Listen. Put on morning.
Waken into the falling light...
W.S Graham
It were the gulls that woke me. They always do. In Govan where I live, the gulls are a regular sight (and hearing). With their cries and their flight they bring an aliveness to this area that indubitably marks Govan as an elemental place. After years living here I consider myself fairly fluent in their language. And this morning they told me that the coast was the place to be.
Kaya kaya kaya....ya ya ya ya ya...
Kaya kaya kaya....ya ya ya ya ya...
The whole route here follows the Sustrans National Cycle Route 75: for the first portion to Paisley see the 'Bell's Bridge to Paisley' entry in this blog. The second part, from Paisley to Gourock, follows the dedicated off-road sustrans route 'Paisley & Clyde Coast Railway Path', and is clearly marked along the way. You can find the pdf map here:
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/paisley20and20clyde202004.pdf
From Paisley, there are a number of interesting tangents to the route. Just past Elderslie look out for the signpost pointing you towards the Wallace Monument standing in the shadow of an Elder tree. It’s a fine monument decorated with several bronze plaques. Wallace, it is claimed, was born here circa 1270. At the bottom of one of the plaques are the words Bas Agus Buaidh. It is the old Scots warrior cry - Death and Victory!
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/paisley20and20clyde202004.pdf
From Paisley, there are a number of interesting tangents to the route. Just past Elderslie look out for the signpost pointing you towards the Wallace Monument standing in the shadow of an Elder tree. It’s a fine monument decorated with several bronze plaques. Wallace, it is claimed, was born here circa 1270. At the bottom of one of the plaques are the words Bas Agus Buaidh. It is the old Scots warrior cry - Death and Victory!
Further along just after Johnstone, there is a fork in the path, the left of which leads down to Lochwinnoch and Ayr, and the right of which leads to Bridge of Weir, Kilmacolm, Port Glasgow and Greenock. Both are equally splendid routes with a fair bit of history, natural and other.
At Bridge of Weir, the path passes over the river Gryffe and continues on to Kilmacolm passing the quaint and anachronistic Quarrier's village, well-worth a detour (it has a dedicated path down to it from the NCR75). Now mostly privately-owned homes, the village still retains an unrelenting sense of another era. Definitely worth a visit.
A few kilometres on is the bourgeois homestead of Kilmacolm. Charles Rennie McIntosh has a house in there somewhere, on the hillside.
From Kilmacolm it's not too far to Port Glasgow and some wonderful views across the estuary to the islands and highlands of the north and west.
Port Glasgow to Greenock is a beautifully tree-covered path giving the impression of cycling through a tunnel of trees. The views north are simply stunning.
Gourock train station is ten minutes down the road through Greenock, and from here the 45 minute train journey back to central is a quiet joy.
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