Barassie - Shewalton Woods - River Irvine - Barassie

Today's walk takes me along the fringes of Shewalton wood to get to my main objective of a walk up a section of the River Irvine. This is the last week of the salmon fishing on the river and I was thinking about casting a line over the next couple of days, hence the recce trip.

It was a blustery day with heavy squally showers blowing in as I started. I was well wrapped up, my lightweight Sprayway waterproof trousers were on from the start, full Berghaus mountain jacket as well. Gloves and hat in the rucksack so off we went.

Shewalton wood is my first port of call where I find that a new pipe is being laid so part of the route very muddy. The wood is made up of a mixture of natural domestic woodland, willow and birch and forestry conifer plantations. The trees are now changing colour and dropping their leaves which makes it all more colourful. I will describe the full Shewalton wood walk in greater detail in another blog as today I am only skirting the edge of the wood. There is an active timber merchants at this end and you do have to be a bit careful and watch out for the very occasional transport train when crossing the railway tracks. A bit further along the path the walk is blighted by the Caledonia paper mill, essential for commerce I suppose but a blot on the landscape and there are constant rumours about the stuff that belches out of their chimneys not being particularly good for us.

There are some waterways and ponds throughout the woods but they do not attract much obvious wildlife, no wonder as some are permanently covered in this green algae. They are probably good for all sorts of invertebrates.

The walk along the tree edge does bring one nice surprise as a grey squirrel appears on the track about 50 yards ahead. It has a look around and spots me but does not seem overly concerned as it takes its time heading into the trees on the other side of the path. They are attractive animals but as a traditionalist I much prefer the natural red squirrel and I do support eradication of the invasive grey. A few birds have been showing today. Crows and magpies appear to be in each others company at this time of year albeit in pairs of each bird. Where one scavenges the others follow. A treecreeper makes its way slowly up a conifer tree winding up the tree in a corkscrew travel pattern. A few blue and coal tits dart in and out of the trees joined by several chaffinch and greenfinch. 

Leaving the woods at the Bookers end it was only a 10 minute walk to the River Irvine.

I joined the river at the White Bridge on Longdrive. This is a good spot to start fishing from but care must be taken when the river is running high and fast as it is today. A short walk takes me to another nice spot where it is time to have a snack and reflect. This is another good location for brown trout and salmon. I had another reason for stopping, this is where I saw my first otter on the Irvine, swimming in and out of the reeds on the left of this picture. But no such luck today. I continued my walk upriver and stopped to chat to a fisherman coming off the river. He had no joy today and had not seen any fish to cast to. I continued along the wooded path, leaves strewn across the walkway enjoying the rather warm day it had become. 
A flock of fieldfare came across the river and landed in the trees just ahead. They soon moved further in to the woods making sure that I didn't get a good sighting.
Very surprised that I have not seen any dog walkers today, I'm sure their time will come. 
Recently, when cycling along this path, a rather large roe deer leapt out of the woods on my left and crashed into the reeds beside the river. I'm not sure who got the biggest fright as it did not miss crashing into me by much. It quickly realised its error, being trapped by the water, and came out right behind me running straight into the woods once again, presumably to rest and recover from its adventure. That was an early afternoon encounter. I have seen these deer in daylight before but mainly in the early morning or early evening. Maybe it had been disturbed in its woodland resting place.
I am now approaching the Holmsford bridge, more commonly known as the 'Red Brig', for obvious reasons.
This stretch of water is a good holding pool for the salmon. Although it might not be obvious to a stranger the water level is quite high today. Just under the bridge you cam make out the turbulent water which is a weir. Under normal water conditions the salmon have to leap the weir which is always a spectacular sight. Today it will not take too much effort. 
Although I mention that the water is high today, I witnessed these flood conditions where the gap between the top of the arches and the road had reduced somewhat. This event was the floods of October 2011. No leaping of the weir for the salmon that day as they would simply have swam through with the high water.
In the summer the local kids will throw themselves off the platform into the river, doesn't help the fishermen but that's life.

Looking upriver to Wilson's corner

To continue walking up river you have to cross over the road bridge and continue on the other bank, the right side of this picture.
The picture was taken from the bridge today, the view looking upriver to Wilson's corner which is at Dreghorn crematorium.

Looking downriver to Wilson's corner from Holms bridge

This is another good stretch for the holding salmon. From these photographs the river looks good for fishing but it would be unsafe to wade in the river with the water at this height. In addition the water flow is considerable and wading in a current of this speed is hazardous. Most fisherman under these conditions will be fishing spinning lures from the bank. For the 2 weeks in November that salmon fishing is allowed only artificial lures and flies are allowed, no worm fishing etc.
On this stretch I spoke to two guys, who were well hidden at first. They said it was their first time on the river this season, mmm, I don't think they were members but I had no fishing ID on me so I did not challenge their right to fish. They did say they had neither caught nor seen a fish. Finally at Holms bridge I spoke to my last fisherman of the day. I recognised his face, probably from the river. He had been spinning also without any joy. He did tell me that he had spotted a kingfisher going downstream, not my luck to see that today.

Holms bridge

I suspect that the fish have run the water for this season, off to the higher reaches of the river, for the hen fish to release their eggs, for the cock fish to fertilise them, and sadly for most of them to die. Their bodies fertilising the river bed. Hopefully many eggs will reach fruition and will be the future fish for us to try and catch.
That was it as far as the river was concerned for me today. A walk up to Drybridge then down the road to Longdrive and the return walk home via Shewalton wood. In the wood I saw a nice flock of goldfinches, beautiful little birds that allowed me to get quite close before flying off. Some robin and a couple of wrens along with more blue, coal & great tits. I had hoped to see some bearded tits but it was not to be. Right at the end of the wood walk there were two delights. Firstly a greater spotted woodpecker flew into the trees just in front of me and it stayed around for a couple of minutes so I had good viewing through the bino's. And just as I exited the wood a sparrowhawk flew down the gorse bushes at the side of the path but unfortunately for the sparrowhawk it did not spook any birds out of the bushes. There were plenty chirping away as I walked past, I'm sure it will be back.
Well that was a good walk of just over 4 hours and distance wise it would be in the region of 12 miles. I will need to measure it properly on the bike if the weather stays good. The weather stayed good with only light rain.
Time for a well earned cuppa.