Day 238: Ardrossan to Inverkip

The west coast of Scotland beckons until the midges descend. It was July 2022 when I hiked round the Isle of Arran and caught the ferry back to Ardrossan.

The plan for this nine-day trip is to follow the Firth of Clyde up to Gourock, take the ferry to Kilcreggan and walk up the Rosneath Peninsula to join the Three Lochs Way at Garelochhead. This scenic trail runs to Arrochar at the head of Loch Long, a camping base to hike up the Cobbler mountain. I’ll then follow the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way west to Portavadie, catching another ferry across Loch Fyne to Tarbert, my second base to explore the Glenan Wood temperate rainforest, before heading down the Kintyre Peninsula. This is the theory. Faced with a dire weather forecast, a three-month gap since I last carried a full pack and the challenging distances — anything can happen.

Previous day

I travel to Glasgow, staying at the Queen Street Travelodge, a base for the first two days of hiking.

A family of penguins dear to my heart, followed regularly by The Glasgow Gallivanter, live in a hole in a wall on the Kelvin Walkway, at the mercy of footpads and rogues.

Sadly, they are too far from my hotel to visit, so I track down a couple of murals instead.

Today

My last visit to Ardrossan Harbour was noted as “cold, grey, wet, and windy”. Little has changed, although it’s not windy so things are looking up. In the distance, Arran is also as I left it, Goatfell wreathed in clouds.

A little encouragement for the days ahead.

I suspect grey will dominate my photos today.

Hunterston’s generating days are over and spent fuel rods are shipped by train to Sellafield. Two women in high-vis jackets take readings in the surrounding grassland.

Skirting the barbed security fences, two more yellow jackets take water samples from a stream, while others scan the shoreline. I’m not sure whether to be nervous or comforted.

This brings to mind a book I’ve recently finished reading — Robert Macfarlane’s brilliant Underland — which weaves three threads of the underworld: “to shelter what is precious, to yield what is valuable, and to dispose of what is harmful”. The latter includes a project by the US Department of Energy to bring together a wide range of experts, including archaeologists, historians, linguists, graphic artists and astronomers, to devise a “marker system” to warn future civilisations not to open radioactive waste burial chambers. How can a warning system retain meaning over 10,000 years?

I’m following the Ayrshire Coastal Path for most of the day. After pretty Largs, there’s a choice between a lower route and an ascent up Knock Hill. I’d intended to celebrate reaching 4,000 miles at the top of the hill but plans are easy from the warmth of a study. It’s too wet, cold and misty to warrant a climb, so I take the quiet hillside road, giving fine views across the water to islands and peninsulas beyond.

The road passes a not-so-secret bunker, used by the Royal Observer Corps to monitor radioactive fallout in the event of a nuclear attack. Constructed in 1965 and operational until the ending of the Cold War in 1991, it’s restored as a museum, sadly by appointment only.

Wemyss Bay is where I would have caught the ferry to the Isle of Bute. I’d planned to hike the West Island Way but the campsite I wanted to use does not open until April.

Wemyss station is lovely.

The rain is back, making for a grim walk next to a busy road into Inverkip.

It’s a relief to jump onto a warm train back to Glasgow.

Despite being able to leave most of my gear at the hotel, 25 miles on hard tarmac takes its toll — my left glute is stiff as a board and my right leg is sore behind the knee. I hobble back to the hotel, hoping that a hot shower and a good night’s rest will restore me for a tough day tomorrow.

Walk distance: 25 miles.

Total distance: 4,008 miles.