Loch Lomond and onto Springburn Disc Golf Course, Glasgow, Scotland

I digress, as an excuse for a rest from our 3 days play at ReBoot Bluebell Woods, and took a detour to have a couple of nights near Loch Lomond. We had booked onto the Milarrochy Bay Camping and Caravan Club site, which is on the east bank of the loch. We have often driven along Loch Lomond but on the west side on our way further north but have never been on this side.

We left Dunbar and en route the weather broke and the rain really started to come down, seemed like the storm, now named Francis was getting closer. Despite the weather we made good time and arrived mid afternoon to be given a front row pitch on the campsite and the sun came out.

We had a lovely afternoon and evening and planned our next day around what was looking like increasingly worse weather to come, that was going to hit the whole of the UK. The next morning was going to be fine, so we decided we would take a bike ride along the roadside of the loch, for as far as it would go. The road ended at a car park used by walkers who wanted to climb Ben Lomond, one of the Scottish Munros (a Scottish mountain over 3000ft). A lovely part of the country and it was clearly the calm before the storm was due to come in.

Disc Golf was calling again and after our short break here we headed on towards Glasgow, where the Glasgow Disc Golf Club  (GDGC) have at the time of writing, 4 Courses. I had been in contact with one of the members, Patrick, who had been extremely helpful in advising where to park our motorhome for each course, including marked up screenshot maps. 

This trip had been organised as soon as covid travel restrictions had been lifted, and of course before we knew of any weather storms. However, the weather was conspiring against us and by the time we arrived at the Strathclyde Park Caravan and Motorhome Club campsite, the weather had worsened. We spent the rest of the day confined to our motorhome sheltered by a large hedge with lashing rain and wind to keep us company. 

The following morning it was still raining but not quite as bad and the forecast was for it to ease off for a couple of hours or so. I had previously asked Patrick which order he would recommend we play the courses. He had advised we go to Springburn Disc Golf Course first. With the weather as it was and the forecast suggesting a further deterioration we honestly felt having come all this way that we needed to make an attempt to play at least one course. We got ourselves organised, route planned to the course and headed to Springburn.

Springburn was Glasgows first 18 Holes Disc Golf Course, set in a 64 acre Victorian styled, mixed use public park and the course was only established in 2019. There is only street parking available and recommended on Balgrayhill Road and Balornock Road. There are no toilets (restrooms) on site.

This is a free to play Disc Golf Course and at the time of visiting there was one tee box per hole with either Astro turf, tarmac or rubber mat, Par57, 5059ft. Patrick had also advise that there wouldn't be a Hole 4 to play whilst we were there, as they were in the process of moving it. He mentioned that there was also future plans to put shorter tees in.

Glasgow Disc Golf Club have a very good website where you can see each of the hole plans, click here (Springburn Hole plans) or you can use UDisc. The course has been planned so that it uses the entire park but as this is a multi use park please be mindful of other users, as the park has paths running through it and park users do wander where they like. There are tree lined fairways and water holes to negotiate.

After parking up we headed across the park and found Hole 1. All the tee pads are marked with pictorial Hole maps so you can understand where to throw, with Mandos (M), Drop Zones (DZ), Out of Bounds (OB)s, and Spotter require (S) annotated clearly (all tee maps photos courtesy of GDGC).

The wet conditions on the course were really bad. Not the fault of the course but just the amount of rain that there had been, it had been torrential. Even our campsite had standing water on a lot of the grassed areas (luckily we were on a hardstanding pitch) which was making the maintenance for the staff there really difficult. Hole 1 was fine with a straight forward start, throwing through the Mando. Hole 2, someone has a sense of humour, or at least I think that's what I said when I saw it!

Throwing over water was something we hadn't encountered since playing in Florida and most of the time there we had chickened out over much shorter distances than this, and there wasn't any reeds or rushes that might just snatch your disc. It is definitely a case of confidence and as forehand player I should have been able to throw this hole and land in a safe area, but with a best measured forehand throw so far of 187ft I was extremely nervous to even try and aim this towards the basket area or circle. I didn't particularly want to lose a disc so made a decision to take a shorter route across the water and aimed for just short of the S on the Hole map. I chose a disc I felt confident that I could throw accurately, the Duchess, and I was so pleased with my success when I hit the mark. I had made a choice and executed the shot with conviction. I threw my upshot which didn't go so well and ended in a puddle, shot 3 clipped the basket and missed so then I had a tap in for 4. 

Hole number 3, seriously....

