Knockmountain

Orienteering map (ISOM 2017) made for Clyde funded by Renfrewshire Council, August 2025. The majority of the area on the Knockmountain map is owned and managed by Forestry and Land Scotland with the section closest to Kilmacolm in community ownership. It contains areas of productive plantation that are currently (2025) too dense for running but are likely to become runnable in the near future. This is interspersed by more open hillsides with gorse bushes as well as old growth forest, with a fair amount of contour detail and many boulders, crags, and rocky outcrops. Unlike many such areas in Scotland, Knockmountain has very little in the way of bracken (except at the far northwestern end) and instead the open areas are covered in rye grass and wild flowers attracting a host of insects (some of the bitey kind...).

Just to the south of Knockmountain proper (on the left) is an area with large dead pine trees that are not on any old map. (2025)

View west to Knockmountain and the Clyde in the distance. Rewild that...! (2025)

Loads of wild flowers and insects in the Knockmountain area. (2025)

Old sign near Knockmountain for the public footpath between Kilmacolm and Langbank. (2025)

View from just south of Knockmountain to the Auchendores Reservoir and the Clyde valley. (2025)

Some old Scots pines near the summit of Knockmountain. Birds of prey overhead. (2025)