New arrangements for Wed 2 Nov.

 Meet at Knockroon car park about 9.45.a.m. We can then decide upon an alternative walk to cope with the poor weather forecast.

Falls of Clyde 26 October

Allan, Davie C, Davie Mc, Dougie, Gus, Hugh, Ian, Jimmy, Kenny R, Malcolm, Paul, Robert

We travelled to Kirkfieldbank through heavy rain and flooded roads in the hope that the forecast would be correct and that the rain would go off about ten o’clock. And sure enough, it did, with blue skies appearing.

Derval Davie suggested doing the walk in the opposite direction as the south side would be extremely muddy and better to get it out of the road first. The second option, which won the day, was simply to walk in our normal direction up through New Lanark and continue up to the dam and then retrace our steps back to the cars.

All didn’t go to plan though, as we had only walked for about five minutes when we saw the grass path ahead of us absolutely flooded as far as the eye could see. There was no option but to turn back and consider Plan C, which was to drive up to the car park at New Lanark and re-assess when we got there. It was a lovely autumn morning by this stage, and once the parking meters had been mastered, not an easy task, we set off at half past ten. We decided not to stop for a coffee at the café but continue up the path whilst the weather was with us.

Given the amount of rain that had fallen it was no surprise that the water was roaring down the falls and, with the sunshine, the colours were excellent. Underfoot was better than we had expected with only a few large puddles to negotiate and before long we made the dam, or is it a weir?, which we crossed, and then walked down to the viewpoint on the opposite bank where we took an early lunch at about half past eleven, watching the water cascading over the falls accompanied by tumultuous sound.

Retracing our steps, we got back to the cars at twenty to one having covered about four miles. Given the weather earlier on, we had got in a decent walk in unexpectedly good conditions.

FRT was taken at the Black Bull in Darvel where the barmaid confessed that she had missed us as it had been a while since we had been there. A really good day out!

 

 

Falls of Clyde

 

Arrangements for 2nd November

Corsencon...ish

Meet in the station car park at New Cumnock at 10am. The walk will follow the road up to Corsencon where there will be an option to climb the hill, for those who are up to it. The rest will wait for them to come back down (the same way they went up) before continuing on the track round through the opencast and then back into New Cumnock. Jimmy will lead the walk!

Lendalfoot to Girvan 19 October

Alan McQ, Allan, Davie C, Dougie, Gus, Hugh, Jimmy, Malcolm

Our original plan was to meet at the Ainslie car park in Girvan, catch the 10.37 bus to Lendalfoot, and walk back. However, we were all there, at least we hoped so, by half past nine and, rather wait for the bus, decided to take two of the four cars to Lendalfoot and start the walk earlier. This proved to be a good idea as the weather turned to rain earlier than we had bargained for.

Setting off along the beach in decent conditions we turned up to the road just before Pinbain Burn and crossed over to find the old coach road. The first part is a steep uphill section but before long we were heading on the track towards Pinbain Hill. Four of us, Alan, Dougie, Gus, and Hugh had decided to go high, over Pinbain Hill, Grey Hill and Byne Hill, whilst the rest had made their minds up to stick to the lower Coastal Path route along the coach road, but, before splitting, we took coffee together. The views ranged from Ailsa Craig, looking good in the weak, morning sunshine, to the Council coup over behind us. What a variety!

Anyway, the members of the ‘low’ group, including your scribe, left the others to their climb, and made their way, without difficulty, along the track until we saw the sign pointing to the path’s continuation to the right beside a farmer’s fields, close to the road. This section proved to very wet and muddy, and it was with relief that Ardwell Farm was reached, at which point another sign told us to cross the road and make our way along the grass verge until we could get back down to the beach. Lunch was taken, but with the skies darkening to the south, we didn’t delay for long and set off on the final leg. The going on the beach had been tough underfoot, so we decided to walk along the grass verge until we made the pavement at the Ardmillan Castle Holiday Park. Sticking to the pavement from there on in, we made the car park at one o’clock just as the spots of rain turned to more serious stuff. Six miles had been covered.

We reckoned that the rest would be a good bit longer, so Jimmy took us all back to Lendalfoot in his car in order that Malcolm could collect his, and, on returning, were surprised to see the ‘high’ group in the car park. They had missed out the last hill because of the conditions and found a relatively quick way down. Other than Alan, they had found their walk taxing.

FRT was taken in the Greenside in Maybole and, by the time we left, the rain had stopped.

 

 

 

 

Images of the walk from Lendalfoot to Girvan featuring Alan McQ, Allan, Davie C, Dougie, Gus, Hugh, Jimmy and Malcolm