The Main Street in Kilsyth is pedestrianised, and from anywhere along it you can look north and see the Kilsyth Hills rising at the end of the view. Undiscovered Scotland describes it plainly: "The heart of Kilsyth actually has a considerable amount of charm and interest." Old and new buildings stand close together, with independent shops between them, and the restaurants run through European, Indian, Chinese and fish and chips — a wide spread for a town this size.
For a place with this many pubs now, Kilsyth spent a long time without any. In 1923 the residents voted the town dry, and it stayed alcohol-free until 1967. The Coachman Hotel and the Scarecrow are among the pubs it has now, along with the Boathouse out at Auchinstarry Marina on the Forth and Clyde Canal, with canalside seating and a steady traffic of boaters, walkers and cyclists on the towpath.
That towpath is the reason to bring boots. Kilsyth is an accredited Walkers are Welcome town, and the canal gives level walking and cycling from Auchinstarry to Twechar, Kirkintilloch and eventually the Falkirk Wheel; part of the John Muir Way follows it. For height, the Kilsyth Hills climb straight out of the town. Auchinstarry has a flooded former quarry alongside its moorings, now used for swimming and climbing.
Northeast of the centre is Colzium, a walled estate with an arboretum, a glen and a children's playground. Its ice house, built around 1680, was dug out again in 1977. There are curling ponds here too, among the oldest anywhere. Kilsyth Curling Club was founded in 1716 and claims to be the oldest recorded curling club in the world, a claim Kinross and Muthill both dispute. The town has kept the sport going: Michael Goodfellow, a club member, won Olympic silver at Sochi in 2014.
The hills above the town saw the largest battle Montrose ever won. On 15 August 1645 his Highland and Irish army destroyed a Covenanter force twice its size; around 4,500 Covenanters were killed, and their commander escaped through Dullatur Bog. Montrose was briefly master of Scotland, and was routed four weeks later. The battlefield now lies partly under Banton Loch, a quiet reservoir you can walk around.
The Antonine Wall passed within a mile of the town centre, and the Roman forts on Bar Hill and Croy Hill are visible from the streets below. Bar Hill, above Twechar, is the highest fort on the wall, with the remains of a bathhouse and a well sunk forty-three feet down.
Croy station, on the Glasgow to Edinburgh main line, is the nearest railway, and the A803 runs through the town between Kirkintilloch and Falkirk, with Glasgow and Stirling each about half an hour off.
Back down in the town, Burngreen Park has gardens and a bandstand, and a children's road-safety attraction — a scaled-down road with junctions and markings, and bikes to hire so the young can practise on it before they meet the real thing.