And not far off, at the farm of Duntan, between where we stand and Lochgoin, on the east bank of a stream which goes past the farm, there is a rocky precipice, in the front of which there is a small aperture capable of holding three or four in a stooping position. One person can scarcely enter on hands and feet at a time. Tradition tells us that two Covenanters, chased by dragoons, plunged through the stream in flood, scaled the rock, and hid. The troopers did not venture to follow them, but fired into the cave and went off, probably believing that their intended victims had found a tomb instead of a hiding place. Immediately to the south of us there is Binend Loch, a large sheet of water covering about 50 acres, which would be a perfect paradise for the patrons of the roaring game if it were only a little nearer the haunts of civilisation. A little beyond this is what we in Scotland happily call the watershed—a term that of late years physical geographers have appropriated as expressive of a meaning which no single term in English had conveyed.
All around us the ground is mossy, and intersected with sheep drains. Here and there the fresh cuttings disclose trees embedded in the moss, telling of a time when this now treeless country must have been covered with waving forests. The trees are generally hazel, and often they have a foot or several feet of moss beneath them, showing that the moss must have existed anterior to the hazel. It is only when we come to the bottom of the moss that we find the oak and the pine, the remains of the ancient Caledonian forests. We come down on the north side of the hill, and find not far from the farm of Lochcraig the coal measures cropping out, and in the blocks of shale that rise up through the moss are to be found abundance of specimens of the strange flora of the Carboniferous age, the Sigillaria, so remarkable for their beautifully sculptured stems, and their not less singular roots, so long described as Stigmaria by the fossil botanist.
In course of this walk it is easy to make quite a large botanical collection. You may have the Geum urbanum with its small yellow flower and fragrant root with scent of cloves. This was formerly used as a tonic for consumption and ague, and being infused was often used by ladies for the complexion, and for the removal of freckles. Then there is the blue meadow or cranesbill, Geranium pratense, and herb Robert, Geranium Robertianum, and the sweet vernal grass and the wood mellica. There is also the moschatel, or musk crowfoot, so called from its musky fragrance, and the wood spurge, and ground ivy, a plant which, when dry, has a pleasant odour, and which in country places is sometimes still made into tea, and supposed to be good for coughs and colds. We give these only as a few specimens to whet the appetite of those who carry a vasculum and rejoice in a herbarium.
On leaving Ballagioch, for the sake of variety, we shape our course north-west in the direction of Moorhouse, and soon, after crossing the Earn, reach the Kilmarnock road. The railway has shorn this road of all its former glory, when fifteen packhorses could be seen regularly travelling between Glasgow and the west country, and when the Kilmarnock carrier drove along it his six milk-white ponies of diminutive size, but possessed of much mettle. Our walk to Clarkston via Mearns is much about the same length as the route we took from Clarkston to Ballagioch via Eaglesham, and at last we reach the city somewhat tired, yet highly delighted with our day’s outing.
KAIM HILL.
Now that everybody is out of town, on Saturday at least, and every place in the guide book is as well known as the Trongate or Jamaica Street, it is something to discover a hill everybody has not been to the top of, and which is not in Black or Murray. Such a hill is that which stands between Fairlie and Kilbirnie, overlooking Fairlie Roads (that is, the Clyde between Fairlie and the Greater Cumbrae) on the one side, and the valley of the Garnock on the other. It is best to make the ascent from Fairlie, which can be reached either by Wemyss Bay from the Central, or by Ardrossan from St. Enoch’s. At the south or far end of the railway platform a path will be found, on crossing the line, which leads to the farm of Southannan. There the road to the left should be taken, across a nicely wooded burn, which should be followed up till a wall is reached; which wall should be followed till we come to the heathery ground. From that the course is, without any track, in a somewhat south-westerly direction, now over a tiny stream, now through a stretch of heather, and now past the side of some large old red sandstone or piece of trap, perhaps 20 feet long, which are the chief rocks of this hill range.
The upward journey is a thing not to be forgotten, for the foliage is wonderful, and every step we take almost reveals some new beauty. The watercourses, swollen with rains that have come rushing down the green and rocky slopes, are broadening and deepening. There is plenty of life also in the woods and on the moor. The grouse are not at all in evidence, and we miss their whirr and cry so pleasant to hear. But the robins sing where there are branches on which they can perch, and the rabbits are running races among the ferns.
When what seems the summit has been attained, the view will be found to be very fine to the north; but it will also be found that there is still a higher height a little farther back, over softer ground, from which an all-round prospect can be had. “Kaim” is applied to any ridge of ground, either moundish or mountainous, with enough of sharpness and zigzag in its outline to give it some resemblance to a cock’s comb, and is frequently so used in Scotland; but there can be none of those hills so called which can possibly boast of a finer outlook than this one above Fairlie, which seems to be the meeting-place of all the hills that rise in the parishes of Kilbirnie, Lochwinnoch, and Dalry, and which hem in the parish of Largs so curiously from all the cultivated land to the north, east, and south-east as to have produced the proverbial expression, “Out of the world, into Largs.”