Darvel-Loudoun Hill November 2012

Wenesday the 28th November

I'm on my way to pick up the 'Teacher' at Girvan, to head out to Cumnock, where we'll jump into the 'Sloane Ranger's' car. (Note new nickname, click on the link and see if you agree) and head for Darvel.

I'm up early enough to catch the moon.

Up at Girvan, the moon's just dropping behind Arran's hills.

There's been a hard frost, so it takes a while to get to Cumnock, but we're soon on our way and park up in Darvel. We start the walk at half ten which is fine. The Cunninghame Ramblers walked this on Saturday. The Ayrshire Blogger posted the walk before going out on Sunday and snapping his tibia and fibula. Get well soon Gordon. 

Darvel was established in the late 18th century, and a number of buildings have dates on them.

After walking east out of the town we climb a short way up Cemetary Road and join the old Darvel to Strathaven Railway Line

Coming across a small flock of flighty birds a moment of inspiration had me identifying them as Fieldfare

I'm sure that's right, I struggled to zoom in and get one to sit still for long enough.

There's still some of the mud around that the Cunninghame Ramblers encountered, but the frost has been helpful in making the ground much easier to walk along.

We and the trees create long shadows.

At least half a dozen planes passed over during the walk.

The bottom small plane is a 2007 two seater Aeroprakt A.22L Foxbat registered just along the road at Strathaven

At Newlands we leave the railway track to take a steepish tarmac road up to the back of Loudoun Hill.

A short but steep and slippy climb soon gets us to the summit.

We reach the trig point which has a flush bracket Benchmark S4269

The plaque just below the summit reads.

'Battle of Loudoun Hill, May 10 1307, Through devotion and by willing hands this stone was hauled here to commemorate the first victory of King Robert the Bruce who won for us freedom from serfdom'

It's lunch time.

An inscribed rock declares Wallace of Ellerslie 1270 to 1305.

This link will take you to Kyn Wai Chung's Biography of William Wallace.

At the bottom of Loudoun Hill s this monument to Wallace.

Because we're close to the shortest day of the year, we decided we wouldn't have the time to cross over to the otherside of the Irvine Valley so decided to retrace our steps back to Darvel

Descending Loudoun we came across some very interesting bits of broken branches.

I'll admit I haven't seen anything like this before. It looks like mould or fungi that's frozen to give these wonderful patterns. If anyone can throw light on this I'll update the post.

On the way back we again have fun with the shadows.

Back in town we spot some other old houses with dates 1772 and 1797 then make our way to Hasting's Square.

In Hasting's Square is a plaque in memory of  the Regiments based in Darvel during WW2, The Dagon Stone a prehistoric monolith and the bust commemorating Sir Alexander Fleming of penicillin fame.

A very worthwhile and enjoyable walk in excellent company.

A visit to Dumfries House

The first day of July 2011 saw me make my way up to the Ayrshire town of Cumnock.
I'm accompanying a fellow rambler on a visit to Dumfries House.Link
And on Wikipedia

It's an imposing building and estate.Only recently opened to the public and only guided tours.
There's a comprehensive report on the rescue of the house and the Dumfries Family in the Telegraph here.
Telegraph... Dumfries-House-a-Sleeping-Beauty-brought-back-to-life-by-the-Prince-of-Wales.html

Here's a panorama of the front view.

Panorama of Dumfries House on CleVR.com

And here's a nice picture of my fellow rambler and the house.(don't they complement each other)

The elephants will eventually be taken away.If they'd been granite they'd have been ok,but they are in fact fibre glass mouldings.They were there as part of a fund raising campaign by the 'Elephant Family' charity.

This is round the back and a strange dragon on the guttering spotted by my fellow rambler.

No photography was allowed in the house.We were told that flash photography could ruin the many valuable tapestries and paintings.
Dumfries House also contains one of the greatest collections of Chippendale furniture ever assembled.
A Rosewood  Bookcase catalogued when made at £47.5s (the 's' is shillings pre-decimal) is valued at between £2 and £4 million.


The problem with guided tours is you don't get a chance to look around.We didn't see half the house and didn't get the chance to peruse the pictures in the halls and staircases.
Perhaps with time and effort it'll be a house you can walk round leisurely,but it was a rescue for the nation and at least it's not in the hands of a European Plutocrat. 

The literature tells us the following.
Dumfries House also has an excellent estate of over two thousand acres in which you can wander and come upon many other hidden delights, including the Adam Bridge, the Old Water-Powered Saw Mill, the Temple Gate House and the Walled Garden.


The problem is there's no directions to any of these.We did get to the Adam Bridge and we found a nice colourful garden but after a Google search I find that it wasn't the walled garden.


There are a lot of Redwood (sequoia) trees though.

You can see the girth in this picture (the tree that is)
There's a website with some great pictures of the Redwoods of Dumfries House.
Redwoodworld

We were looking for the Temple when we found the wee house, above right.It doesn't really look like a doo'cot (dovecote),but that is it apparently,built 1671.

This is the Robert Adam built bridge.

Here's a cute pastoral scene.

The last three collages were of a wonderful variety of flowers in the garden we walked through.

A very enjoyable visit but a need for more information.

Having said that,the grounds are free to walk in and the answer is to explore.

I'll be back.