Old drovers road- Sheriffmuir

One of my favourite walks is along a section of this drover’s road, which crosses The Ochils and drops down into Menstrie.
 
In times past cattle would be walked from the Highlands along this drovers road to markets in Falkirk, a journey that would take weeks.

 
Anything from 100 to 2,000 cattle  would be moved at a time.
 
While the drovers were highly skilled men their appearance could be off-putting.
Often the Lowlanders regarded them as strange and threatening.
 
 One person described them:
"Great stalwart hirsute men, shaggy and uncultured and wild, who look like bears as they lounge heavily along."
 
Often they would sleep out with their cattle wrapped in a thin blanket. Their day would start at 8am with  a simple breakfast of oats, either boiled to make porridge or cold with water added.
 
The whole might be washed down with whisky.
 
Oats, whisky and onions were their basic diet, sometimes they might draw blood from the cattle to make black pudding.
 

They would cover 16-20 km a day.

Link:The Highland Drovers