From Howwood train station follow the line marked in dark blue up towards Lawmarnock and around to Barnbeth on this quiet little detour to Bridge of Weir. Coming down into Bridge of Weir there are some old world villas that might make your eyes pop out for their size and renovations. From Bridge of Weir it's a case of cutting across the main road and taking the road past Gryffe School into the quiet 'leisure lanes' of East Renfrewshire. From here, it's quietness all the way to Langbank. Just follow the route marked in red below. There is also the option if you're feeling energetic to scale the smallish Barscube Hill from whose summit the views across the estuary to Dumbarton are impeccable, not to mention the views east and west. At Langbank there are regular trains to Paisley and Glasgow Central which we can catch.
There's something quietly idyllic about the back roads of Renfrewshire. I'm not quite sure what it is that differs this particular shire from the likes of Dunbartonshire or Lanarkshire, or even Ayrshire. Maybe it's the various ridges and saddles of the land themselves as they eke out their paths down to Lochwinnoch, down to the estuary, and up above Paisley. The land here rolls like no other, and there is always this deep temporal sensation (to accompany the deep spatial one) of glaciers gliding oh so slowly across this land. Maybe it's the beautiful little villages that dot the land: Kilbarchan, Bridge of Weir, Quarrier's Village, Houston.... or maybe it's just the utter serenity that accompanies these back-roads and aptly named leisure lanes, a serenity that allows your involvement in everything else. In other words, a peacefulness so peaceful that you lose yourself to the moment and momentum, and, for the duration of your journey, (though it may seem paradoxical to say so), enables you, effectively, to step outside of time.
Outwith this temporal pressure, there is a levity that energizes and moves the body without the body having to try. Otherwise put, if these hills weren't where they were, I would hardly make it to the tops of them.
Outwith this temporal pressure, there is a levity that energizes and moves the body without the body having to try. Otherwise put, if these hills weren't where they were, I would hardly make it to the tops of them.
The 'Temple', just north of Howwood on Kenmuir Hill, was used in the past as an observation post for tracking white deer.
From Howwood (hollow wood) follow the back-road up past Crossflat Farm on towards Lawmarnock. Just after Lawmarnock take the next left which will take us round to Barnbeth House and its lovely gardens, a rural country mansion built with shipping money by W.G. Rowan in 1914. The road swings past the golf course (plenty of benches here for taking a rest and admiring the views!) into the low-level housing of the Clevens area of Bridge of Weir, a sort of antithesis to the bourgeois Ranfurly district. From here, it is a very steep downhill into the village itself.
St. Machar's Church and pine flavoured grounds in Ranfurly, Bridge of Weir. Almost Mediterranean! Again, however, with the church and the terrace being so close to three intersecting roads, the aura of the area is slightly spoiled by the speed, noise and pollution of cars, trucks and all the rest.
The small village of Bridge of Weir is a tale of two halves. On the south side of the old railway track (now the sustrans cycle and walkway) is the village proper, and on the north side is Ranfurly with its collection of rather fetching villas and townhouses. The village itself owes its origins to the cotton mills that grew up on the banks of the river Gryffe between the 1790s and 1840s. Ranfurly is more recent due to the railway line which offered Glasgow businessmen the opportunity to get away from the pollution and congestion of late 19th century Glasgow.
The railway line first reached Bridge of Weir from Johnstone in 1864, and it was soon thereafter that many of Ranfurly's elegant villas were built. In 1871, to offer an incentive to those building a home in Bridge of Weir, The Greenock & Ayrshire Railway Company granted annual rail tickets at half their season ticket price for a period of seven years.
At Castle Terrace in Bridge of Weir, formerly The Ranfurly Hotel (1882, Robert Raeburn), a couple of young cyclists set off on what looks like an all-day trip.
A lovely modern loch-side cottage next to Haddockston House.
The ungainly yet quite magnificent Barscube Hill. The views from its humble summit are amazing.
Looking from Langbank station across the Firth of Clyde to the Kilpatrick Braes.
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