Darvel - Loudoun Hill

I am ashamed to say that until I did this walk I did not realise the historical significance of the site at Loudoun Hill and surrounding area. I was aware of the battle at Drumclog (1679) in general terms, mainly due to reading about the local history of the Covenantors. Their history features in many of our walks in Ayrshire, Dumfries & Galloway.

Wallace monument

In addition William Wallace fought a battle with the English in 1296. A monument called the Spirit of Scotland was erected to Wallace in 2004. His group of circa 50 men ambushed and routed a force of around 200 men commanded by the English general Fenwick. Fenwick is alleged to have killed Wallace's father and during this battle Fenwick himself perished.
If that was not enough Robert the Bruce fought a battle in 1307 over almost the same terrain as Wallace did. This was a much larger battle with Bruce commanding at least 500 men with the English force around 3000 men.
In all 3 instances the outcome was a Scottish victory. There is a stone inscribed to Bruce on the summit just below the trig. If you visit Drumclog kirk there is a stained glass window portraying the Covenantors as well as a painting of their army standard.
For the walk itself we opted to start in Darvel, follow the old railway track to Loudoun Hill, cross over the A71 and follow a back road back to Darvel. In total this was a walk of around 11-12 miles, easily achieved by a reasonably fit person. However if you have a dog take care as there are animals in the open fields on the route.

Start of walk Darvel

We parked in the main street of Darvel, there is plenty of on street parking. Darvel itself was a centre of lace-making and at one time over 3000 people were employed in the mills. Additionally Alexander Fleming of penicillin fame was born nearby.

The overgrown path.

We walked the length of the main street until just as the road bends to the right you take a left turn following the cemetery road. You come to the marked start of the walk although as you can see this is more than a little overgrow. This surprised us as this route seemed to be well known. I had read about it on a few blogs and walking sites and had assumed most people started from here, but it is clearly not used from Darvel too often. It is only like this for 10 minutes or so but take care, bare legs and nettles = irritation and for once not many dock leaves to be found. Once it opens out it is much more pleasant walking.
This part of the walk takes you back in time to an uncultivated landscape. The route that we are walking is along the disused Darvel - Strathaven railway line. The line was opened in 1905 but was not heavily used with trains few and far between. This resulted in an early closure in 1939, we can't blame the Beeching cuts this time.

Old railway

Ayrshire is a farming county and in this area sheep & cattle are popular. As such it was not long before we had our 1st encounter when we noticed an open field on our left. The markers indicated we climb into this field on the left which surprised us as the track went straight on. We soon found out why as the path came to an old bridge which was no longer a bridge, just the supports. The big black bull in the field now had his eye on us. He was too close for comfort so we took the cowards option going down to the right through a muddy patch but when we climbed up the bull was head down, eating his grass, and had lost interest in us, good.

Ayrshire meadow

Now the landscape was opening up with beautiful traditional country fields with views of the local farming countryside. The weather had promised well but when we started grey clouds had gathered big style. By this time normal service was resumed and the Scottish summer was back in play.Not long after our 1st encounter we could see the path blocked by a low fence and behind it were a number of heifers sitting looking at us through the fence. Then up stood the daddy, if we thought the last bull was a biggy then this was a giant. He moved the youngsters aside and stood at the fence staring at us. It looked like he could step over the fence without any effort. Discretion time again and we went down to a minor road and skirted the field. As it turned out we would have joined this road anyway. You follow this upwards and round the back of Loudoun Hill until you came to a stile allowing you to cross the fields.

There is no obvious path up the hill, so up we went with some minor scrambling to add interest and soon we were on the summit.

Loudon trig and the Bruce stone

Loudoun Hill (316 metres) is a volcanic plug that stands in isolation giving a 360 degree view of the countryside. When we ate our lunch we got out the large scale map and studied the landscape. Quickly we identified in the distance: Cairnsmore of Carsphairn; Cairn table at Muirkirk; the paper mill at Irvine and the mountains of Arran. More locally the horrible wind farm that stretches from Eaglesham via Fenwick into this area, a truely horrible blot on the landscape. It is another great example that for or a little effort another superb view is the prize for your workout. 
Just below the trig point is the memorial stone to Robert the Bruce as seen in the photograph on the right.
Do take care on the summit as there are some very steep drops that would do some serious damage if not death. These crags are sometimes used by mountain climbers.

Loudoun Hill from car park

However, it is worth looking downwards as well as to the horizon, the local landscape is also impressive. Rather than retrace our steps we found a route that took us down and around the side of the hill, across some fields ending up at a small car park where I guess most people park to walk the hill. Certainly it wont take you long from here to climb the hill.

The remainder of the walk was straightforward. We walked to the A71 and crossed over following a minor back road which eventually brought us back onto the A71 near Priestland  and followed the road back to Darvel.
Overall another pleasant day out and recommended.