Wow this is tough. Teeing off across water in the hope that you can negotiate either the gap between the trees on the far side of the water, or get enough height to get over them with a low out from the tee box!! We both looked at each other and said nahhhh, lets walk round to the S on the map and play our shot from there and be really generous as its raining again and give ourselves just one shot 😀. We were here to enjoy ourselves despite the deteriorating weather, not beat ourselves up.

So having got those 2 water holes out of the way and as Hole 4 wasn't available to play we continued round the course. The rain was on and off but that didn't deter us as we had some sunshine dappling through the trees from time to time.  

The course is really very pretty but extremely challenging for us, I must admit. Some of that may have been down to the conditions under foot. My relatively new Oboz boots completely broke down and my feet were wet. I guess any boot that claims to be waterproof can only take so much water and it took 3 days afterwards for these boots to dry out, so that tells you how squelchy it was.

The course has a real mix of holes from technical to low ceilings, extra long holes from what we have encountered before elsewhere, to interesting basket positions.

We really enjoyed it even though it beat us up....

We enjoyed it so much that we decided on a second round whilst we were there, because the rain had stopped and our boots couldn't really get any wetter. This time we went round without scoring and decided that we would use the opportunity to learn from this course, without the pressure of putting a score down. We could also try 2 or 3 attempts if need be on some holes, to try different discs or shots.

The one hole that had really messed with my head had been Hole 2 and thats because I knew I should be able to throw my disc closer having seen how well I'd done the first time. Hole 3 was a none starter and I'd love to see someone tackle that in the future. My arm can't throw that hole from that tee pad so I may as well forget that particular one. So off we went again, Hole 1 fine, Hole 2 water, Duchess again and this time I went for a straighter shot and over much more water than previously, landing it just over the reeds and nicely placed for my next shot which was my Axiom Envy, and then sunk my putter in for 3. Yeah, so pleased that I'd had the confidence to go for it this time and take the risk. Sometimes you just have to try and try again to know whats achievable.

Springburn Disc Golf Course will definitely be a course we will return to to try on a drier day, it is lovely. You should come and try it out. It's definitely one of the most challenging courses we've encountered so far and because of that we are determined to make another stab of it. I believe there may be some changes going to happen to this course in the future and we look forward to returning and next time having the opportunity to meet up with some of the players there. 

We returned to our campsite with some decisions to make, we had planned on playing the other 3 courses in Glasgow over the following 3 days. Having experienced the conditions at Springburn, the fact that it had started to rain again when we got back on the campsite and the forecast had now indicated that a Yellow storm warning was in place, we reluctantly decided that we wouldn't get the best of play on the remainder of this trip. So I contacted Patrick and thanked him for his help and told him we would be leaving. We drove home the next morning in pouring rain, a little disappointed that we hadn't completed our aim of playing 5 Scottish Disc Golf Courses on this trip, but we do know for sure that we will be back and next time we may add another course to the list, one out on the islands 😀.

We are both members of the British Disc Golf Association (BDGA), however, since we got home from this trip, we have joined the newly formed Scottish Disc Golf Association (SDGA) in support of Scottish Disc Golf, as we both feel Scotland has a huge amount of potential with regard to developing this sport.

Reboot Disc Golf, Bluebell Woods, Dunbar, Scotland

Reboot Disc Golf (or Bluebell Woods) is located at Foxlake Adventures just outside Dunbar, Scotland and the course was designed and is lovingly cared for by Seamus Scanlon. There is a pro shop on site where you can buy discs amongst other disc golf items, such as bags and apparel. 

There is ample parking and toilets (restrooms) at Foxlake Adventures to use as well as a cafe. They also have activities such as ziplining, wakeboarding, segway etc.

We had based ourselves at the Dunbar Camping and Caravan Club campsite just 10mins drive on the other side of Dunbar to the course.

This Disc Golf course is set in a moderately hilly and mainly mature wooded location and in the Spring is awash with Bluebell flowers. We were here in late August so had missed the flowers but on arrival at the course it looked amazing. The kind of place we love to just go hiking.

This is a pay to play course. Fees and paying options can be found here. There is an active club scene here and the course has been used for many tournaments. Much more information can be found on the course website rebootdiscgolf.com 

There is an 18 Holes Green Course for families, Par 54, 2882ft and a 18 Holes Red Tees, Par 59, 4224ft for Intermediate and a Blue Tees Advanced Course, Par 58, 5852ft. Tee boxes are mixed medium of Astro turf, compact stone and dirt.

Green Course

Red Course

Blue Course

We had been in touch with Seamus in advance to confirm parking accessibility for our motorhome and he mentioned that he would be on site at some point during the day we arrived. We decided we would have a warm up and orientation on the Green Course prior to lunch, so headed off using UDisc to find our way around. 

