The hellish truth about why we’re being forced to sell the Devil’s Pulpit
TV blockbuster Outlander made it world famous... but rampaging tourists have turned this stunning glen into a nightmare for its exasperated owners
ON a clear day, David and Carole Young can gaze from the high point on their sheep farm across the rich lands of Strathendrick to the far Campsie Fells. Birds chirrup overhead and lambs gambol in nearby fields; it feels like a slice of heaven in the late spring sunshine.
But troubled thoughts cloud the Youngs’ outlook as they point to a thick line of mature trees snaking along the lower edge of the field in front of them.
Shrouded within is a steep gorge of almost incalculable natural beauty carved from the red sandstone rock. Locals know it as Finnich Glen, but visitors to this part of Stirlingshire are more likely to call it the Devil’s Pulpit.
A place of myth and legend, its looming walls, green with moss and ferns, are meant to have shielded witches’ covens and druidic rituals, while Lucifer himself is said to have lured people astray with sermons delivered from his ‘pulpit’ – a mysterious mushroom-shaped rock rising above the blood-red waters of the Carnock Burn that flows through the gorge.
It’s not the bad behaviour of malevolent spirits which has left the Youngs at their wits’ end but the careless destruction of a beauty spot that has been in their family for decades by a rising tide of so-called ‘set-jetters’.
This new breed of international tourist has been drawn in their tens of thousands to the gorge’s sublime charms after it featured as the backdrop to a host of film and television shows, particularly the time-travelling fantasy blockbuster Outlander, where it doubled as Liar’s Spring in the first series. Other major productions have raised its profile further, including the Pokemon film Detective Pikachu, the Netflix historical epic King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and BBC One thriller The Nest.
But the ‘Outlander effect’ is fast becoming an unmanageable monster, leaving the glen overrun by people walking too close to its precipitous edges or losing their footing on the worn stone steps that lead to the gorge floor. Then there is the mess they trail in their wake, the litter and the parking chaos, and the ‘attitude’.
‘We cannot stop anyone from heading into the glen and most behave well and sensibly,’ said Mr Young. ‘Unfortunately, there’s a small but significant minority who consider that cutting fences, running their dogs all over the place, starting fires and getting bevvied up is an appropriate way to conduct themselves.
‘From the farmer’s point of view trying to manage the land, there is always the implicit threat of violence if we have to confront anyone. The glen is a special place and it’s getting trashed.’
All of which prompted the couple to consider a radical solution. They fought for, and won, a rare chance to develop this green belt site in a way they hope will solve the problems associated with the Devil’s Pulpit at a stroke.
To cope with the 70,000 yearly visitors, the field bordering the glen is to be levelled and transformed into a 150-space car park alongside a visitor centre, toilets and a café under planning permission granted by Stirling Council. There will be a viewing platform and bridges across the gorge as well as new steps and safety barriers.
They plan, in essence, to pave over a corner of their paradise to save the rest and the couple believe that ‘managing by design’ could become a model for other troublesome tourist hotspots across Scotland.
But construction costs have soared to almost £3.5million – too rich for a couple contemplating retirement – so they have placed the whole project on the market.
Mr Young, 68, said: ‘Carole and I have been looking after the glen for 50 years. We think we have taken the project as far as we can and it is going to take millions to complete, which is money we don’t have. That will be up to someone else, but it has to be the right person – someone who has the glen’s interests at heart and will look after it.’
THE council’s willingness to entertain their plans is a measure of the seriousness of the glen’s problems. Only 440 yards long, it has been a magnet for trouble down the years.
In April 2021, for example, a Dundee man suffered serious injuries after he fell 100ft while trying to take a photograph. In July 2020, a couple from Fife were rescued after getting into difficulties while ‘canyoning’.
The previous May, a 24-year-old man from Glasgow was rescued after getting stuck near the bottom of the gorge. Two years earlier, a man plunged 50ft into the Devil’s Pulpit area after he lost his footing. Months later, a man and two children, aged ten and 13, were trapped for more than three hours before being helped to safety. The list goes on.
None of it surprises the Youngs, who have spent countless hours trying to save people from themselves. ‘Some people’s choice of inappropriate footwear is extraordinary,’ said Mr Young. ‘They come in flipflops and worn-out trainers – many just tie them together and casually throw them over the telegraph wires when they leave. We have seen some young ladies going in in high heels.’
