Rankinston to Waterside 2 August

Alan McQ, Allan, Davie C, Davie Mc, Dougie, Gus, Ian, Jim, Jimmy, Johnny, Malcolm, Paul, Rex, Robert

The bus journey from Ayr to Rankinston was mesmerising. If you could imagine a child doodling on a piece of paper for five minutes, that could summarise the route. A normally quiet wee bus was, suddenly, almost full with gentlemen* of a certain age, so much so that, as we passed through Drongan, people at the bus stops, awaiting the Cumnock bus, were bemused by the sight of so many people going to Rankinston. It must have made their day. As our charabanc climbed up from Littlemill to the village we were aware that most of the houses, although seemingly in decent condition, were vacant. Maybe, if we were ever in this neck of the woods again, it would be a ghost town, or more precisely, a ghost street.
Alan was right in that the bus had done a lot of the climbing for us, but having sat in a confined space for an hour or so, it took a wee while for the leg muscles to get going as we continued the climb on the old road. Those of us who took time to look behind were treated to a fine view of the Ayrshire countryside. Leaving the old road, with Davie Mc reminiscing about making deliveries up here in his bread van (back in the good old days), we continued on a track which eventually took a right turn and headed for the remains of the opencast. Moving on from the grassy path, we took the opencast road down to the left towards Lethanhill. As we approached the monument, a four by four drew up and the workmen within explained that they were working up here with heavy machinery, although all we had seen was a wee road roller, and that it would be unadvisable to use this route again in the near future.
The rain had been falling lightly for the past half hour, so dry spots under the trees were the preferred choices for coffee. It had taken us an hour to get here and twenty minutes were spent relaxing.
As we moved on, Johnny and Allan decided that they would take the road down to Patna and shorten their walk, so they set off, noticing as they did that the gate leading to the opencast road had now been locked shut by the afore-mentioned workers. Are they going to install a gate at the Rankinston side and put up a notice? Probably not!
The main body headed along the old railway line towards Corbie Craigs and then made their way down Dunaskin Glen and into Waterside for the bus back to Ayr.
Alan’s pictures and comments adequately describe their progress.
*This word is used loosely of course. Other descriptions are available.