4 May - Gleniffer Braes

Gloomy winter's noo awa', saft the westlin' breezes blaw
Amang the birks o' Stanley Shaw, the mavis sings fu' cheery o
Sweet the crawflower's early bell, decks Gleniffer's dewy dell
Bloomin' like your bonnie sel', my ain my darlin' dearie o
Come my lassie let us stray o'er Gleniffer's sunny brae
And blythely spend the gowden day 'midst joys that never weary o
Robert Tannahill

Six Ooters (Johnnie, Allan, Malcolm, Paul, Robert and Ian) gathered on the affluent southern edge of Paisley for our walk over Gleniffer Braes. Robert had arranged for local guide John to accompany us on our walk over the Braes and John even brought a map with him.

We passed a substantial reservoir, now colonised by plant life, and a lade which we presumed had once fed one of Paisley's many cotton mills. Our first viewpoint above the town provided a fine view sweeping round from Ben Lomond to the pimple of the Meikle Bin in the Campsies (the wet nature of the walk over the Bin was recalled).

We emerged from woodland onto the open hillside this was the kind of terrain, with big views, that we were to have for the rest of the walk. Signs reassuringly told us there were no cattle in the fields at the moment.

After examining the orientation table, coffee was taken at Robertson Park. Unfortunately for Ian, his vision of a burger van in the car park turned out to be no more than a camper van. A couple of largish birds were spotted in the trees but with Jimmy absent we had to guess what they were. They definitely weren't seagulls. "Thrushes" we thought. To your scribe they looked much bigger than song thrushes so maybe mistle thrushes.

We headed up the hillside to The Paisley Golf Club (sounds posh), passing through the car park and past the clubhouse. Here Johnnie met one of Irvine jazz buddies as he was unloading clubs from his car.

At this point an omen was witnessed. On the eve of polling day, aircraft contrails and the blue sky formed a perfect St Andrew's cross.

Climbing to the highest point of the walk (219 metres) we heard a cuckoo and there were lots of hairy coos in the fields. From the top we looked down on Glenburn and Harelaw reservoirs and out towards the Whitelees windfarm. We weren't quite sure what the hill to the left of the windmills was. We decided it was Tinto Hill but it could have been something quite different.

We descended towards Barrhead over the Fereneze Braes, stopping for lunch close to one of the tees on Fereneze golf course, where Ian and Robert set off in search of lost balls in the rough. We were in no hurry and we made the most of the pleasant weather.

Soon Arthurlie FC's ground, Dunterlie Park, came into view and we dropped quickly off the Braes into Barrhead where refreshments were taken in the Brig Inn. The walls of the Inn were filled with sporting memorabilia - football programmes, player and team photos, pictures of boxers. There was even a 1946 Scottish Junior Cup final programme. Magic!

All that remained was to get the bus back to close to our starting point. Only our young guide had to pay!

Many thanks to John for leading us on this fine walk on a super day. Not once did we get lost!