He recalls another couple having to be rescued in their underwear, while one winter he spotted a father holding a baby in his arms and leading a young child down the 200-year-old stone steps, known as Jacob’s Ladder, while the mother stood at the top having conniptions. ‘The steps down become very icy and slippery in winter,’ Mr Young said. ‘When I urged him not to go any further, he just swore at me, although he did grudgingly come back up. People don’t take kindly to having their foolishness pointed out to them.’
Mrs Young feels a growing disconnect between Scotland’s rural and urban communities is to blame for much of the tension. ‘People come in here and they have pods in their ears and they’re walking about and they can’t actually hear the birdsong and the sound of the water in the glen. They’re not paying any attention to what they’ve come to see,’ she said.
The Youngs have been met with aggression when they have challenged some of the more shocking behaviour they have come across.
One group had set up camp for the night near the glen and started fires and barbecues and began drinking heavily. Mr Young said: ‘When I challenged them, one of them got up and started being abusive. He was clearly out of his head on some substance so I called Carole and told her to phone the police.
‘The group decided to leave but it was a very stressful experience. Often it is people from urban areas who don’t seem to understand the countryside and treat it like a toilet.’ On the day we visited, huge amounts of litter, toilet paper and much worse were in evidence.
One time he encountered two men hacking away with a hatchet at oak trees which were planted in 1988. Mr Young said: ‘When I asked them what they were doing, they told me they were just out for a walk. I asked them whether they always went for a walk with an axe and they made some threatening noises about me being next before they ran off.
‘I later found they had set a fire going in the middle of the woodland and broken down a deer fence to get in. It is that kind of mentality we are up against.’
He added: ‘We have spent a small fortune over the years repairing fences around the glen which visitors have trampled down or bro
ken through to gain access. They have also created paths right up to the edge of the gorge which leads others to follow in their footsteps thinking they are safe.
‘But many of these paths are along areas which overhang the edge and aren’t safe. Sadly, these kinds of accidents do happen because they do not realise the danger they put themselves in.’
Enter the gorge from its eastern end and you have an immediate sense of its overpowering appeal. Known as The Cathedral, it is well named for its vaulting walls of Old Devonian red sandstone and its astonishing acoustic quality.
The Youngs detail its origins, carved out at the end of the Ice Age, and wax lyrical about the complex sculpture of the tree roots clinging to the upper rocks like architecture. It is undoubtedly a magical spot and the Youngs are proud to act as its custodians.
Mr Young, whose grandfather bought Killearn Home Farm in 1939 after moving from Ayrshire, began farming the land in the 1970s having married Carole, the daughter of a neighbouring farmer.
He has witnessed one fatality in the glen, a man who tumbled 100ft into the gorge. ‘His brother-in-law ran down after him and jumped but he was fortunate enough to get one of the deep pools so he came out alive.
‘But it’s always been known as a dangerous place – one elderly lady in the village remembers a tale of a postman who was killed back in the early 1900s when children threw rocks into the gorge without realising he was down below.’
Mrs Young said: ‘We would always keep our own three children away from the glen except when we all came on family picnics.’
PARKING has always been a nightmare, with the roads skirting the glen clogged with vehicles, often blocking the route for emergency vehicles, until eight miles of double yellow lines were painted in 2020 to keep them away. There is one parking area on the Youngs’ land, which can only take a handful of cars and is always full. Mr Young said: ‘Visitors from abroad are astonished by the lack of facilities and how the glen has been treated.
‘This could be a model for other visitor experiences, many of which are under-resourced. It will more than pay for itself, we believe, through car parking charges, dining facilities, guided tours and other special events.’
And filming, of course. He is unconcerned by suggestions that creating a visitor attraction could exacerbate problems. ‘I firmly believe that people can be kept safe through management by design,’ he said. ‘I don’t think we have made things worse by allowing filming. Besides, everyone talks about the Outlander effect but that was in 2014 and I remember the BBC coming here to film something in the Sixties.’
Taggart filmed here twice and Dr Finlay’s Casebook and The Nest did some scenes here, while it has formed the backdrop for adverts and pop videos. Mr Young’s only regret was allowing one ‘son et lumiere’ production to burn a Wicker Man-type effigy on the fragile rock of the Devil’s Pulpit. ‘That was a mistake,’ he said.
The couple accept that developing the site will change its character, but Mr Young pointed out: ‘At the moment we don’t have control over what’s happening. It needs to be managed.’ Better the devil you know, in other words.