Two roads diverged in a yellow wood: Annandale Way – Lockerbie variant (part 2)

7.52 miles 3h 52m ascent 155m

Lockerbie-Hoddom

The second part of the AW’s Lockerbie route was the longer of the two, but had much less road walking which was better for the dogs. Most of the walk was on farm tracks or woodland paths and included the riverside Salmon Trail. We walked through garlic scented woodland, paddled in two rivers (well, the dogs did), found unexpected ruins, had ice-cream at a castle … and still had change from half a crown.

It was a warm day and I decided to switch from long sleeved to T-shirt, getting an unexpected “We’re not watching!” shouted by a guy in the car park. We started beside the Lockerbie Memorial Gardens, where we had ended the last leg, and luckily the main road was quiet enough for us to cross over easily. A forestry track runs through the woodlands of Turnmuir Plantation but there was a barrier to keep vehicles out.

As is traditional in our walks there was a profusion of benches, four in the first fifteen minutes then no more until near the end.

Turnmuir Woods

We were to leave the vehicle track for a footpath and found the turn off relatively easily. The Annandale Way looks to have renovated or replaced its signs, some look brand new, while you still see the old faded ones dotted about, but this junction was unmarked.

The road less taken

I thought at first the path had been closed but it was just a fallen tree. Enough people had walked around the tree to make a desire track. Mabel is looking that way in the photograph. The footpath beyond climbed gently into Craw Wood. Unfortunately there wasn’t a wall. I had been hoping to take a photo I could caption “fourth craw”. There were a couple of substantial stone gateposts leading nowhere but giving a view across the roofs of Lockerbie.

up to Craw Wood

After Craw Wood we had a short dog-leg along a minor road and turned up to Pillmuir. That’s how it was spelt on the farm sign, though the OS map gives it just one “l”. Once past the agricultural supplier’s depot we were on a farm track and then a footpath where we came across some stands of Star-of-Bethlehem and our first views across the valley to Almagill Hill with the pyramidal shape of Joe Graham’s monument clearly visible.

We crossed a very minor road and after a short walk through Hallmuir Woods came to a gate into an open field. There were sheep in the distance so the dogs were on their leads. A well made track lead across to a footbridge where we found an official AW sign and a faded home-made sign that from a distance I misread and found unusual. Closer I could see it said “WALKERS”.

The Annandale Way leaves the track before crossing the bridge, following a culvert then climbing Hungryhill to follow the edge of a narrow wood. I wondered if the trail had once gone through the wood since there were gates but it looked as though some effort had gone into making these impassable. But the edge of the wood at least gave us some shade. There were great views across to Almagill Hill and the the shade it would have been a great place to stop for coffee, but the air was still and filled with tiny insects.

A gate left us near a junction of four single track roads. I couldn’t really call it a crossroads, there were no right angles. We headed down the road signposted “Kettleholm ¾”. Fate smiled on us. There was a large tree trunk in the woods so we had somewhere comfortable to sit while drinking our coffee. Mabel had a good roll in the leaf litter and Christy chewed a stick.

We both looked at our map/GPS and wondered if we had taken the correct road. Both our GPS devices suggested otherwise. So once we were back on our feet we walked back to the junction (only a few paces). Yes, we were on the correct road. There was even an Annandale Way sign to confirm it. I don’t know what happened to the GPS in the woods.

We didn’t walk as far as Kettleholm, leaving the road at Glenholm. We could see the church in Kettleholm and a castle (Castlemilk) about a mile away. The next section was along a dirt track in the woods above the Water of Milk. It would have been nice to have a riverside walk but we only had glimpses of the river.

As we walked we noticed a tower ahead of us. My first thought was something industrial but then I noticed it was topped with a balustrade. It is not marked on the OS. It was once a grand house but now there are trees growing within it and signs warning of falling stones. This is what remains of Milkbank House, once the residence of William Ogle, whose business interests included presidency of the Bank of Bengal. There had been a Georgian house on the site but he found it too small and had the larger sandstone house built in 1895. The original house was incorporated into the new building as kitchens.

The house and grounds were requisitioned for military use during World War II and when they were returned in 1949 the family decided it was too expensive to maintain. Perhaps if the original Georgian hose had been kept, the military would never have taken it and the family might have been able to maintain it.

The track brought us out near a small bridge and even though that wasn’t our route we walked onto the bridge to get some views of the Water of Milk. The river certainly does not appear milky. The origin of the name is a bit of a mystery. There are suggestions that it refers to a milky appearance of the river due to sediment or the perhaps the production of milk nearby. I find neither particularly convincing. One author points out that in 1124 the area was recorded as Abermelc and the melc could be Cumbric for honey. The Castlemilk in Glasgow is named after the Dumfries Castlemilk.

Water of Milk, at Milkvale – but no bees

We then walked along a track through fields towards Broom. There we turned away from the Water of Milk to walk along a tree-lined avenue into Square Wood. And there was even a section pf banking at just the right height for us to sit down for lunch.

