Loch Bradan & Cornish Hill

Well today we changed our walking plans due to the West Scotland weather forecast. Our original plan was to go up Ben Venue in the Trossachs but the wind forecast was for strong 20+ plus cold northerly winds gusting to 40+ most of the day. We reckoned we would have little shelter from this so no real fun, is it really almost end of May??
So off we went for a low level walk around Loch Bradan.

 In truth this was not the most exciting walk we have ever had but we were outdoors enjoying the wild bleak, sometimes beautiful Ayrshire landscape.  The landscape is fairly bleak, particularly on the eastern side of the walk. On this side there is a connecting walk/mountain bike route through these hills that takes you to Loch Doon via Loch Finlas but that is for another day for us. If you do this as a walk it might be better to leave a car at each end. However, the loch walk was a pleasant enough exercise for a day like this. The south end of the loch has the impressive main dam which supplies water to much of Ayrshire. When you walk behind the dam you see the impressive structure in full. 

On the open spaces the wind still had a hard cutting edge so despite some sunshine my light weight jacket was constantly on and off. 
Sadly there was minimal wildlife to enjoy today, a couple of male red-breasted merganser at either end of the loch (maybe the same bird) was all we saw on the water. However, the highlight was a beautiful wood warbler. It was absolutely fearless as it posed on its bush and small trees never going far away from us or its favoured spot. Indeed an enchanting sight and it made our day. Apart from that there were some regular sightings: chaffinch; blue tit; blackbird; thrush; but really not a lot around today.
The loch is a stocked with rainbow trout with wild brown trout in addition, but there was little evidence of either today. You can get a permit for £8 a day as well as the rights of the Ayr Angling Club. A brief swirling of rainbows feeding near the surface of the small north dam (below) was all we spotted. 

No anglers were around and it looks a dour place to fish particularly on a day like this.
The walk took us about 2.5 hours so an easy morning.
We had some lunch in the car park looking over the wild barren moorland hills when a military jet appeared low over the facing hill and flew right over us. Whatever your views they are an impressive sight.
We decided to drive back and take in the short walk to Cornish Hill. 
Park at the Stincher bridge parking area. You quickly go through enclosed woodland and it opens out to a good trail taking you up to the small cairn. Keep looking around as deer, sika and roe, as well as red squirrel can be seen, but not today.There are some interesting vistas on the way up for you to stop and look both north and to the west back over Loch Bradan. Cornish hill measures 467 meters in height but as you are starting up fairly high already this is not a difficult walk for most people. Once you get to the top you have some fabulous views looking down to Cornish Loch (below) and southwards over Shalloch on Minnoch and towards the Merrick. The wild scenery is an impressive indicator of the bleakness and remoteness of this area. You can imagine Robert the Bruce fighting the English nearby and the repression of the Covenantors, hard wild times meet a sympathetic landscape.

You have two options now, you can continue down the path to the loch and follow the marked trail back to the car park via the burn or you can just retrace your steps. The walk will vary between 1& 2.5 hours depending on your route.