Elite walkers . Hurlford to Priestland nr Darvel. March 2012

Hurlford Main Street was our start.

Ships propeller (see text)

A dog friendly style.

Loudoun old kirk.

We wondered if you would get lonely in this pub.

Sad reminder of Newmilns industrial past.

At one time this was a world famous lace making area.

The teacher got a wee bit excited here!!

The message here is self explanatory.

Another tree lined avenue for my ever increasing album

A male wild boar

Whilst Mum looks after the bairns.

Todays group.

Our "Bio" bus to take us back to Hurlford.

Today Tuesday march 6th the Elite walking group met at Hurford near Kilmarnock to do a 10 mile walk along the River Irvine to Priestland which is a little village just beyond Darvel. We met at Hurlford Cross with its ships propeller monument to the past. This is the foundry that made the propellers for the QE11 back in 1967 and the one at the cross today was the last to be moulded here. 6 of us left the village and made our way along the river on a fine sunny morning listening to all the bird song in the trees at the rivers edge.Our first stop was the ruins of the old Loudoun Kirk where we explored the old headstones in the cemetry.Arriving in Galston we walked through the town centre admiring the old houses that you do not appreciate if you drive past in your car, you see so much more when you are on foot. A further two miles took us to Newmilns which was world famous for its lace making factories which unfortunately today are almost wiped out. This was a thriving industry at one time and employed large numbers of local people in their production processes. Once we had passed through the village we entered the Lanfine Estate where we had a lunch stop overlooking Darvel where one of our group  who was born in this area pointed out places of interest including a ski slope that none of us had appreciated existed here . This was also the birthplace of Sir Alexander Fleming of penicillin fame and a statue of him has been erected in the town square.Next we came to a boar enclosure on the estate with lots of youngsters running around hoping to get some extra food from the walkers , we spent some time here as it was quite unusual to find this type of farming in this area.Finishing our walk at Priestland we all agreed it had been a super day out with lots of history and things of local interest . Thanks to the chemist whose idea it was to do this today it covered an area that we did not appreciate was virtually on our doorstep.