Monday 29th June
A few days ago I was thinking about places that I had cycled
in the past. My first thought went to an area where I went hill walking and
cycling years ago called Castlemaddy.
Castlemaddy is a small bothy that the Nithsdale Scouts used
for weekends away. It sits a few miles up a forest road off the A713 between
Carsphairn and St Johns Town of Dalry. I first stayed there in the late
nineties when I got my arm twisted to volunteer for a weekend to help out a
friend who’s wife was a Scout Leader. Since then I have stayed there a few
times for hill walking and cycling trips the last being 2001.
There is over 20 km of forest road that you can make into a
circuit for a very enjoyable day out. I parked at Polmaddy where there was a community
that lived here in the 1800’s. You can still see the remnants of the buildings.
I followed the track up into the forest past a small house
called Drumness which the Air Training Corp used as a base for training cadets.
I carried on up the track till I got to a bridge where I turned right, this
takes you past a house called Braidenoch where it looks like someone has
rebuilt and is now living in it. Continuing up over the hill you can see
Carsphairn to the right in the distance. Following the road round I came to a
crossroad where you get a great view of Carlin’s Cairn and the Corserine with
Loch Doon just behind them, fantastic hills to climb. If you turn right at the
cross roads you come to a bothy called “Shiel of Castlemaddy” which is run by
the Mountain Bothy Assossiation. But like all these usful places you get the
local and not so local yobs coming up here for their drunken weekends and
trashing the bothy and on occasion burning it down. It has been refurbished a
few times that I know of over the years.
Drumness
View from the bridge
Carsphairn in the distance
Carlin's Cairn and Corserine
Coffee time
At the crossroads I went straight through which brings you
down past Castlemaddy, which is looking rather sorry for itself today compared
to the last time I was here. From Castlemaddy I continued down the forest road
back to the bridge where I turned right which took me back to where I had
parked.
Castlemaddy
Second coffee break
It was a good run as the weather was great, but I was disappointed
to see the state Castlemaddy was in as it was a great base for Scouts to use
for outdoor pursuits.
No comments:
Post a Comment