Muirkirk Circular 7 July 2010

'On the trail of the lunky hole'

Davie had kept us on tenterhooks all week, in fact our hooks hadn't been so tenter for a long time. On last week's walk he challenged us to what a lunky hole was. As befits a company of retired professional gentlemen he got lots of replies, all of them unprintable and some physically impossible, but alas none were correct. Davie would reveal all during the Muirkirk walk - he would also tells us what a lunky hole was.
And so it was that six ooters assembled at Davie's Darvel muffin maison for coffee and a blether before setting out for the aforesaid Muirkirk. We parked at the Coach House, it's not often we plan this well, and set off for a walk of 4 Davie hours. The route took us up past Kames (see Paul's map) and on to the River Ayr walk, stopping to read the information boards on the way and chatting to a group of Duke of Edinburgh Award teenagers on their way to Sanquhar. We crossed over Tibbie's Brig and followed the walkway in good weather conditions - dry and bright with a good breeze - until coffee was called for within earshot of the opencast mine. Here Paul celebrated his 60th birthday with his pieces today being made from plain bread and, wait for it, butter. Healthy eating was 'oot the windae' for a day. As we moved on we ignored a warning sign and went over to have a look at the mine. What a big hole it was, but sadly not a lunky hole.
We crossed the main road and went up the wee road we had parked on the last time we did part of the River Ayr walk and continued straight over the Sorn road and up to Netherwood Farm where the farmer assured us that a short cut back to Muirkirk was possible further up the road. Despite calls for lunch, we walked as far as Burnfoot Farm, turned in there, and gained the path over a wee bridge that would lead us over in to Muirkirk (the short cut). It had been decided that it was too windy at the bridge for lunch so we stopped further up in the lee of a conifer plantation. But not for long though as the midges soon attacked us. So we upped sticks and walked on with half eaten pieces until we were well into the open, and the breeze, again. Thankfully our fears about the former opencast mine in this area were allayed as it had been filled in and replanted and further down the track we had what was left of our lunch. In no time at all we emerged on to the Strathaven road beside the cemetery and as we walked down towards the town Davie took us across the road to the information boards beside the examples of dry stane dykes. And there it was - a lunky hole is a hole left at the bottom of a dyke to allow hares to pass through. It may also, if larger, accommodate a ditch.
A few more minutes and we were back in the town taking time to go into the memorial garden dedicated to the miners before reaching the cars exactly four hours after we left. However Davie did admit that the short cut we took had taken an hour off his original walk plans.
FRT was taken in the Coach House where we can reveal that the barmaid was not offered a job with Ryanair after all. We believe that her friendly nature and her ability to hand out drinks was not what they were looking for. However she is almost certainly going to work for the NAAFI in Afghanistan. Watch this space!