Finnich Glen in

Stirlingshire Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling, gd, Siorrachd Sruighlea) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration countyRegisters of Scotland. Publications, leaflets, Land Register Counties. of Scotland. Its county town is Stirli ...

, is a short, steep

glen A glen is a valley, typically one that is long and bounded by gently sloped concave sides, unlike a ravine, which is deep and bounded by steep slopes. Whittow defines it as a "Scottish term for a deep valley in the Highlands" that is "narrower ...

up to 70 ft deep which runs east from Finnich Bridge on the A809. It was carved from the red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

by the Carnock Burn. It features a circular rock known as the Devil's Pulpit and a steep staircase known as the Devil's Steps, built around 1860. Following its use to depict the fictional St Ninian's Spring in the time-traveling romance TV series Outlander in 2014, the site has seen an explosion in tourism, with an estimated 70,000 visitors now coming to the site each year. This has caused stress on both the location itself, and to tourists and local officials, as visitors have trampled fences to access the site and then scrambled down the crumbing, broken 200-year-old stone steps used to access the bed of the gorge, damaging the site and on numerous occasions requiring mountain rescue teams to be dispatched to the gorge for rescues. There being no parking facilities, the large influx of tourists have additionally left large numbers of vehicles parked along the side of the adjacent narrow rural road, blocking access for local residents and

first responder A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency, such as an accident, disaster, medical emergency, structure fire, crime, or terr ...

s. Under a £2 million development plan, landowner David Young has proposed to develop the site as a tourist attraction, including a visitor centre and restaurant, toilets, a 150-spot parking lot, formal "footpaths, viewing platforms and bridges above the gorge, and a new wood-and-metal staircase". The plan requires approval from the local council. It also featured as a location in The Nest.

References

Glens of Scotland Valleys of Stirling (council area) {{Stirling-geo-stub