Forest bathing in West Dunbartonshire

West Dunbartonshire's woods climb from the Clyde and Loch Lomond up the Kilpatrick Hills. Balloch Castle Country Park, on the southern shore of Loch Lomond, has mature oak, beech and conifers around a nineteenth-century castle with the loch at the foot of the lawns. Above Dumbarton, the Overtoun estate's woods run up the Overtoun Burn gorge to Spardie Linn waterfall, and the Woodland Trust's Lang Craigs beyond it mixes old oak with new planting on the hillside below the crags. Along the Clyde, Dalmuir Park in Clydebank and the Saltings local nature reserve at Old Kilpatrick give smaller riverside woods.

A session is a couple of hours or so with a small group: a short walk in, long still pauses and a quiet close. Balloch's lochside woods are at their best early in the day before the crowds, and Overtoun's gorge is sheltered for winter. Each guide's profile lists dates, venues and prices.

Balloch Castle Country Park is the easy start: Balloch railway station is a few minutes' walk from the park gates, there is parking in the park, and the paths by the loch are level. Overtoun House has a car park and a tearoom.