'' meaning "fairy". "Fell" originates from the Old Norse word , meaning "hill".
Geology
Erosion along the line of a geological fault
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
known as the Campsie Fault has left tiers of rock representing some 30 lava flows which date from the Carboniferous
The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...
period.[
]
Cultural relevance
The Campsie Fells have cemented their place in history as the birthplace of Scottish skiing, when William W. Naismith
William Wilson Naismith (1856 – 27 September 1935) was a Scottish accountant and Mountaineering, mountaineer. He was a key founder of the Scottish Mountaineering Club and created the eponymous Naismith's rule, used to determine to the time neces ...
of Glasgow skied the area, becoming the first ever man to ski in Scotland in March 1892.Monty Python
Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...
film '' Monty Python's The Meaning of Life'' used the Campsies as a location, standing in for Natal during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. On one day it was so cold that the extras acting as the Zulu warriors refused to put on their costumes and that day's filming was abandoned.
References
External links
* Computer-generated virtual panorama
Earl's Seat
{{coord, 56, 01, N, 4, 18, W, display=title, region:GB_type:mountain_source:GNS-enwiki
Hills of the Scottish Midland Valley
Volcanoes of Scotland
Carboniferous volcanism
Mountains and hills of Stirling (council area)
Mountains and hills of East Dunbartonshire
Mountain ranges of Scotland