Going to California

I remember spotting the name California on a map of Central Scotland when looking for ideas for a day trip. Not far from Falkirk, but I hadn't heard of the place before. This was years ago and I resolved at the time to pay a visit one day. My first actual sighting of the "Sunshine Village" - as it's styled by local authority Falkirk Council - was a drive through on my way home from a walk along the River Avon. I noticed California on a road sign and went on a little detour but didn't have time to stop for a closer look on that particular day.

A good while later I was casting around for a reasonably local walk to undertake on a Saturday morning. California sprung to mind as I could be there within half an hour. Given the fact the Stirlingshire villages around Falkirk have a strong industrial heritage, I was hopeful I could tie my trip in with a bit of exploring. The Victorian maps revealed the presence of a mineral railway running from California down to a junction and - moreover - a current walking route occupied the course of the old freight line. Perfect! I arrived in the village of Maddiston to begin my wander. California lay a couple of miles distant and the old trackbed climbed steadily uphill all the way. Hardly surprising, as I recalled the village sat on a ridge and I had driven sharply downhill to reach Falkirk after passing through. The path had a good surface and took me into woodland and alongside open fields. Embankments and cuttings were shallow but the shape of a railway was easily discernible to the trained eye. It was shown on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1860) as the Shieldhill Railway but had vanished from the landscape by the time of the most recent free OS publication, dating from the 1950s. The latter is a great resource as it shows almost the entire rail network prior to the swingeing cuts of the next decade, all set against a relatively modern Scotland in terms of population centres. Some lines - mainly minor mineral routes like the one I was walking - are no longer marked but almost every railway that carried passenger traffic can still be found in some shape or form - even sometimes shown as dismantled. The Shieldhill Railway joined a line that split from the present Edinburgh to Glasgow corridor near Linlithgow and ran to Airdrie via Avonbridge and Slamannan. The 1950s map shows this passenger route already pared back to Avonbridge but the annotation "track of old railway" describes the connection towards Airdrie. I've heard the OS sheets enter the public domain 50 years after issue and I wonder if a new series will be published on the National Library website in the near future? The path deposited me on the pavement a couple of hundred yards outside California and I made my way into the village, passing a convenience store before arriving at the Sunshine Village sign in the centre. Unfortunately it was rather cloudy today. I really ought to ask for my money back! I wandered along another path with excellent views of the Forth Valley across to Fife and Clackmannanshire. I knew this way eventually led down to the Union Canal but that walk would have to wait for another day. I recalled a funny story from a colleague's retirement speech which involved a stressful journey to America, beset by delays and difficulties. The punchline being he arrived in a "confused and disturbed state, known to many as California"

I began to wonder whether the Scottish settlement pre-dates the American Pacific paradise. The 1860 OS map does show a hamlet called California but the US state was formally admitted to the Union in 1850, having previously been under Mexican and Spanish rule. The name apparently derives from a fictional island in a 16th-century Spanish novel written by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. I think we have to concede this one to the Yanks (or Conquistadors). So how did a California arise in Scotland? One theory involves the term "black gold" used to describe the rich coal seams found in the Central Belt. Miners moved around the area looking for work, thus in some small way mimicking the fabled Gold Rush in America where people began pouring into California from 1848 onwards in search of their fortune. No doubt many were left sorely disappointed. But at least the gold - if found - would glitter. No chance of glory for the Scottish colliers hacking away underground. The walk back to the car was an easy downhill stroll and I listened to the Out of Doors programme on Radio Scotland. I had finally set foot in the Sunshine Village. One of my Facebook buddies, Catherine Bowie, got the best line in with the comment "I've heard of this other California. Apparently it isn't as good!"