After my outing to the Devil’s Plantation, the next stop is Crookston Castle, but with the days growing rapidly shorter, I’m watching the five-day weather forecast for the right conditions. Every day the gap between sunrise and sunset closes by four minutes, almost half an hour a week, so the trick is to set out early on my 100 mile round-trip.

Carrying camera kit and sandwiches, I take the M8 and M77 to Pollok, the scheme in the south-west of…