Wanderings and Windings
Wanderings & Windings are nine waymarked heritage trails around Stirling, Falkirk, Fife and Clackmannanshire. Developed by IFF, these trails encourage people to explore the wildlife and history of this unique landscape at the heart of Scotland by foot or wheel.
During 2019 the IFF Team and Raeburn Farquhar Bowen worked closely with local communities around the Inner Forth to develop a suite of day-long walks and cycles to waymark and promote. Each trail uses existing paths and tracks to encourage local people and visitors to the area to explore the landscape by foot or wheel, and discover some of the many hidden gems to be found around the Inner Forth. These include nature hotspots, historic buildings, riverside views, cultural landmarks and simply places to escape from the bustle of urban life. Whilst designed to be day-long explorations, routes can be broken into shorter sections. Download the free trail leaflets and GPX files below.
Click a Trail on the map to read about it, or just browse all the trails below.
The Nine Routes
We recommend that you download the Route Leaflet for your chosen Trail before you set off. If you use a mapping app like Strava, MapMyRun, ViewRanger, etc you can download the GPX file with teach route.
The trail guides can also be downloaded from our Explore the Forth app, which provides loads of extra information and stories about the Inner Forth, as well as detailed maps, and a treasure trail quiz that will make every outing a mini-adventure! You can download the apps via the App Store or Google Play.
The trail guides can also be downloaded from our Explore the Forth app, which provides loads of extra information and stories about the Inner Forth, as well as detailed maps, and a treasure trail quiz that will make every outing a mini-adventure! You can download the apps via the App Store or Google Play.
Route 1: The First Forth Bridges
16.9 miles/27.2km 917ft/279m ascent.Spanning the Forth valley at the historic first bridging point of Stirling, this walking circuit would also suit a cycle journey. However the Gillie’s Hill section is a little rough in places, so if you’re on a bike you may need to get off and walk occasionally.
Route 2: Birding by Bike
34.2 miles/55km 901ft/274m A loop of the upper Forth estuary, crossing the river via the road bridge at Kincardine and returning across the footbridge at Cambuskenneth. The route takes in several wetland nature reserves as it winds across the lower carselands of the Forth. It’s worth taking binoculars if you have them.
Route 3: The Ochils Fault and Forth Inches
Route 4: The Fife Thirty Five
Route 5: Abbey to Sea
Route 6: Beneath the Three Bridges
Route 7: Bo'ness and Linklithgow Ramble
Route 8: Roman Falkirk and the Carron
Route 9: Stravaig the Forth
The Project
Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, Inner Forth Futures received a National Heritage Lottery Fund grant for this exciting heritage project during 2019. Assisted by consultants Raeburn Farquhar Bowen, we worked with local people, communities, walking and cycling groups, local authorities and a host of other organisations to help develop the routes. We launched the 'Wanderings and Windings' through a series of free events, a photography competition and a pixilation style film that was created through a collaboration between film makers D Fie Foe and Falkirk High School. You can read our project evaluation report to our main funder, National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) here.
During 2019 we held 12 co-creation sessions in 10 locations around the area. Nearly 100 people attended the sessions, giving up their time and energy to share their knowledge and experience of the area. They told us about their favourite places, routes, views and pitstops; the muddy paths, overgrown tracks and busy rat-runs to avoid; and how Wanderings and Windings might work together with existing and new trails around the area to help create a network of routes that could make the Inner Forth one of the best places in Scotland for walking and cycling. People also helped feed into the process by joining our Wanderings and Windings Facebook group. Our thanks go to the many, many people who helped us develop the routes. Their input was crucial to the project, and we are extremely grateful to all of them.
In October 2019 we ran a mini festival of events to help launch the Wanderings and Windings and encourage as many people as possible to enjoy a micro-adventure here in the Inner Forth. Over 100 people came along to the events!
To help explore the hidden heritage along the Wanderings and Windings, we appointed film makers D Fie Foe to deliver a collaborative arts project aimed at High School pupils within the Inner Forth area. This bespoke moving image collaboration engaged young people in local heritage (natural, built and/or cultural) and allowed them to share their interpretation through creative methods. D Fie Foe worked with Falkirk High School over six sessions, some indoors, some on location on parts of the new Wanderings and Windings routes. The sessions were led by the film experts to help students explore the Inner Forth local area, design micro natural animations, develop pixillation skills and have fun outdoors. Through the sessions the young people learned more not only about film making, but of course about their local area and were able to produce a film in and about this special place. The project had a strong environmental awareness component and was also valuable for students enthusiastic about digital production and creative careers.
The film was shown at all our launch events, and you can view it our You Tube channel here.
#WinterWanderings Photography Competition
With the ‘Wanderings and Windings’ trails launched, we wanted to see who had been out exploring the hidden gems of the Inner Forth landscape. A call for keen photographers to share their pictures embodying the spirit of adventure and exploration was raised with the #WinterWanderings Photography Competition. Running from just before Christmas 2019, right through the holidays until early January 2020, we received over twenty fantastic images that captured the many faces of the Inner Forth – from woodland cycles in Fife and riverside ambles in Clackmannanshire to candid moments with wildlife in Falkirk and exploring derelict buildings in Stirling. Five shortlisted entries were then shared on our Facebook and Twitter accounts for a public vote which gathered fantastic support – thank you to everyone who took part and congratulations to the winners!
Congratulations to all the winners and special thanks to everyone who took the time to enter their photographs. We hope that you will continue to explore the Wanderings and Windings trails and continue to share your adventures with us through social media.
