Gillian's Walks

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A 4 mile loop between Newmilns and Darvel and around the quiet woodland of Lanfine Estate. Well surfaced paths make the walking easy – great for an evening stroll with friends. If you have kids with you they will enjoy the large play park at the halfway point in Darvel! 

  On-street parking available on Brown Street, Newmilns (KA16 9AA). Local bus service stops on A71, a short walk from the start point.

  Route: The walk starts along Brown’s Road, Newmilns which follows the River Irvine all the way along to Randoldcoup Bridge in Darvel.  If you want to spend time at the play park, turn left here, otherwise turn right through the cast iron gates into Lanfine Estate. The path from here enters a lovely woodland area. Continue straight for some time and after crossing Newlands Bridge you will pass through a cluster of buildings. On emerging out the other side keep right at a fork and right again at the end of the road. Continue straight ignoring any roads to the right. You will come to another set of cast iron gates leading to Brown’s Road. Turn left and retrace your steps back to the car. 

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WALK REPORT: 24th May 2016

Brown’s Road and Lanfine Estate were both walks which had been recommended to me by a girl I met on the Irvine Valley Walking Festival hike a few weeks prior. It is always great to find new walks so I was keen to check these out. I had thought that they were going to be buggy friendly however as it turns out the gates at the entrances to Lanfine Estate don’t open wide enough to fit pram or buggy through without folding it first…. not ideal.

I will admit to being a little disappointed with the section along Brown’s Road. I think I had built it up in my head too much beforehand…. Many a time I have been driving along the high part of the road between Newmilns and Darvel and look over to the right down into the valley and it just looks so picturesque. I always thought ‘I bet there are walks you can do over there’. So when I found out that there indeed was and that it went right along the river I was super excited. In reality though you can’t see any of the valley from Brown’s Road, because you are in it. It is tree-lined so the only things you can really see are the trees and the river (sometimes). There were also lots of large flies swarming around, probably due to us being there early evening.

Once inside Lanfine Estate I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Such a large variety of tree species, a lovely old stone bridge and some little pigs! In fact I returned on a later date and created a walk called Lanfine’s Wild Boars which is perfect for taking the kids along on!

My mum particularly loved this weeping willow and who can blame her, it looked so grand and beautiful and really stood out from the crowd! I couldn’t help but take a picture of the copper beech tree below with the late evening sun shining through it highlighting it’s red leaves.

Despite the Estate being so nice, it ended up having a bit of a spooky feel about it for my mum and I. Partly because walking around the woods at night is always a bit eerie and why I would never walk alone in the evening, but also thanks to a ‘dodgy’ looking guy we passed. He was pacing back and forward speaking on his mobile phone and just looked completely out of place.  We picked up the pace to go past him and everything was fine, but this didn’t stop me glancing over my shoulder a few times until he was out of sight. Most likely just our imaginations running wild, but I guess you can’t be too careful these days. Having said all that, it hasn’t put me off going back!

Close to the end of the walk we passed this interesting wall at the roadside made from tree trunks. It was also a good night for spotting wildlife – as well as the pigs mentioned above we also saw a rabbit and some horses :-)

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