Failford to Stair walk

Davie Mc, Dougie, Gus, Hugh, Iain, Jimmy, Malcolm, Paul and Rex.

The above 9 Ooters met at Failford on a glorious sunny morning, the warmest walk-day of the year so far. It was nice to welcome Iain Bonnear back after his prolonged absence. although on the return  journey the pace was proving too much for him and, to quote, he was "rapidly losing the will to live". So the usual "no compassion" was shown to Iain on his first walk back.

The Failford Gorge was looking resplendently lush, with lots of wildflowers in abundance with several of us commenting on the superb white blossom of the hawthorn trees.

We took the lower path along the river which meant of course we had 100 lung bursting steps at the other end to negotiate.

Before long we were heading past Daldorch farm and the massive barley crop on our right. Jimmy was heard to guess how many bottles of malt whisky could be made from such a field.

Of course, it was now time to enter the wood where the landslip is. Your scribe had not been as far as this for a long time and didn't know what to expect. Unfortunately the landslip has got much worse since we last did the walk; lots more vegetation and some really difficult, dangerous, obstacles to manoeuvre round. However we all made it safely to our lunch spot at Stair weir, where we noticed that the old sluice and lade seemed to be in operation again, and a new sign "Dalmore Hydro" could be seen across the road where the honing works used to be.

There were no dissenting voices when it was suggested we take the easy way back, avoiding the landslip again although Isla was not happy about walking on the main road, sitting down and waiting till each car passed by before continuing, causing Davie to be well behind at the coo's tail for a while.

The return journey proved very pleasant indeed, (maybe not for Iain), and we arrived back at the cars 3 hours and 20 minutes after we had set off.  We were all desperate for FRT which of course we enjoyed in the sit-ooterie of the Black Bull in Mauchline. Sausage rolls were provided as usual and we enjoyed a good hour's banter. Fabulous day out!

Text by Davie and photos by Jimmy