1 June - Doon Valley

Malcolm, Ian, Paul, Kenny R, Jimmy, Peter, Rex, Robert, Alan, Gus, Davie C, Davie M.

Blue skies greeted the Ooters who turned up at Dunaskin for a walk through the Doon Valley’s social and industrial past. Shorts were the order of the day.

The walk began at the Railway Museum and passed by the remains of the impressive Waterside Iron Works with chimney stacks, an Italianate engine house dated 1847, and the 14-chambered Dunaskin Brick Works.

Watch video of cyclist extraordinaire Danny Macaskill's visit to the site Your correspondent feels giddy just watching it.

Leaving the industrial site we crossed the Dunaskin Burn. The old railway bridge is long gone but the crossing was easy. We were now on the open moor, following the cutting of an old tramway which transported ironstone to the Works. To the left was a green hill, imaginatively named Green Hill, and below it were the steep sides of the ravine through which the upper Dunaskin Burn flowed. According to legend Alpin, King of Scots was slain here around AD 850 – but not everyone in our group was convinced.

Corbie Craigs, the first of our deserted settlements came into view. This was a settlement of 10 houses, still well preserved, built by the Iron Works around 1850 to help exploit the ironstone in the area. Its development was arrested because of the bigger ironstone deposits found higher up. Nevertheless it was inhabited until 1951.

We joined a metalled road, walked past two long-abandoned vehicles, and made our way towards Benwhat (more properly Benquhat) Hill.  A modern carved stone informed us we were now at the site of Benwhat village. Not much remained of the settlement, which was vacated in the early 50s,  although the location  of the school was clear and some brickwork from the rows could be made out.  A seat had been provided and we took the opportunity to stop for coffee. A plastic box contained a booklet about the village, some cuttings and a visitors’ book. We leafed through the literature whilst Davie M made an entry on behalf of the Ooters, adding that he had last visited the site of the village in 1967.

Benwhat Heatherbell with the Ayrshire Junior Cup - 1900

 "At the close of the game ...several of the players quarrelled, and a pugilistic display concluded the day's proceedings."

Report of the 1900 Ayrshire Junior Cup final at Rugby Park. Heatherbell defeated Burnfoothill Primrose 2-1.

From the village we ascended Benwhat Hill. A schism meant it was tackled from two directions, but we met up at the recently restored war memorial commemorating the fallen of the village in two world wars. The walk to the top was over open ground with no semblance of a path but it was easy walking. The view from the summit was spectacular stretching from Arran to Ailsa Craig to the Awfu’ Hand and Mullwharchar, the Rhinns of Kells, Green Lowther, Tinto and Cairn Table.

Crossing rough terrain we descended to an old mineral line  which linked Benwhat to Lethanhill, our next objective. Walking was pleasant along the plateau. One old bridge on the line had been reduced to its wooden cross beams but some hardy souls were undeterred and stepped across regardless. The sensible ones crossed the burn below the bridge.

Lunch was called and a grassy bank and a few well-positioned boulders made for a comfortable break.

Lethanhill was a village of around 120 houses with a school, pub and other public buildings. Nature, in the form of a plantation, has taken over although we could glimpse remains of buildings in the forestry. It was vacated in 1954 with the inhabitants moving to new council housing in Patna. The school, however, remained open until 1959 and pupils were bussed up from Patna.

Lethanhill 1952

Lethanhill now

We visited the war memorial serving both Lethanhill and Burnfoothill (together known as ‘The Hill’) and a stone proclaiming “1851-1954 Long Live the Hill”.

Burnfoothill has suffered an even worse fate than Lethanhill. It has been scoured from the landscape by open cast mining activity. It was good to see work under way restoring the landscape. Nature will doubtless soon take over.

Your correspondent was happy to locate the site of Burnfoothill Primrose’s football ground.

It was time to drop down into the valley and we opted to descend steeply via the old Drumgrange incline. A spectacular piece of engineering, this was a double track railway using a drum and rope system to lower full trucks of ironstone to the bottom and raise the empty trucks back up to Lethanhill.  We followed the line at the foot of the hill back to our departure point. The last mile in particular was a pleasant walk along a well maintained path.

The whole walk took a little under 4 hours – but we saw a lot and it was beautiful day to be out in the hills.

Refreshments were taken at the Dalmellington Inn.. Our old friend “Chic” made an appearance in a wheelchair and he informed us he had suffered a stroke. We wished him well.