The path into Sorrysike

In Sorrysike Moor the Lochmaben and Lockerbie branches of the Annandale Way join and we completed the Way, after nine years.

The lockerbie and Lochmaben routes join at Sorrysike Moor

But we were still a couple of miles from Hoddom. A farm track took us by fields with sheep , cows and even a white horse with her foal. Repentence Tower, an actual watchtower rather than a folly was visible ahead of us.

We crossed the Water of Milk again and then walked along the Salmon Trail. This riverside woodland path runs beside the Water of Milk and then the River Annan. Both were low enough for the dogs to have a paddle

The salmon train has several installations representing different stages of the fish’s life. There is a wall representing salmon roe in the river’s rocks, larger rocks with carvings of parr, a carving representing an eagle and otter chasing fish, a seat reprinting an angler and a carved totem pole that is said to show how high salmon have been known to jump.

The dogs cooling down in the River Annan

A sign warned us to take care crossing the weak bridge. I was more worried getting across the field on the far side. There was a bull at the far end. A path through the trees brought us to Hoddom Castle.

We celebrated finishing the Annandale Way with a Magnum (ice cream, not champagne).

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The Comedy Way: 3 – bring me sunshine

BEING WRITTEN

7.31 miles 3h 43min ascent 135m

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito in the room.
Eric Morecambe

If Day One of the Comedy Way was the ‘main course’, and Day Two the “dessert”, the third day was the “coffee and biscuits”, a wind-down, easier outing. We were on canal tow-paths, pavements and beachfront promenade with little in the way of climbing. A good way to complete the walk but there is not much to say about it.

It was a walk of four parts: the main street in Carnforth; Lancaster Canal; Mount Pleasant; and then Morecambe promenade.

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The Comedy Way: 2 – the two chimneys

11.86 miles 6h 43m ascent 309m

“It was like exploring a place that you have seen in a dream, where everything is just where you expect it and yet everything is a surprise.”
― Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons

This second leg of the Comedy Way, Grange-over-Sands to Carnforth, was unusual. We crossed the River Kent on the train from Grange-over-Sands – that’s a five minute train ride in place of five hours walking – and took up the walking in Arnside. We could see rain across the sands from the station at Grange and hoped we wouldn’t be walking into it.

Grange-over-Sands railway station – with rain beyond the bay
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The Comedy Way: 1 – another nice mess

14.61 miles 8h 37m ascent 688m

Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into!

The comedy way is a 30.5 mile semi circular walk around Moham Bay. It begins in Ulverston at the statues of Laurel and Hardy and ends in Morecambe at the statue of Eric Morecambe.

The weather was good; mostly cloudy, a little breezy but warm enough for t-shirts and the sun did shine at times. The official guide book gives the length of this section as 12.9 miles, but as you can see above it was a good mile and half further. We hadn’t strayed from the route. I suspect that the author made an error in this first section and the 12.9 miles is to the summit of Hampsfell leaving something like a mile and a half still to walk to Grange-over-Sands. This would become obvious as our mileage gradually clocked up.

We used local trains to get to the beginning of each section of the Comedy Way and began this day’s walk at Ulverston railway station which is about a third of a mile away from the wall’s official start.

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Butterhole Hill: Another of Monica’s neighbours

5.24 miles 2h 13m 190m

Criffel from Auchenfad Hill

At long last. We, the dogs and I, got to the top of Butterhole Hill. It sin’t a difficult Hill and to be honest, if I was on my own I could have climbed it easily. Having the two dogs presented some additional challenges.

Previous near misses were due to a combination of the hill being covered with sheep (not good when walking with dogs, even on a lead), boggy ground amounting to a actual pond, a wall and barbed-wire fence. The latter a particular problem when it comes to man-handling wriggling dogs over the barbs. I had come at it from Mabie and from Auchenfad in the past. Walking up through the farm would have been easier but that seemed like cheating.

Because it is outside the Mabie boundary I have been able to pretend it isn’t an actual “Monica” but it wrankles each time I see it.

I hadn’t set out to walk up it this day but chose the brown walking route then the track up to Auchenfad Hill. I noticed that there were no sheep on the hill and that might have drawn me towards it. There is a wee dip between Auchenfad Hill and Butterhole Hill which held a pond the last time I was there, but it had dried up or drained away when I got there. And where the wall beyond it had a small bend, the stones had fallen. And beyond the fallen stones the fence was just a single strand of barbed wire at waist height. High enough for the dogs to walk under and me to dip under.

the way in

And so we made it through and walked up the hill. The summit is a dip with surrounding higher ground, a little like the remnants of an iron age fort though I can’t find any evidence that there was ever a fort there.

Butterhole Hill

The name Butterhole is said to come from Bittern’s Hole (but without stating any evidence), but it seems unlikely that bitterns would frequent a hill-top so I presume the hill is named for the farm below it. And perhaps the name does relate to dairy produce rather than wading birds.