The Green Course has been set up for families to enjoy a round and the holes tend to be roughly in the region of 98-132ft making it a great warm up course and good for practicing upshots and short game for the more seasoned player, with some technical holes. The woodland is gorgeous and interesting to find lines to throw. We enjoyed playing 9 of the 18 Holes when we came across Seamus, who was opening up his shop. We had a really good chat with him and asked if we could also check out his goodies in the shop 😀. You just have to see if there's anything that you can't leave without!! 

So after checking through a number of discs I decided I would buy this Explorer. It had the same flight guide of 7/5/0/2 as the Innova Metalflake Teebird that I bag, but I thought it would be interesting to see if it flew differently as it was a Latitude 64 disc, and I had been throwing a few of their discs lately. If it behaved anything like the Teebird then I knew it would be good in the woods for me on my forehand. Wow, it flew really nicely, slightly more glidey and softer finish than the Metalflake Teebird, which I kind of expected but it had a great skip at the end, when thrown low through the canopy areas and this I hadn't seen from the Teebird. If I could master this it could come in handy in this environment.

We decided to have a light lunch in the motorhome before heading off to play the Red Tees. We felt this would be testing enough from what we had seen of the Green Course, and this 18 Holes had more to offer with some throws across open areas and more woodland than we had seen already.

There are some challenging and technical holes on this beautiful course and I can see why it is used for tournaments, it was very interesting and varied. The experience and learning we had had at Quarry Park and Cotswold View had definitely helped us not to be too intimidated in the woods and to look for the lines where you could fly your disc.

We really enjoyed our round and decided afterwards to finish off with the holes on the Green Course that we hadn't played and then called it a day, as we had planned more days of play here and I didn't want to put too much work on my ankle. 

The next day the weather had changed and we started to experience more wind and the occasional shower. However, being in the woods helped a little. We paid using the QR code on the welcome board at the start of the course and headed off for another warm up round on the Green Course. We felt like we had the whole course to ourselves. After the warm up round we headed off on to the Red Tees.

This is such a wonderful course, I love the atmosphere here, the different shapes of holes and trees and how much I learned from playing here. It's one of those feel good places for me. The Explorer disc was definitely a good buy and I was pleased at how quickly I learned it was great at shaping around some of the forehand holes. Catriona had bought a Dynamic Discs Renegade to try out, as a different brand, on some of the longer holes. She has small hands and found this disc felt good to hold and she threw some amazing shots with it. In fact that day she had the tree gods with her and got plenty of tree love. Me, well I hit a lot of trees and learned a bit more about scambling!

We played again just the 2 rounds, Green and Red, and had a further chat with Seamus who was out on the course doing some maintenance work. He's so passionate about the sport and the course and it was really nice having time to chat with him and learn more.

August 22nd was our 3rd and last play here with the occasional shower and high winds again. The forecast was suggesting that there was a bad storm coming towards the UK from the Atlantic and the weather we were experiencing was just the outer edge of this. Again onto the Greens followed by the Red Course.

In the woods the wind wasn't too bad but on those holes exposed to its force we had to figure out how to keep our discs low enough yet get some distance. As I'm not a long thrower, as I have pretty much given up on my erratic backhand, so that proved to be a challenge. However, I figured out how to manage the situation and I'm still pleased with what I achieved and what I'd learned from the day before. We had a fantastic time again. I still don't know where UDisc get their weather details because the data on the score card is so off the mark. Think I should write to them.

Bluebell Woods Course (Reboot) is amazing and I would go so far as to say that of all the courses we have played so far, this one ranks top of the list for me. Its a gorgeous walk with a well laid out course that offers a variety of challenges and just feels good. Thanks very much Seamus, you have a diamond here. I would recommend this course to everyone to come and try it. I'd be surprised if you didn't fall in love with it too.

Sometimes you should just take a break from throwing those discs, sit and think about what a wonderful place you are in and how this sport gives you the opportunity to sample different places. I feel very lucky.

Our plan now was to hit the road again and head for a couple of nights stay over on the banks of Loch Lomond before moving on to our next destination and course(s). See you along the road....

Planning and starting our trip to Scotland

We had been doing some more practice sessions at our local park and travelling to Longford Park, Manchester to play the course after returning from our last trip. We had also been thinking about what our next Disc Golf trip might look like. It was now the beginning of August and the weather forecast was looking good, so we decided we would travel north.

Scotland has always been a favourite place of mine to visit. I've been going there since the 1970's and in more recent years have been touring various locations with Catriona in our motorhome, sightseeing and playing ball golf along the way. We've never been interested in playing the expensive, highly manicured fairways of some of the most famous courses in Scotland, but found and played those little gems like Askernish Golf Course on South Uist.

