Our little big adventure really did not want to end at Tannoch Loch. After leaving Tannoch Loch, we got back in the car and started heading home, but then we saw Drumclog Moor Car Park and something in me said, wait, why are people parking here? What is actually around here? So we drove past, then reversed and decided to have a look. I am glad we did because this little decision took us somewhere we had completely missed earlier in the day. There was a map, so this time we actually stood there and looked at it properly, and that was when I realised there was something else around Mugdock Country Park that we had not seen: Mugdock Reservoir. Remember how I told you we had gone looking for Mugdock Castle earlier and somehow ended up at Craigend Castle instead? Well, apparently we had been walking around Mugdock without fully understanding just how much was around us. This time, with the map in front of us, we could see the reservoir and decided to walk towards it.
When we got closer, I could see the water properly and honestly, it was lovely. Some sections were fenced and protected, which I completely understand because this is a working reservoir and not somewhere you should simply wander wherever you want. But we found a section where we could get a much better view, and I was immediately taking photographs. I was also a little nervous because I had to walk across some of the metal structures and, as much as I appreciate human intelligence, I still have that little voice in my head asking, "Are you sure this thing is going to hold you?" I was very conscious of every step I took on those metal sections, but then I stopped and looked around and thought about what I was actually standing on. This wasn't just some random structure. It was part of a Victorian engineering project that had been designed more than 160 years ago to bring clean water to Glasgow. The whole thing suddenly felt much bigger than the pretty view I had been photographing. Mugdock Reservoir was constructed between 1855 and 1859 as part of the Glasgow Corporation Water Works and the Loch Katrine water supply scheme. The scheme was driven forward by Glasgow's Lord Provost Robert Stewart and designed under the direction of the engineer John Frederic La Trobe Bateman, who had identified Loch Katrine as the right source for Glasgow's growing need for clean water. The water traveled from Loch Katrine through an enormous system of tunnels, aqueducts and other infrastructure before reaching Mugdock Reservoir near Milngavie. The original aqueduct was around 26 miles long, and much of it was constructed using gravity, meaning the water could make its journey without being pumped all the way from the Highlands. Mugdock therefore became an important storage reservoir at the end of this remarkable system. Queen Victoria formally opened the first Loch Katrine scheme in 1859, and it became fully operational in 1860.