Castle Semple 9 February

Alan, Allan, Davie C, Davie Mc, Dougie, Gus, Hugh, Iain, Jim, Jimmy, Johnny, Kenny T, Malcolm, Paul, Rex, Robert

The forecast promised wintry showers in amongst some sunny spells, and it was spot on. Sixteen of us waited in our cars at the car park at Castle Semple for the heavy, sleety rain to go off, but, as if by magic, come ten o’clock, the sky was blue, and we set off on our walk to Howwood. We took the path by the loch for the first leg before taking the cycle track up to the turn off to the folly. Kenny had taken Freya up through Parkhill Wood, but everyone else had stuck to the path, and when he got to the turn off, he turned back to retrace his steps.

There was quite an even split as some took to the path round Kenmure Hill whilst the rest went up to the folly, but as we were getting together again at the far side of the hill, the rain and hail hit us again. By the time we got to the end of the track and met the road there was a view to shorten the walk by going left up the road and re-joining the cycle path back to the cars. A few pointed out brightening sky in the distance and were in favour of finishing what we had started. The majority won and we all took the shorter option, although by the time we had regained the path, the sun was out. The last ten minutes saw us in rain again, but we got it dry to get changed before taking our pieces in the cars. We hadn’t seen the snowdrops at Auchengrange House, the purpose of our walk, but had seen a small outcrop just past the loch.

The walk had taken two hours and ten minutes and we had covered about six miles, a short walk for a Wednesday, but few complained as it meant we could hit the Brown Bull in Lochwinnoch earlier, where a very convivial hour was spent.