We met at 10 am in Furnace Road, Muirkirk outside the Black Bull Hotel where we were later to rendezvous for our post walk libation.
Muirkirk has a most fascinating and interesting industrial history and indeed it was in Furnace Road that the gasworks (the Muirkirk Coke and Gaslight Company) opened in 1859, Muirkirk being the first town in Britain to be lit by gas; ironically it was also the last place in the UK to be connected to the national gas network, in 1977.
We proceeded to the Kaimes car park where we picked up Peter who had initially been missed by Rex as he (Peter) was having a pee behind the wee shelter. This walk was supposed to be a repeat of the one on the 13th February 2008 when Jimmy was the first in 2008 to don shorts. Since the weather forecasters had promised us really foul weather coming in about noontime, it was decided to curtail the walk and simply climb Cairntable from the Sanquhar Road and return down the front.
Since there was a spot of rain while we were at the car park, we all duly donned wet weather gear and set off. Beyond the ruins of Springhill House, the newcomers to he Early Ooters had a look at the cairn commemorating the road-maker John Loudoun McAdam, erected on the site of his tar kilns. Incidentally, Tar McAdam never used or promoted the use of tar in the building of roads; his nickname merely derives from from his association with the tar works.
Furnace Road itself was built by McAdam as an early experiment in road construction; it was one of the first ever to use the engineer's revolutionary methods of compacting small broken stones, and slag from the ironworks further up Furnace Road, into to a mass that was impervious to moisture.
(turning into a ******** history lesson this)
We shortly reached the Sanquhar Brig and left the old road, originally part of a coach road linking Glasgow with Carlisle and constructed in 1793. No doubt Jimmy will tell me the bloody date's wrong. We proceeded along the path up the west shoulder of Cairntable, being pleasantly surprised that conditions underfoot were not as bad as they could have been, due to the overnight frost. The weather had still not deteriorated as promised and although there was a biting wind as we ate our lunch, behind the huge cairn on the summit, it was still a very clear and otherwise pleasant day. So much so, that the big football on the top of Lowther Hill was clearly visible. Mind you, if Jimmy had been present, he would probably have thought it was Steygail. The cairn was erected by volunteers in 1920 to commemorate those Muirkirk men who died and served in the Great War and contains a scroll in the middle listing all their names.
From the summit we could have headed east towards Glenbuck Loch, but again the pessimists warned of the impending bad weather and insisted we just made our way back down the tourist path. Rex was slightly miffed as he had plans to take us in a somewhat longer route back, but he was overruled. As it turned out, the bad weather did not materialise until very late in the afternoon and we strolled back downhill in what could be described as a pleasant late autumn day, even having time to have a diversion to let Peter see some of the lochans that have been created once the old ironworks mines flooded.
The final part of the walk of course was across the old Muirkirk Juniors football ground which has almost reverted to nature, although you can still see signs of the clubhouse, the covered enclosure and indeed the goalposts. I well remember coming up here to watch games which had attendances of several hundred - mind you, 95% of the spectators were sheep.
Davie's question as to what former Muirkirk Juniors player played several times for Scotland, and in 1962 scored with a penalty and then later in the game broke his leg in a 2:1 victory over England was answered almost indignantly by Robert - Eric Caldow.
A short but enjoyable walk with lots of blether and banter, although the comments about the antics of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross are unprintable.
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