Why stress yourself out travelling the world when the world is right here on your doorstep? Finding the global in the local, and remaining true to the earth in the process, is not as hard as you might think. In the bucolic and pastoral environs of the great city of Glasgow you can find the Eurasian Steppes, the Alps, the Riviera, Provence, and a whole lot else to boot. When you manage to transcend 'the place of nativity and familiarity' and see your city as might a visitor, then you can boldly claim to have discovered a new land. As Marcel Proust once noted: the voyage of discovery begins with new eyes not new lands.
And with these new eyes, everything is undiscovered.
From Barrhead Railway Station we are shot northwards into the Kilpatrick Hills and its highest hill Duncolm. The road we take for this particlular route is just below the bridge, on the corner there, at the co-op, to the left.
So, from Barrhead station, follow the quiet backroad parallel to the railway and beneath the Fereneze Braes up towards Gateside and onwards. It's a tough little road with its steep gradients and endless ascent. But don't be afraid to get off the bike and just walk. Indeed, all these trips are as much walking (and trudging through fields and up hills) as they are cycling. I suppose it's all 'cross-country' by whatever non-mechanical means necessary. The bicycle, as I see it, is simply the modern day horse with a fraction of the upkeep.
From Foreside the views across Neilston are impressive.
From here it is empty back-roads all the way with the exception of a short section on the B775 (watch out for those idiot boy-racers steaming up from Paisley). From here on in, it is all downhill, albeit in certain sections slight. Just follow the road around the back of Walls Hill Fort (you really get a sense of the size of this hill-fort when you circumnavigate it) down towards Barcraigs Reservoir. Again, no-one to be seen, save for a couple of guys in a field with remote-controlled model aircraft and a couple of walkers enjoying a summery Sunday afternoon at the edge of the world.
Barcraigs Reservoir and its little isthmus, a great place to open your flask of coffee and sit back.
The rolling Inverclyde Hills over Barcraigs Reservoir.
There is a little overgrown path round the north edge of the reservoir through some wonderfully wild fields which you can take until you reach the old stone wall (which someone has punched a hole in). The wall is low enough to sling the bike over and your body too. The onward road is right there, which will take us down and round to the little hamlet of Newton of Belltrees and on to Auchingrange House (for sale!) before plummetting us down to Lochwinnoch and the station from where we can jump a train back to Glasgow Central or Paisley.
The quaint little hamlet of Newton of Belltrees.
The view from Newton of Belltrees towards Lochwinnoch and the Inverclyde Hills. The train station is about 5-10 minutes from here.
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