SUW2: Ultreia

SUW 2 Ultreia!: the write up will be a bit delayed but here’s some info to keep you going. 9.9 miles (9.0 miles of SUW), 4h 45m (a little slower than planned), 292m ascent, max elevation Caves of Kilhern 145m, 1,133 calories burnt, (I forgot how many paces it was), 1 ruined 15th century castle, 1 ruined 12th century abbey, 1 neolithic (4000-5000 year old) burial site, 1 unexpected airfield, our first major river crossed (Luce), discarded clothing passed, 1 waterfall, our first kist with an SUW coin hoard, Mike’s animal husbandry skills on show, a glimpse at male and female seeds (snigger), signs warning of squirrels and elephants, “Ultreia” on an SUW sign (something pilgrims would shout to encourage others, meaning “Walk on” or “go further”), and all rounded off with cakes. But I did forget to caress David’s new trousers.

We set off from Castle Kennedy, having parked by the ruined castle, and headed back over the watercourse to rejoin the SUW along an estate road. This gave us some good views over the Black Loch with its crannog before we walked through woodland leading to the New Luce Road we had just driven along.

After a short stint of road walking with just the hedgerows to look at we found an SUW sign and turned right off the road. The track then climbed gently past the cottages and remnants of farm buildings at Chlenry, through broadleaved trees and farmland before coming to the road again for a short stretch. Chlenry derives its name from claen meaning sloping and this is main climb of this section, only about 50m but enough elevation to give us a better view looking back over Cults Loch with its own wee crannog. A couple of Cessnas were parked on Castle Kennedy airfield undermining my earlier assertion that the airfield was no longer used.

An SUW information board and signpost marks where the way leaves the New Luce road for the second time and pointed us onto a track over moorland. On the OS map the SUW leaves this track where the woodland begins, but the older forest has long since been felled here and is now bracken and heather covered moorland. An SUW post just after a gate marks the turn off on to a grassy path.

Even on this drab day the moorland was colourful with purple heather, bright green bracken, a variety of greens on young trees, red berries, yellow flowers and grey stone in a small quarry.

The path of the SUW crossing the moor runs beside a wall and seems to be raised above the marsh on a causeway which in places has substantial stones suggesting that another wall may have once stood there. Finding somewhere to sit for lunch though was a little difficult. There where occasional outcroppings of rock but they were too big and the wall itself, though a tempting seat, was usually sat in boggy ground.

View across Glenwhan Moor

When we did find a likely lunch spot, I made the mistake of choosing a tree stump as my seat and was lucky to escape injury when it disintegrated converting from a flat topped cylinder into a sharp point.

At Drumfleugh we passed an SUW post marked with “Ultreia” a phrase pilgrims in days gone by would call out to each other, meaning something like “Onward!”

A little later we entered the forest between Airyolland and The Water of Luce. The strange installation pictured below was amongst the trees and had a collection of Waymerker coins.

SUW Kist

 

Water of Luce

The forest walk passed from forestry fir trees to mature broadleaf and was quite a pleasant section. This brought us to a footbridge over the railway line and another over the Water of Luce, the first major river of our trek.

Beyond the river we were faced with a dilemma. The SUW enters a field and leaves the other side but the field was planted and there was no obvious path. A sign asked walkers to cross in single file which we did avoiding plants where we could, but I still felt uneasy crossing a crop.

After a brief section of road walking we turned along a track and climbed back up to the moors.

Hieland Coo

The path was boggy in sections along here and there were cows and calves standing in our way. They didn’t much like us though and wandered off as we approached making ourselves look big.

Caves of Kilhern

After ruminating on the uses of a small brick building near the ruined farmhouse at Kilhern I was looking forward to visiting the burial cairns nearby. We found a sign leaning against a stone wall “Caves of Kilhern 200m” and I thought it must have fallen over and been placed there against the wall. There seemed to be a faint track a little beyond that which I encouraged the group to use. Once we had walked well past 200m without any burial chambers in sight I realised I had led them a astray.

The sign, it would appear, was in the right place and following the wall would be the best way to get to the ancient stones. As it was, David and I just had to climb the wall and have a short jaunt across the moorland to get to them.

It was only a short walk then to the end of this leg. Audrey remembered seeing a waterfall on her map and as we walked we could hear it so scrambled over a wall to get a photo. There is a footbridge over the Cross Water of Luce that allowed me a view of the waterfall but the bridge looks as if it could fall down anytime.

Having collected the car we drove back Castle Kennedy for refreshments in the visitor’s cafe.

Loup of Barnshangan waterfall

With: Audrey, David, Derek, Elaine, Joanna

 

 

 

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