Or Asta Golf Course, the most northerly 9 Hole course in the UK on Mainland, Shetland Islands.

I haven't been able to play ball golf since February 2019 and that is why we decided we would organise a trip to take in some of Scotlands Disc Golf Courses, as we are both so addicted to this sport now, much more so than we ever were to ball golf.

We planned on 11 nights away. Our route would take in a couple of nights near Alnwick, to catch up with some friends we hadn't seen for some time due to covid restrictions, and this would break the nearly 5hrs journey to the first planned disc golf course. Then over the border into Scotland to take in our first course near Dunbar for 3 nights, onwards for a little rest for a couple of nights along the side of Loch Lomond before heading to Glasgow. Campsites booked in all 4 locations and we hit the road on August 18th.

Our friends were working during the day so we spent our time riding around the area on our bikes exploring, particularly along the coast. Just happened to have a couple of discs in our rucksack, only because we knew there was a lovely beach nearby. 

And with a castle in the distance you just have to let fly.....

As usual our activities attracted attention from a few women out walking their dogs. They could tell we weren't just throwing a frisbee on the beach and we spent a while explaining about disc golf and the discs, and that we were heading to play some courses in Scotland. 

It was so good to catch up with our friends but it was time to move on and head for our first play on a Scottish course. We were heading for Dunbar to play Reboot Disc Golf and in particular a course called Bluebell Woods, which in the Springtime is awash in a sea of blue. We wouldn't see this this time, so that will be for a future trip but here's a taster....

So come with me to Bluebell Woods, which will be my next instalment and I'll tell you all about our visit and play.

What to do when the weathers too bad to play - Dye Discs

When the weather turns too bad to play and you want to indulge in something else connected with Disc Golf, that doesn't involve videos on tournaments and play, what else do you do? You watch videos on dyeing discs 😀!! 

This will be a short blog on words and more on photos of the outcome of my dyeing attempts. We don't have a lot of room living in an apartment, so I didn't want to get into disc dying with a turntable or stencils so limited myself to direct dying using a variety of lotions and potions. 

I first started by buying some iDye Poly sachets in a variety of colours. Orange, Red, Blue, Green, Violet.

For my first attempt I used my Latitude 64 Jade with the orange dye suspended and swirled in shampoo. The one thing I've learned about shampoo is your disc will continue to smell of the shampoo you use for sometime afterwards so make sure you choose a scent you like 😀.

I then bought some white Latitude 64 discs in their premium plastic. Next up, after watching someone use Elmers Glue I tried this technique. I went over the disc with glue side to side, to mask as much white on the disc as I didn't want to dye. Let it dry and then floated it in a water/dye solution of yellow for a couple of hours. The yellow only came out pale but if I'd left it any longer the glue would have started to dissolve. Washed everything off. I then re-glued to cover white and yellow and floated again in a red/water solution. This was the outcome after washing everything off. Of all the discs I've done this is still probably my favourite so far. This was a Latitude 64 Sapphire.

I then did another shampoo float with my River disc which was originally an opaque white and I wanted to give it a bit of blue for a water kind of look. The concept was good but the outcome was not what I had in my minds eye. I still like it though.

I then ventured into using the iDye Poly in shaving foam and these discs ended up being a bit of a disaster, Latitude 64 Diamond, I really don't like the mess I made but I still throw them.

When you're experimenting with dying discs it could get expensive if you make mistakes so I decided to change to using Latitude 64 minis. They are still made in premium plastic so take dye well and if you don't like the outcome then they are not that expensive.

This is my favourite of the minis I've done and topical for Halloween right now.

I've tried putting dye into body lotion to make a thicker dye that wouldn't run off and used a small bottle I bought on Amazon to apply direct to discs rather than using foam or shampoo. The nozzles are very fine and so you can pin point the dye. 

This is what I came up with...

I've recently bought a different dye, Rit Synthetic which comes in more colours and from all accounts gives a stronger colour on the plastics. 

My latest attempt has been on a new UK produced disc, the Launch Cipher which started off like this...

and ended up like this after using Rit Synthetic in shaving foam

Now its quite obvious I'm not going to win disc dyeing artist of the year but I have enjoyed the creativity and fun in doing these discs. I still have a few minis to mess about with and I'm sure will have more enjoyment dyeing them.

But now I must move on to the next instalment of my disc golf journey, post right ankle injury, and take you on our next trip, that we had planned. Instead of heading South of where we live we decided that we should go North, to a place we have visited and toured around many times and love for its beautiful countryside, Scotland.