ADRC Neilston Pad, Renfrewshire. July 2011

Comfort stop at the leisure centre 50yds from the start.

Lots of fences and gates  to be climbed today.

Glanderston Dam in the sunshine.

1st Coffee break.

Well it is a warm day after all!

Looking out to the City of Glasgow and beyond.

We stopped here for lunch.

An attractive potential new member.

Today's walk leader on top of the Neilston Pad.

Today's group of smiling faces.

On a lovely sunny day I joined ADRC on a 6 mile circular walk starting off in Neilston ,Renfrewshire not an area that many of us have walked in. Today's leader used to run a business in nearby Barrhead , it had nothing to do with the famous "Shanks" before you all start cracking jokes.A very good friend of mine from long ago asked me if she could accompany the group today as she had not walked with the ramblers before. At my suggestion we started off with a "C" grade walk but when she told me of all the marathons she has run in and also her keep fit classes we could have advanced to an "A" grade walk immediately. 21 of us started from Neilston railway station to walk out of the town on minor roads and up to Glanderston Dam where we had out first break basking in glorious sunshine what a pleasant change from last weekend. Now we climbed up Craig of Carnock Hill (204M) with the wonderful views of the City of Glasgow and all the various mountains in the distance.From here we crossed over some fields and then on to another minor road to Snypes Dam which is also a fishery . This was our lunch stop where we all had fun watching the fish jumping , Golden Eye Duck were also spotted by the twitchers amongst us. Another small ascent got us to the top of the Neilston Pad with a panoramic view from the Island of Arran in the South to the Arrochar Alps in the North well worth coming out today just to see that in the warm summer sun it was stunning.Short walk back to the cars to complete our walk with thanks to today's leader  it was her local knowledge of the area that had brought us all out of Ayrshire  to enjoy a very pleasant ramble in the Renfrewshire countryside.