Cunninghame Ramblers. Chatelherault Park nr. Hamilton April 2012

Bluebells are just starting to flower.

Some of the minature hedges at the "House"

One of the bridges over the River Avon

Passing the remains of Cadzow Castle.

This tree house is in one of the private residences.

There's one born every minute !!

These trees are known as the Cadzow Oaks.

A tree lined avenue !!

This is referred to as the green bridge.

Steps have been built to assist walkers up the steep climbs.

The group at the Dukes Monument.

Job well done sir.

Today was a bit of an adventure for the Cunninghame Ramblers who went to Hamilton in Lanarkshire for their mid week walk to Chatelherault House . I went by bus from Ayr whilst the other 9 walkers met at Irvine and travelled by car. Once we met at the visitors centre the leader suggested we went in for a cup of tea as at this point the rain was pouring down this would give us time to decide whether we should abandon the walk.After 20 minutes the rain eased to a drizzle so the decision was made lets go for it as the first part of the walk was a circular track of about 3 miles which would bring us back close to the centre so if the weather was getting worse we had opportunities to give up. Passing down a gorge in the River Avon we enjoyed a forestry walk which gave us shelter from the drizzle which was showing signs of easing.Arriving back at the magnificent house it was decided to carry on and we walked another track to the Dukes Monument where we had lunch stop in very grand surroundings.The afternoon part of the walk took us past Cadzow Castle ruins on our way to see some old oak trees that must date back a few hundred years.Some glimpses of sunshine appeared as we made our way through the park to pass over the River Avon again which really is the centre piece of the grounds. Arriving back at the cars everyone agreed that it had been a super walk which we were all pleased that the leader had persuaded us to go out earlier in the inclement weather it soon cleared up to give us an excellent day out to a part Lanarkshire very few of us had ever visited let alone do a 10 mile walk. Thanks  to the leader and the group for putting up with me yet again.