Kirkoswald to Maybole

Alan McQ, Davie C, Davie McM, Dougie, Francesco, Hugh, Rex, Robert

It was a bright, sunny day in the ancient capital of Carrick as a band of Ooters met for a coffee before getting the bus to Kirkoswald. However, it would seem that not all Ooters read this blog as only Alan McQ and Dougie went to the Carrick Centre as had been intimated whilst some of the others (well, let's just say the three from Kilmarnock) had their coffee at the Dairy Corner Tea Room on the High Street - probably because it was marginally closer to their car than the Carrick Centre and who can blame them for not wanting to walk further than necessary? At 10am, the five coffee drinkers met up at the Greenside with the others: a dug-less Derval Davie and Rex who had brought his Italian son-in-law Francesco along for the outing.

The bus for Kirkoswald was a few minutes late in arriving and the driver wasted no time in getting back on schedule as we hurtled along the country roads at such a breakneck speed that some of us wondered whether there was a bomb strapped to the vehicle. It was therefore with a sense of relief that we disembarked in Kirkoswald and started to make our way back to Maybole on foot. Our route out of the village followed the Kirkbrae up past the local church and the newer cemetery then down a shaded lane and across the Milton Burn before a long section which was quite overgrown in places but today's leader had been in the Scouts and came prepared with a pair of secateurs to cut back any obstructive undergrowth.

About a mile into the walk, we reached a quiet back road and followed this for the next couple of miles past Chapelbarr Cottage and up to the highest point of the day's walk near the ruins of High Newlands where we stopped for coffee and enjoyed the views and banter. We left the tarmac here and continued along a track through the long grass, noting that there was no longer any livestock grazing up here on the high moorland and tree planting was underway. Our route continued past the Drummochreen Cairn which marks the spot where, in 1599, Andrew MacAlexander of Drummochreen was murdered by Hew Kennedy of Girvan Mains. 

We maintained a good pace as we followed the track down the intriguingly named Ghaist Glen to our planned lunch stop in the shade of the trees beside Loch Spouts which had been visited by some of us last summer. However, the water level of the loch was very much lower on this occasion; exposing the wrecks of various boats. It was not apparent whether the low volume of water in the reservoir had been due to repair works being carried out or a prolonged period of below-average rainfall. There was once a crannog on the loch and medieval artefacts have been discovered in this area. Loch Spouts became Maybole's main water supply in the 1880s but has since been replaced by Loch Bradan. 

After lunch we resumed our march back to Maybole by following the tarmac road round the base of Kildoon (none of us expressed any interest in climbing the hill on this occasion). Alan McQ showed Rex and Francesco the waterfalls on the Capenoch Burn whilst the others were more interested in getting back to the town for a refreshment.

The total distance for the day was 8.2 miles which we covered in around 3.5 hours (including two stops). We spent a very enjoyable hour in the beer garden of the Greenside before making our way home.