We both fancied going somewhere new for our morning walk this morning. Google turned up the Baidland Hill Walk which was described as a 2 hour, 5.5 km walk in the hills around Dalry with panoramic views over Ayrshire and of the sea. And only a few miles down the road from us – ideal!
It was a bit of a grey morning but a nice temperature for walking. The walk started out in the village of Dalry and then out along picturesque country roads for a while before turning off onto the “Velvet Path Walk”. At this point we wondered if we’d taken a wrong turn as the path was very overgrown – at places it was hard to pass through the brambles and stinging nettles. But Beanie and Biggles seemed to enjoy scrambling through the undergrowth so we pushed on. And in fact we did eventually emerge onto another quiet country road as described in the guide.
The surrounding fields were full of sheep and we stopped regularly for a good look and an occasional ‘aaarrrfff, aarrrrfff!’.
At time special measures were necessary in order to get an optimal view.
Can’t quite see…!
If I can just squeeze under here….
As the walk progressed and we gained height the scenery changed from hedgerows and fields to views over the Ayrshire countryside.
Eventually we reached a series of styles and Beanie and Biggles harnesses proved to be very handy for helping them over.
We were now on a wide track with fields full of sheep either side. The views really started to open up now. On a sunny day with blue skies it would be stunning. The photo below doesn’t do it justice as you can’t easily make out the sea and islands all the way along the horizon line.
By this point the guide said we should enter a coniferous forest but there was no sign of it. We’d already been walking for nearly 2 hours and according to our satnav there was still another 2 hours to get back to the car! Luckily we bumped into some workers some way along the track and they explained that the forest had been cut down several years ago to build a wind farm. The old route described in our guide no longer existed, but we could follow the wind farm tracks back onto the road to Dalry. So our 5km walk turned out to be 15 km and the 2 hours extended to 3.5 hours – but it was well worth the time and effort. Definitely one to do again!
