What a hoot!

Our Wednesday walk with the Ramblers was certainly 'interesting' in that we had lunch at a castle and ended the day in hospital.

Of course, there's a bit more to the story than that: we met at Plean Country Park (pictured) and walked quite a few of the paths and trails there before a stretch of road walking took us to Torwood Castle (see extra). We had our lunch stop there, glad that it had stopped snowing for a short while.

Our planned route, which was due to take us through Tor Wood and into the grounds of Forth Valley Royal Hospital, was closed due to forestry operations so we headed down into Torwood and caught the bus to the hospital, where we did a 2km loop round Larbert Wood, had a coffee stop in the restaurant and took the bus back to Plean. From there we walked back up into Country Park and our cars.

It was cold, a bit showery - sometimes rain, sometimes snow - some of the paths in the park were icy, some muddy, but otherwise it was a good day out for the 20 of us who did the walk. What's more, I'm not down to be a walk leader for another few months, so I can let someone else take the strain for a while.