Friday 7 February 2014

5 February Sorn to The Haugh and back


Alan, Allan, Davie C, Davie Mc, Gus, Malcolm, Jimmy, Johnnie, Paul, Peter, Rex, Robert & Ronnie


Nature, it would seem, smiles on the Ooters. Despite the wet and windy winter, we have been blessed by reasonable weather for our Wednesday outings; in fact we haven’t had a wet Wednesday walk since the turn of the year. And, despite dire warnings from the Met Office of heavy rain and storm force winds for today, this was another walk that seems to prove that Nature smiles on the Ooters. It would also seem that none of us is afraid of a little rain and wind for regardless of the forecast, thirteen of us gathered in Sorn for our re-arranged walk – even if we had to wait for the tardy one from Cumnock. And the sun shone on us as we set off up the Mauchline road a little after our scheduled departure time of ten.

Sorn Castle looked a picture this morning perched on its rock above the River Ayr and bathed in warm morning sunlight. And this self-same morning sunlight was with us as we turned off the Mauchline road on to a byway that took us past Hillhead Farm to the Catrine War Memorial. It was interesting to note that among the names engraved there were two Italian ones, two Catrine folk of Italian extraction who fought in the Italian forces in WW1. Then we left the War memorial and dropped down the Chapel Brae into Catrine itself.

What a pleasant surprise awaited us in Catrine. Peter had arranged with his brother Edward that we could have coffee in his new café/restaurant. Though the café is not open to the public yet, Edward made us most welcome for it gave him a chance to try out his systems. We thank Edward for his hospitality and Peter for arranging this.

After coffee we found ourselves on the River Ayr Way. We would stay on it for a good while now. Over the ‘timmer brig’ we came, along past the sewage works, up the steps (Or what’s left of them!) and under the Howford Brig. Amazement and wonder spread though the group as we examined the graffiti on the span of the new brig – amazement as to how somebody had the nerve to climb up there and wonder as to why the so-and-sos wanted to do this in the first place.

There was no such graffiti on the old brig though, only a dirty great hole where some organisation or other was laying pipes. But we hadn’t time to look into this hole for long, we moved on up the slope away from the river again.

Again we turned off tarmac and came onto Lady Alexander’s Walk along the sandstone cliffs above the river. Somebody expressed an interest in seeing the cup and ring markings carved into the living rock and a group of us set off in search of these. Jimmy was for into the field but Davie Mc knew a better way. So we struggled up slippery banks, down into glaury holes, underneath branches and over dead tree stumps until we eventually got to the markings. Supposedly bronze-age markings, our pseudo-archaeologist disputes their authenticity but his argument is too long for these scribblings so you will need to ask him yourself. Jimmy was right; the best way to get to the markings is through the field and this is the way we came back to the River Ayr path.


While Peter and Jimmy went to show Ronnie the Fisherman’s Tryst, the rest of us walked on to a lunch spot underneath the span of the Ballochmyle viaduct. Some were for turning back at this point but Davie Mc suggested that it was only ten minutes to the path for Kingencleugh and it would be a better route back. We walked on. 

The company to the front missed the path for Kingencleugh and before we could correct their error, we found ourselves at The Haugh. Now we had a choice of two equally long routes back – right to Mauchline or left to Braehead Farm and Catrine house. Whichever we chose, we would be on tarmac for a while now. We opted for the left and climbed out of the valley onto the higher ground by the farm. A great bank of snowdrops below the farm house cheered us on the ascent from the valley to the higher ground around the farm. And it was on this higher ground that, for the first time today, the sun went and rain could be seen coming in from the south.

But the threat of rain didn’t worry us too much. We walked on past Turnerhill and Merkland. Then we found the River Ayr Way again at Catrine House tearoom. Now we would retrace our steps back to Catrine. Allan, who has not been fully fit since before Christmas, was suffering from distance and speed today so he opted to stop in Peter’s place while the rest of us walked on. And walk on we did, past the Voes over the river, under Daldorch and back to Sorn in double quick time.

While Johnnie returned to Catrine for Allan, the rest of us made directly for Poosie Nancy’s in Mauchline for FRT.


Once again Nature has smiled on the Ooters – another dry Wednesday walk despite the horrendous forecast from the Met Office

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