Our Western Hills: How to reach them; And the Views from their Summits: By a Glasgow PedestrianAnonymous
History
Our Western Hills: How to reach them; And the Views from their Summits: By a Glasgow Pedestrian
Anonymous
Hiking -- Scotland; Scotland -- Description and travel
Though the hill is not very high, yet with the exception of Misty
Law, near Lochwinnoch, and the Hill of Staik, on the borders of
Lochwinnoch, Largs, and Kilbirnie, it is the highest eminence in the
county of Renfrew. It is principally composed of the trap rock, which
is prevalent in the district, but several specimens of barytes have
been found in its vicinity, and a species of stone which bears extreme
heat without cracking, and has therefore been found to be well adapted
for the construction of furnaces and ovens. It is also said to contain
silver and lead ores, but if so, there is no outward appearance to show
that this is correct.
The prospect from the summit, however, more than repays any
disappointment which we may have on this score. It commands a most
extensive and beautiful series of landscapes, embracing many counties
within its scope. On the one hand are the moors of Fenwick, formerly
called New Kilmarnock, with its memories of William Guthrie, its first
minister (1644), author of “The Christian’s Great Interest,” and from
whom the parish takes its chief fame. Beyond are the fertile woods and
fields of Ayrshire, with Loudon Hill, near which the battle of Drumclog
was fought, and an extensive sweep of the Ayrshire coast, with the
lonely and conical Ailsa Craig and the jagged peaks of Arran in the
distance. On a clear day the view in this direction commands the land
of Burns. On the other hand, we have in sight the grand valley of the
Clyde, with Glasgow and Paisley, and many other towns and villages in
its capacious bosom, while away in the dim distance we have a perfect
wilderness of mountain-tops. A little to the south and west is the farm
of Greenfields, with 1000 acres—somewhat of a misnomer, however, for
all around is a waste of peat. As we pass the farmhouse we see a herd
of lowing cattle, and hear the song of chanticleer in the farmyard.
And as we move along we come upon a fresh upheaval of earth, the work
of Master Mole, and still more frequently upon the burrow of a rabbit,
with tufts of downy fur strewing the neighbourhood. Near this there is
a road that leads to lonely but historically and otherwise interesting
Lochgoin, where John Howie wrote the “Scots Worthies,” where there
are still to be seen many things which will rejoice the heart of the
Christian patriot and the antiquary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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