Hill of Barnaigh

The route is pretty simple. I cycled from Paisley Canal to Bridge of Weirdo and then up into the plateau. Join the blue line and head past Auchencloich and the abandoned Barnbrock Farm/Campsite (check out its little chalets!). Join the main road for a kilometre or so and then take a left down the quieter country lane towards Barnaigh. Head up the path to a private home, through the garden, over the back fence and head across the field to Hill of Barnaigh. From the top of the hill you can see Greenside so just head towards it and down onto the road. As field treks go with bike in tow it's not so bad, although these infernal electric fences with no stile to be seen anywhere are beginning to piss me off...

It is unlawful not to provide access, so you are well within your rights to cut through any fences like this where there is no alternative route. If anyone sees you or says anything tell them that they should familiarize themselves with the Scottish Outdoor Access Code before fencing off whole areas. I also passed another sign between Barnbeth and Auchensale which stated that it was 'Private Land' and that because it was 'enclosed land' 'permission' had to be granted to pass through it. What utter tosh! This in fact is illegal to put signs up telling us of such things. As long as you stay 50m or more away from any homestead then you can literally wander where you like in Scotland. If anyone tells you different, tell them weemikey gave you permission... ;)

At any rate, saving any impromptu electrocutions, from Greenside it's easy enough back down to the Sustrans path back to Paisley Canal that way, or Lochwinnoch and beyond the other way...

 

This is my summer holiday, exploring the lumps and bumps of Inverclyde. Why on earth would you punish yourself by being polluted elsewhere, to the ends of the earth, being treated like cattle, where you don't speak the tongue, you don't know the people, you aren't acclimatized to the weather? 'I am no scientist', Annie Dillard wrote in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, 'I explore the local.' 

Exploring the local is what every animal (that hasn't been turned into a pet, farm or circus animal) does. It's what the universe does. What did you think? That it jumped on a jumbo jet? That it had a limo? That it had invented some spurious 'technology' that usurped its own powers whilst dislocating it and uprooting it? 

No, the universe, like every other universal creature moves under its own steam. It locomotes from place to place by itself. The universe thus 'arrives' by exploring the local. Man, by contrast, by not exploring the local, by being polluted to the non-local, mesmerized again by the admiration of distance and the promise of the exotic, does not arrive anywhere, but emphatically 'departs'. This departure is from his Self and from the aboriginal, and when you have left your Self, well its open season...

As such, relocalizing and letting the local lure you (with its natural allure) is vital to the being of the naturally wise aboriginal creature.