West Kilbride to Largs 16 May

Allan, Andy, Davie, Davie C, Malcolm, Paul, Rex

Seven ooters met at West Kilbride station in bright, dry but ‘fresh’ conditions for the now familiar walk to Largs via Blaeloch Hill. The route has been described previously so no great detail will be made here but suffice it to say that coffee was taken at the usual stones overlooking the fishery before any serious climbing was done.

It has to be mentioned that Holly was kept on her lead for those parts of the walk where we were in any close proximity to sheep. Well done to Davie who couldn’t accept our congratulations as he had been gagged before we set off – gaffer tape is a great thing.

One change to the route took place when we reached the path leading to the top of Kaim Hill. We couldn’t remember whether to take the right hand path or the left and despite his better judgement Paul was persuaded to take the left. This was not the route to the top but allowed us to skirt Kaim Hill and approach the ‘bog’ further down than we usually do. This was a good move as underfoot conditions were much better than encountered previously. Before we knew it we were climbing towards the cairn on Blaeloch Hill where lunch was taken in the lea of the hill as the wind had a certain edge to it. When we did this walk a couple of years back there were no windmills, last year there were some and this year the Kelburn Windfarm was all around us.

The views today were excellent as Arran, Bute, Cumbrae, the Argyll Hills could be seen to the west whilst we could see over beyond Dalry and up to Glasgow to the east and north.

We didn’t wait long for lunch due to the snell wind.  In fact hats, jackets and gloves were retrieved from rucksacks before setting off on the downward trek past the remains of the air crash and down the windfarm road before crossing over towards the burn (past a group of RAMblers who were looking rather sheepish) and making our way through Kelburn Estate towards the Haylie Brae.

Having weighed up our options a decision was made to walk down to Scott’s at the Yacht Haven for FRT, and very pleasant it was too sitting in the sit-ootery* sheltered from the wind. It had taken us a full 5 hours to get there and having rested our weary bones we got the 4.45pm bus back to West Kilbride – at least it would have been the 4.45 if it had been on time, 5 o’clock more like!

*Not to be confused with a shit-ootery which is an outside toilet!