Having recently read the wonderful book The Country Houses, Castles & Mansions of Renfrewshire by John Fyfe Anderson I thought it was time to see some of them in the flesh so to speak. The route starting from Paisley Canal follows the sustrans cycleway until just after Linwood where we branch off onto the country lanes into Crossless and Houston. From Houston there are some lovely back lanes to take us up towards the kirk and the exquisite Houston House and grounds. The route is not a long one, maybe 10km or so, but the back roads and just the sense of the bucolic and pastoral this near to Glasgow is what makes it. There are a fair few woods this way too so plenty of shade if you happen as I did to be out cycling on the hottest day of the year (the day of the 2014 Commonwealth Games opening). All in all, another epic route, with only a few meetings along the way, mostly with pleasantly peaceful people or animals, and the odd tractor.
Take the right fork for Bridge of Weir, Kilmacolm etc..
Leave the cycle path for the road at Lochermill and head for Crosslee & Houston.
Another lane, Quarry Brae in Houston, which has been left to its own devices, and is now blocked to pollutive traffic.
The epic Houston House, recently refurbished and split into half a dozen apartments. Part of this grand manor may be as early as the 16th century, but the grandeur according to Frank Walker's Architectural Guide to Inverclyde & Renfrew is 'all Victorian swagger'. Most of the house dates from the late 1800s built to designs by David Thomson. 'Thomson's Baronial gathers the disparate pieces into a picturesque composition that culminates in a 77 foot tower rising above the entrance'. It really is quite an unexpected sight.
Peter's Well and guardians...
The owner of Barochan House, according to his mother who kindly let me in to take a few pictures, has barricaded the extant route with a steel gate preceded by these warning signs, fed up as he is with a 'lack of privacy'. I did mention to his kind mother, as politely as I could, that if you live in a castle or historically significant country mansion, maybe you should expect a few visitors from time to time. And I'm not entirely sure of the legality of such a move like closing off an existing road without providing an alternative right of way. That being said, the mother could not have been more accommodating in allowing me in and drving me around the estate.
Barochan Farmhouse & Courtyard
The renovated Barochan House (the ancient sea of the Flemings) which has been added to since its original inception. The owner, according to his mother, 'always wanted to live in a park'.
Barochan Hill - just cut across the field and up the hill and then down to the left avoiding the conifers at the top to the quarry which will spit you out onto Reilly Road which will take you round the back of the ordnance site. Near to this lane here is where the Celtic Barochan Cross was found and transplanted to Paisley Abbey.
These cows thought I was going to feed them, and when I didn't they all bolted as if they were horses![Taken from the summit of Barochan Hill which used to house a hillfort. Note the unglamorous hump of Barscube Hill on the left horizon, another hill with attitude not altitude and a worthy excursion at any time of the year for its wide sweeping views over the estuary and across to Dumbarton and beyond].
Cows galloping!!!! Marvellous. [The Kilpatrick Braes are in the distance].
Passing by the Royal Ordnance site behind Bishopton. It's all very sealed off.
From Reilly Road looking north to the Kilpatrick Hills
The Mill-House of Formakin Estate. When the stockbroker J.A. Holms came here in 1903 only an old meal mill and a few farm dwellings existed. Within a decade Holms and his architect Robert Lorimer (and the builders) had transformed the scene adding gardens, gate lodges and stables, and a large mansion house. Everything was conceived in the purest Scotch I`ve ever done as Lorimer put it, and built to the highest standards of craftsmanship.
Gatehead
Just by Whitemoss Farm at the junction with the Old Greenock Road
Another short road converted into a noise and pollution free corridor for those who prefer to move under their own steam...
Follow the Old Greenock Road down to the main drag and then follow it for another 1km or so to the train station. It's one stop to Paisley Gilmour Street which carries on into the city centre, but you can get off and cycle the 1km between Gilmour Street and Paisley Canal if you did as I did and started off from Dumbreck.
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