Darvel, Loudoun Hill, Hogmanay 2008

Season's Greetings readers.

In the absence of him whit writes (poems as well) I was bullied into writing some small account of the walk on Hogmanay, 2008. Allan, Johnny and Robert met at Davies, Darvel. Kay furnished lemon sponge and coffee which helped settle a dicky tummy (the writer of this piece trying to empty a third full bottle of Martini on Tuesday night – this is also the reason why today’s walk was changed at the last minute from Durisdeer to Darvel – cut down the long car journey – but to the tale). The day was to remain grey and cold with hardly a breeze(until the top of the hill). We set out walking up the south side of the valley out beyond the sand quarries and then turned across the main road towards the car park for the picnic area besides the monument to Wallace. From this vantage this volcanic plug impresses. Dropping down to cross the stream that is to become the Irvine the climb threatens, but guided by he who has done this thousands of times we made a quick and easy ascent – 25 minutes from the monument to the trig point at the top(Davie reckons he took 15 minutes in his prime). The remains of our pack lunches having been finished off we set off towards Darvel along the north side of the valley. Cattle have churned up much of the walk that trails the old railway line. The frozen ground saved us from ankle deep mud but made the footing tricky. It seemed no time before we had gained the outskirts of Darvel but unbeknown to us the main street in Darvel had been lengthened by about 2 'Jimmy' miles since we set out that morning – well it certainly felt that way! Eventually we made the Black Bull. A relaxing libation, bonhomie all round, crisps! Not a bad way to spend part of the last day of 2008.