Wigtownshire Ramblers Barony Hill Dailly July 2012

N.B; This post will be short on detail due to my spending an hour and a half writing an account and providing links only to accidentally delete it, then spending another hour in an unsuccessful attempt to recover it. 

Enough's enough ! 

It's Saturday the 7th of July

Today's walk is one we cut short last October.

You can read it to see what I've missed out here if you like.

October 2011 Walk

Nineteen of us meet up in the village square

The Path markers are designed as over-sized curling stones because of the proximity of the curling pond.

Our target today is Barony Hill.

The Dailly paths can be found on the Walk Ayrshire Web

Our path follows the Lindsayston burn through the woods of the same name

Eventually we emerge on the tarmac road that runs south to Milton.

We however turn north for a short distance

We get our first view of Ailsa Craig .

This is such a landmark I make no excuses for including it as often as possible in my posts

"The route continues along a section of the unclassified hill road to Barr where on the left by the roadside you can see a small sandstone memorial which is inscribed "Dr C". It is not known who Doctor C was but local tradition has it that he was a Doctor from Maybole who was killed at this spot, when thrown from his horse, whilst returning from visiting an outlying patient."

Our walk leader 'The Teacher', makes regular stops to impart interesting information about the history and lanscape of the area.

We turn east to begin a gradual climb, passing Whitehill Farm en route

It's a little damp underfoot after the rain.

We get lucky with the weather today, and only experience a light shower towards the end of the walk.

As well as Ailsa Craig, there's always the increasing presence of the wind turbines.

I think we've enough now, surely it's time to look at alternatives

The first of a couple of false summits

Shorty and Slew with Dailly behind

Lots of pictures taken at Barony Hill summit.

If anyone is interested (why you may ask) in seeing me in a group photograph, pop over to Gordon's Post

A zoom gets this picture of Dalquharran New Castle.

From the summit of Barony we drop down to shelter for lunch.

Lunch is among the old limestone workings of Lannielane Lime Works.

The photographs don't do justice to the underground workings. 

Beginning to descend we see the town of Maybole over to the west.

The limekiln ruins

More boggy gate entrances get us down to Poundland wood.

The seat was to have been our lunch spot, but we were glad it wasn't because of a plague of swarming flies.

At Whitehill farm, two dogs decided to join the walk. One a  Border Collie only got a couple of fields with us, but the Labrador stayed for the duration. We hope he found his way home ok.

We continue the descent to reach the 'Water of Girvan', from where we follow it downstream back towards Dailly. I don't think the fisherman was having any luck.

This was as close as we got to Dalquharran today.

What a waste of such a magnificent building, c'mon you billionaire readers, get investing.

We take a short walk over the Girvan..............

.........................to see again the ruins of the original Dalquharran Castle.

I referred to the latin inscription in the previous post, it means "when your writing sonnets,you're not fighting the crown" 

Now heading back to Dailly, I get a couple of rain spots on my lens

To finish the day off nicely we give the MoonRings cafe our custom for tea and cakes.

A very nice walk to do again.

Here's the 'Teacher's' report of the walk.

Wigtownshire Ramblers - Dailly Circular Walk Sat 7 July 2012

Last Saturday, 19 ramblers took part in an 8-mile walk starting and finishing in Dailly, the former mining village in South Ayrshire.

The group started its ramble in the village square, and headed towards Lindsayston woods. Although it had rained all night, the skies were bright but there were a few angry clouds about. In the woods, which can appear magical, the conditions underfoot were good, not too muddy.

Not surprisingly, the Lindsayston burn was in spate, and there were a few small, but spectacular, waterfalls. Climbing out the woods, we reached the Barr road and headed left down the hill. At Lindsayston Farm, we saw some small pig sheds, one of which had a satellite dish on it. Perhaps the pigs inside were watching ham actors on the TV. Further on by the roadside is a mysterious sandstone memorial which is inscribed
“Dr C”. It is not known who Doctor C was but local tradition has it that he was a Doctor from Maybole who was killed at this spot when thrown from his horse, whilst returning from visiting an outlying patient.

We took a right turn up towards Whitehill Farm. At the farm we were joined by two dogs, a collie and a labrador. As the road turned into a track and then into a path, the views over our shoulders opened out to become more and more spectacular. We could see over the village to the sea, Ailsa Craig and Arran. Even the Kintyre peninsula and Ireland were clearly visible.

At a fence we turned right to pass what is believed to be the site of a chapel founded in the first century by St Machar. It contains parts of an oval shaped earth enclosure within which are two ancient Christian pedestal stones with sockets for holding crosses.

Crossing the bare hillside, we reached the summit of Barony Hill (1072ft) where one of the many carved oak seats on the walk was situated. The views were even more spectacular, with Maybole, Crosshill, and Ayr bay laid out before us. By this time the collie had left us, but the labrador was to stay with us right to the end of the walk. We enjoyed his company, he was better behaved than many of the ramblers.

We next headed a few hundred yards towards an old limestone quarry, where lunch was taken. The quarry was fascinating, with some very deep holes and interesting rock formations. Also at the side were two large limekilns. We followed a trackway from these, which led past a ruined cottage connected to the mining operations, and wended its way downhill to a gate and the next part of the walk.

The route now took us down through an area of deforestation.  Soon we took a sharp left up a short but steep hill until we seemed to enter another world, a beautiful glen where glimpses could be had of the countryside below. We then passed through Falfarocher Glen, following the burn downstream through marvellous woodland which is the haunt of badger, fox, roe deer, and red squirrel, although only the latter two were spotted on this visit.

Walking the bank of the Water of Girvan, we passed the Dalquharran Mansion, which had been conspicuous during much of the walk, sited on high ground on the north side of the river. It was built in 1786 to a design by Robert Adam for a branch of the Kennedy family. Wings were added in 1881 pending a royal visit which never took place. Since the lead was removed from the roof in 1967, it has become more and more ruinous.

After re-crossing the river, the ruins of the old Dalquharran Castle were visited. This castle dates from the 16th century and is surrounded by yew trees, some of which are hundreds of years old. Finally we crossed an artist designed footbridge and walked the short distance back into Dailly.

All agreed that it had been an interesting and diverse walk, with something for everyone. It will probably become a regular annual walk for our group. Our new friend the labrador looked very disappointed as we got into the cars and headed off.  Most of the group then repaired to the MoonRings Café where they enjoyed tea and cakes before facing the tortuous drive home.

Next week’s walk is along the north-west coast of the Rhins from Dally Bay to Corsewall Lighthouse. Meeting times are Riverside Car Park, Newton Stewart 9am, Breastworks, Stranraer 9.30am to share transport or Dally Bay Car Park (NW 968 692) for a 10am start. More details from the walk leader at 01776 870441.