Cardross House (1)
It is a beautiful sunny late summer's evening and I am in one of the most historically and strategically important parts of Scotland.  If you draw a straight line from the highest point the tide reaches in the Forth estuary (which is just upstream of Stirling) to the highest point the tide reaches in the Clyde estuary (in the centre of Glasgow), you will discover that the east and west coasts of Scotland, are just 23 miles apart at this point.  For armies invading from the south, access through this comparatively narrow neck of land was further restricted by a combination of both natural and manmade barriers.  The principal manmade barrier or course was the great fortress of Stirling Castle, perched on its volcanic rock, which I will be visiting tomorrow (and which is clearly visible here on the horizon, 12 miles away).  The natural barriers were the Campsie Fells and the Kilsyth Hills, the latter visible along the right skyline of this photo - and the Great Flanders Moss.

A 'moss' in Scottish-speak is a bog or swamp or marsh or mire, and almost all the flat land in this photo was originally covered by militarily impenetrable wetland  until that is, it was drained in the 18th century to 'improve' it as farmland.  The River Forth wends its way through the trees to the right of Cardross House, the site of the house being chosen because it stands on one of a number of pieces of higher ground within the Flanders Moss, that were once effectively islands.  A mile to the north-east, on another such 'island', are the remains of a medieval moat, that is thought to have surrounded a hunting lodge used by King James IV. 
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