We are the Cunninghame Ramblers. We open the way for everyone in our local community to enjoy the pleasures of walking.
Linda S.
This walk begins in Fairlie and takes the established woodland trail of Fairlie Glen. It continues on Fairlie Moor on tussocky heather and grass, open hills and indistinct tracks up Blaeloch Hill, around Ward Hill and a return via Fairlie Glen.
We cross the A78 road to Station Road and beside the rail bridge, the Fairlie Glen woodland path begins. This is a lovely old woodland with the Fairlie Burn’s waterfalls to entice us up and around Fairlie Castle. This is a steep climb in places, taking us up to a kissing gate and the beginning of Fairlie Moor where we walk a narrow path through the heather and over a stile to our first tea break on rocks beside waterfalls.
We climb a little then follow Outermoor Burn towards Kelburn Wind Farm and our first cairn. On the downwards slope we’ll see the wreckage of a WWII fighter aircraft that crashed in 1944.
Blaeloch Hill with its companion little Blae Loch soon come into view as we approach our second cairn of the day. Downhill a little and we start to follow the Clea Burn. We will stop for lunch at the gabion by the side of the windfarm path then walk about half a mile on its hard surface before heading off across grassland again, to cross Clea Burn at a crumbly ford. From there, we head through Kelburn Estate which brings us back to Fairlie Castle on Fairlie Glen and downhill to our cars at Fairlie Viewpoint.
Good boots are essential. Gaiters will be useful against the rough ground and possible wet patches. Poles if you use them.
Morrisons supermarket, Stevenston - top right corner of the car park.
Fairlie View car park, signposted as a picnic place on the shore side by a whitewashed house whose gable end you see soon after entering Fairlie from the south on the A78. If you use the train, we pass Fairlie Station a few minutes after the start of the walk. Just let Linda know that you will meet there.
