Eaglesham in the sun

I am a country chappie,

AndI’m servin’ at Polnoon,

A ferm near tae Eaglsham,

That fine auld-fashioned toon,

And wi the milk each morning

A wee bit efter three,

We tak the road richt cheerily

The auld grey horse and me.

One of us said ‘By the law of averages we are due a decent day’. This was it. The sun shone from a clear blue sky and, though the ice crystals still rimed the grasses and dead leaves where it hadn’t reached, there was a certain warmth in the late November sun. It was still cool though when we gathered in the shade of the trees on the common in Eaglesham.

Ten o’clock and Bob had us off up through the trees that line the Banks of the Eaglesham Burn and on to the B764. A few hundred yards of this and we were turning right onto a quieter road by the new housing estate of Polnoon and on towards Bonnyton Gold Course. The sun was now on our backs warming us nicely as we walked past the golf course, left the tarmac behind and followed the farm road for East Moorhouse Farm and on through south Moorhouse Farm.

From the rising ground we had magnificent views over the Clyde valley to the mountains of the southern Highlands. Ben Lomond was easy to pick out: Then came Ben Ime, the Cobbler and the Arrochar hills: The gap of Strathblane  was to the right of the high Ben and through this the hills of the Trossachs: There were more, many more still to be identified tops to the left and right and all gleaming white under their blanket of snow. We thought ourselves lucky to be out here on such a day.

Just beyond the farm, advantage was taken of a few boulders, the remains of a dry-stane dyke, to have coffee. We were just beginning to enjoy sitting in the sun when He-of-the-itchy-feet decided it was time to move on.  So move on we did.

As we approached  the Bennan Reservoir the view was enhanced by the appearance of the snow cover alpine-like peaks of Arran to the south-west. We stopped for a few minutes on the reservoir dam to take in the views. Now we had sight of our goal for today - Ballageich Hill rising steeply in front of us.

We left what had been easy walking on road and track and took to the rough hillside. The going was now tough through great tussocks and deep hollows but we all made it to the top and across the rough top to our goal. Just behind a wee crag overlooking a panoramic landscape of wind turbines of and on the leeward side of the hill, we settled down for a longish lunch break. During this the hills of the south were identified from Cairn Table at Muirkirk through the Cumnock hills to the higher summits of Galloway, all seen through the whirling blades of hundreds of wind turbines.

But all good things must come to an end and we decided, somewhat reluctantly in some cases, to move on. A few hundred yards of steepish slope brought us back to tarmac on the B764. Now it was just a matter of following this back to our starting point in Eaglesham.

An eight and half miles of leisurely (well mostly leisurely) stroll was enough for the day.

We returned to Kilmarnock to take advantage of Wetherspoons  for FRT today.