Family stuff has brought me north again. It has all been rather stressful and emotionally hard so my Dad, sister and I played hooky for the afternoon and went for a meander.

The biggest “things” in central Scotland at the moment are the recently opened Kelpies sculpture in Falkirk. So we headed there.

They really are pretty impressive. What was more impressive was the infrastructure around them – a huge park, miles of off road cycle path, a enormous and very exciting looking kids play park and a big lake to swim, kayak and windsurf on. What was even more impressive was how many people were there using it on a term time Friday afternoon.

Afterwards we went for a meander along the canal tow path and checked out the Falkirk wheel. All very pleasant on a gloriously sunny afternoon.