TERRAIN: Graded easy. Mix of surfaces including surfaced roads and cycle tracks, gravel/earth trails and loose stone forest tracks. Gently undulating with no stiles. Several gates and cattle grids.
There is no public transport to Loch Thom. When we did this walk we left cars at both ends. There is plenty of free parking at Greenock Cut Visitor Centre at the Loch Thom end, and at Kilmacolm Community Centre at the other.
There are toilet facilities at Greenock Cut Visitor Centre where the walk starts and at Kilmacolm Community Centre where the walk ends (check opening times – at time of writing it was closed on Sundays). There are also customer toilets at Carriages pub/restaurant in Kilmacolm, which is located at the end of the walk and can be recommended for refreshments. We especially enjoyed sitting out in their beer garden in the sunshine!
View full route description
Begin your walk at Greenock Cut Visitor Centre. Turn left (NE) out the car park to walk past the cafe at Ardgowan Fishery. This smooth surfaced road soon becomes more of a track and begins to head uphill.
As the track starts to veer away from Loch Thom, look for two marker posts pointing to the right, towards the loch. Follow this track SE along the edge of Loch Thom for a little over a mile.
You will emerge onto the Old Largs Road where you should turn right. Take care walking along this road which can be surprisingly busy.
When you reach the forest, turn left. The water ahead of you is Gryffe Reservoir 1. Keep left (E) at a fork in the forestry track 0.8 miles along, then continue in a general E direction, close to the reservoir, until you emerge out of the forest and onto a single track road. Now to your left is Gryffe Reservoir 2, out of which the Gryffe Water flows.
On reaching the B788 turn left to walk along the road for approx 200m – take care, traffic moves fast on this road! Turn first right onto another single track road which you will be on for the next approx 2 miles until it arrives at the Auchenbothie Road.
Turn left and use the ramp to access the cycle path above. Turn left along the cycle path, which ends at a residential area after approx 1 mile.
Walk along Whitelea Crescent, turning first left onto a lane leading to Whitelea Court. This emerges at the car park for Carriages pub/restaurant. Kilmacolm Community Centre and bus routes can be accessed by turning left along Station Road, then left on Lochwinnoch Road.
Walk Report: 31st May 2026
The Gryffe Valley Way had been on our walk-list for over a year and it had finally made it to the top! I knew absolutely nothing about it apart from the fact that it had been put together by the Gryffe Valley Rotary Club. This in itself is partly what sparked our interest in the route, having walked the Ayrshire Coastal Path a number of times: another trail established by a Rotary club (Ayr in this case).
Honestly, I had never even heard of the Gryffe Valley, or the Gryffe Water. And although I was very familiar with the walks around the Greenock Cut Visitor Centre where this one begins, I wasn’t sure that I could say with any confidence that I had ever been to Kilmacolm, Bridge of Weir, or Linwood…. But that’s the point I suppose – these trails are designed to showcase an area, to bring people there, to highlight the best that the area has to offer.
Certainly after this first walk, I am happy to say that it is an area I would highly recommend visiting! We were in the most peaceful of surroundings and I definitely think we chose the best time of year to come. From the vast moorland of Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park where we walked alongside no less than 4 reservoirs, to the wide open views across lush green farmland, and a little bit of forestry thrown in for good measure: this walk had a touch of everything and it was also very well signposted. Out of my Ayrshire comfort zone (not by much mind you), I was noticing some subtle differences – the cows, for example, were unfamiliar to me. They were mostly brown in colour, and curiously, they tended to move away from us as we got closer. I was more used to large herds of black and white Ayrshire dairy cows. Their typical response is to run over to walkers to suss them out. I think these Inverclyde herds could teach the Ayrshire ones a thing or two about appropriate behaviour 😉
To round off an excellent day, we were thrilled to discover the charming beer garden at Carriages pub/restaurant. From there we had a view of the continuation of the Gryffe Valley Way along the cycle track – and we knew that we’d be back soon to complete it!
Other walks in the Gryffe Valley Way series (coming soon)
The Gryffe Valley Way was created by Gryffe Valley Rotary and opened in 2024. You can download the official Gryffe Valley Way brochure here.
