A walk round Dalnair Castle Estate from Appletree Luxury Self-catering cottage Croftamie, Loch Lomond

A pleasant stroll from Appletree Cottage is to explore the grounds of Dalnair House also known as Dalnair Castle.  Turning right out of the gate a walk down our quiet back road takes you into the village of Croftamie.  Once down on the main road turn right again and walk along the pavement for about four minutes until you cross the bridge (currently reduced to single track) at the entrance to the village.  As soon as you're over this bridge turn hard right and walk between the two ancient red sandstone gateposts and down the path along to the banks of the Catterburn.

​This walk mostly follows what used to be the route of the old service road for Dalnair House.  Built in the mid 1880s for prosperous Glasgow merchant Thomas Brown on the site of the smaller Endrickbank House.  With its own grand gatehouse in the Scottish Baronial Style, tennis courts, walled garden and long drive through parkland the occupants decided that a separate service road was required so deliveries etc. could be made out of site of the front of the house.  The delivery road remained in use until the late sixties when it fell into disrepair and became almost completely overgrown.  It is now a pleasant footpath along the banks of the Catterburn.
​Wild flowers line the path - in particular red campion, bluebells, speedwell and rhododendrons which have escaped the gardens around the castle.

​Here and there remnants of the former estate fencing - a post here and there, a short run of the characteristic cast iron posts and iron railings pop out of the ground now and again.  
The former road and access route have almost entirely been taken over by nature in the intervening years.
All the time the rushing waters of the Catterburn are never far away.
Salmon still come up the Catterburn to spawn but not nearly as far upstream as they used to in former years due in part to agricultural waste disposal in the last century.

On the other side of the Catterburn was another water mill as well as some hunters cottages.  These small huts, similar to the ones found further down the road at Carbeth, were constructed during the Second World War by families from Clydebank and Yoker as escape from the bombs.  Unfortunately, nothing remains of the huts nowadays other than a few concrete foundations.  A mill race for the former mill can still be seen though.

Much of the valley floor through which the Endrick makes its way is sand - giving rise to high sand banks on either side of the water.  In one of these banks the holes made by Sand Martins are clearly obvious.

After a bit of Endrick exploration, the route up to the castle and its gardens are across a rough grass field and through a small kissing gate.  In fact, the gate is nearly the only surviving piece of the perimeter fence at this point!

From this gate it is a short walk through the rhododendron and azalea bushes up to the house, the southern aspect of which towers above the foliage.  Many of the bushes are in full bloom at this time of year with rich vibrant colours

The restoration of the stone work has been highly successful and meticulously executed.  Built in the Scottish Baronial style of architecture, turrets and towers abound.  There are also some excellent gargoyles and decorations which unfortunately this phone camera was unable to pick out in detail.
The building is currently being converted into luxury flats and should prove popular as it is quite easily commutable from Glasgow. 
When built the views from Dalnair must have been tremendous on all sides.  Over the years however, as the gardens have matured, trees have grown up to mask certain aspects of the vista.
  

From the 1940s the building ceased to be a private residence and became accommodation for the nurses and medical staff who worked at the nearby and now derelict Killearn Hospital.  In the 1970s the castle became a conference centre for British Steel before becoming a nursing home.  After some years of lying derelict the building and grounds are being restored for the provision of new houses and flats.

After a good look around the outside it was off down the drive.  Soon we came across the former tennis court.  it was in a bit of a sorry state, quite overgrown but with the net still in place.
Further down the drive still we came across the boundary wall of the walled garden.  A number of luxury houses are currently being constructed inside the walled garden.  
​Further down the drive still we decided to turn right up the hill and into the parkland.