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The Source of the Nith: Recce No.1

BEING WRITTEN

6.15 miles 2h 36m ascent 215m (707 feet)

El Sub Sta-source of the Nith-El sub Sta

The Nith, till after it gets away from Ayrshire, is one of the most cheerless of streams, sluggish and shallow, seldom more than 15 feet wide, deeply tinctured with moss, and rarely graced with plantation, greensward, or even a bold bank, to relieve the dreary monotony of its moorland landscape.

Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland

El sub sta, South Kyle Wind Farm, Under the “tori gate”, Wee quarry, The quarry (Meikle Hill), distant turbine in the mist, probably A02, Valley of the Loup Burn, Beside/above a young Nith, Another set of buildings, substation compound,  Guys moving rocks, JCB man, H01, Source of the Nith a hollow at about 440m, Moved a bit, log for coffee, 180 and back

The Romans would nod with appreciation

This was a wee walk to find the source of the Nith amongst Ayrshire’s mosses, waters, slaps, and stiles. We parked near what the Ordnance Survey labels “El Sub Sta”. Electricity Sub Station rather than a Spanish outpost. We waved to the man in the “All visitors report here” hut and gathered from his lack of interest that a couple of dog-walkers fell outside the parameters of those who concerned him.

Lichen laden larches and sheepfold

A century ago this would have been an upland moor. Grass, mosses and heather in waterlogged peat with the odd stubby tree in sheltered hollows. An old sheepfold sat in one such hollow, beside the Powkelly Burn.

Smell of pine

But what we saw was mostly extensive felled forestry. Half a century ago it was probably dense forestry commission plantating, but there has seen widespread felling and areas replanted with saplings. The smell of pine reached our noses before we came to the stacks of logs beside the track.

We were not walking forestry tracks. These roads, built for the construction of the turbines on South Kyle Wind Farm, would make a rural “A” road envious. The massive quarries we passed along the way presumably provided the rock base. But it meant easy walking for us and kept us out of the marshy ground around us.

H01 Turbine ahead, The Nith to my left

There were still some trees awaited the loggers but stands of dead larch, heavily laden with lichen told us that larch disease has reached here.

So what would have been a forest walk a few years ago is now on road through wild upland. A wilderness that could easily be mistaken for wasteland but a close look soon shows it is not. We had a misty day so you tend to notice stuff close at hand.

Mucilago crustacea – Dog sick slime mold

The slime holds were an interesting find. These are neither animals nor plants. Nor are they fungi. Talk about not fitting in. The balance of opinion on the internet seems to be that they are inedible, according to some, edible according to others, not flavourful, suggesting someone has tried them, but not obviously poisonous. The “dog sick” alludes to its appearance rather than its action. Mind you, the internet also says the literal translation of Mucilago crustacea is “great lime foam” which is clearly not correct. Though “great lime foam” is the translation of its name in Dutch, Groot Kalkschuim. The Latin name, though, is more about mucus and encrustedness. Gelatinous material produced by plants is apparently called mucilage whereas it is mucus in animals. Another day, another pearl of knowledge discovered. Vocabulary = Vocabulary + 1.

Eyes up from the ground we could see a wind turbine ahead in the mist. I thought at first it would be the turbine close to the Source of the Nith but that proved to be a little further along.

Source of the Nith (as shown on the map)

The wind farm construction has included two roads on embankments crossing what would have been the fledgling Nith. There are drainage pipes but they were above ground and presumably only operate if there is flooding.

The source of the Nith, as marked on the OS map is in the marshy ground behind me in the pho above. The Prickeny Burn, which flows south to the Water of Deugh drains the land where there are still trees.

Actual source of the Nith

The source of the Nith has been moved north about 100m. Certainly that is the first recognisable channel.

Some kind soul had left a log in front of turbine H01 so we had somewhere to sit for our coffee.

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Great Trossachs Path: 4 – Ancient woodland, Roman forts and saintly mounds

6.91 miles 3h 44m ascent 233m

Glen Finglas Visitor Centre-Callander

A great walk. Autumn colours, good paths through woodland and moor, with views down to Loch Venachar, a disused railway through the farmland and marshes of Leny Meadows to end at wee mound of Tom ma Chisaig. And all on a dry day.

I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.

L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
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Great Trossachs Path: 3 – Twa Brigs, Forestry and Goats

5.56 miles 2h 31m ascent 178m

Trossachs Pier-Glen Finglas Visitor Centre

“There is no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing”

Alfred Wainwright

Wet ground, wet air, wet shoes, wet jacket, and wet hair. Constant rain, heavy to start with and then drizzle.  

Rain. The shortest of our Great Trossach’s Path outings, this section took us from Trossachs Pier at Loch Katrine, through the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, Gleann Riabhach, the banks of Loch Achray, the woods of Bad Biorach, Brig O’ Turk, and the wooden walkway into Lendrick Forest.

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