ADRC Muirkirk to Cairn Table. February 2012

Walkers gathering at the start.

Coffee stop beside the cairn.

A snowy trig point.

Trudging our way through the snow.

Some tricky burns had to be crossed today.

Glenbuck Loch

The home of "Bill Shankly"

The one at the back always likes to make sure you see  him!!

Near to the start of the River Ayr.

Some road walking today

On the railway line passing one of the old stations.

An open cast coal mine

Todays group.

Our leader.

Today Sunday February 19th 23 of us made our way to Muirkirk on a cold very bright sunny morning to do an 11 mile walk up Cairn Table (593M) and over to Glenbuck. My fellow blogger from Newton Stewart did an excellent blog detailing some of the history of this area and is well worth a read.Making our way up to the summit of Cairn Table it was a sheer joy to be out and about on such a crisp clear morning with snow on the ground making climbing quite easy. The views from the top were equally stunning, the golf ball on Lowther Hill in the south to Ben Lomond in the North.The next bit was  a wee bit tricky on the tussocky frozen ground until we reached a track that was used to ferry the grouse shooters around the moors.Lunch was taken on a hillside looking out to Tinto Hill in Lanarkshire with all the planes vapour trails criss crossing across a very blue sky. We then came down off the hills to Glenbuck Loch where our leader informed us this was now a site of special scientific interest because of some rare species of plants can be found here. Glenbuck is also the birthplace of Bill Shankly who certainly put the village on the worlds football map.The source of the River Ayr also starts here and the council have created a river walk to Ayr (44 miles) which many people do usually in small sections at a time.The route took us along the old railway line which once linked this part of Ayrshire with Glasgow . Arriving back at the cars everyone agreed what a wonderful walk which had a lot of variation in it from just going up and coming back down on the tourist route. Many thanks to the leader who had spent a lot of time working out the details  to make it into a true grade "B+" walk.