Route Marchers walk to Cairn Table and beyond. June 2011

Muirkirk was our starting point.

Honest Muirkirk is down there through the mist.

Climbing Cairn Table (593M)

Cairn on summit .

View Finder.

Is it a walker with his midgie net or a bank robber?

Macadam's memorial.

Inscription on the monument.

Well constructed bridge over the River Galpell.

Historical information board.

Muirkirk has it's own racing circuit.

Today I joined the route marchers as I call them for a walk up Cairn Table near Muirkirk in East Ayrshire to recce a walk for the future and also to try out new routes that we had not walked before.Going up to the summit of Cairn Table we were in the drizzly misty rain but once on the summit it cleared a bit and we had a nice breeze which was keeping the midgies away. The cairn on the top was constructed to commemerate the fallen who hailed from the village in The Great War of 1914-18.From there we descended down towards a forest area  climbed again to the summit of Stony Hill (562M) this is where the fun began we were not sure what would be the best way if we had a large group with us so after several attempts at going through peat bogs it was decided to make our way down through the forest and onto a track as shown on the map.It was quite a difficult descent on the wet slopey ground but we all made it safely it was now time for a spot of lunch or so we thought. In the forest waiting for us to get comfortable were clouds of midgies so lunch part one lasted all of three minutes and off we went again throught the dense forest until we reached the moorland and the breeze where we then enjoyed lunch part two.From here it was 4 miles back to Muirkirk along a fairly boggy and sometimes invisible track so lots of jumping over wee streams made the going quite strenuous. A very nicely constructed bridge took us over the River Galpell and on past a memorial to John Macadam who invented the tar that we all drive our cars along on the roads. He was a son of the village. Passing the local golf course we came to the  car rally circuit they have built here on the edge of Muirkirk and today the boy racers were doing time trials in their sooped up machines presumably before they go cruising this evening along Ayr's Promenade and upset the local residents .A great walk of 11.5 miles over rough ground with quite a bit of climbing involved resulted in the usual discussion is it an "A" walk or a "B" we decided it was in between so we settled on "B+" to stop the arguements. A wee bit of a dreich day weather wise but most enjoyable in the company of the "Route Marchers"