Walk 265 – The Gryffe Valley Way part 2 (Kilmacolm to Linwood via Quarriers Village) – 10.5 miles

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*Long Distance Routes*, 3-6 miles, 9+ miles, All Walking Routes, Gryffe Valley Way, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire

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The Gryffe Valley Way is a 20-mile waymarked walking route through Inverclyde and Renfrewshire, within easy reach of both Glasgow and Ayrshire. In the second of this two-part series, we explore the section from Kilmacolm to Linwood, including the recommended de-tour to the historic Quarriers Village. Highlights include the peaceful Mill Lade Path, colourful wildflower meadows alive with butterflies, and the remarkable Craigends Yew, thought to be between 500 and 700 years old. A wonderfully varied walk, rich in local history and hidden surprises, that reveals yet more of this underrated corner of west-central Scotland. Note that the route can be split, forming two shorter walks of 6 miles and 4.5 miles.

Looking for a shorter option? This route can be split at several points. One recommendation is to split in two as follows: Kilmacolm to Crosslee 6 miles / Crosslee to Linwood 4.5 miles.

Start point: Carriages Bar & Restaurant, Kilmacolm

End point: ON-X Sports Centre, Linwood

TERRAIN: Graded easy. Cycle track, surfaced roads and pavements, gravel and earth woodland trails. No steep ascents/descents.

There is free parking at Kilmacolm Community Centre close to the walk start point, and at the ON-X Sports Centre, Linwood, at the walk end point. When we did this walk we parked at the ON-X and then used the local bus service to reach Kilmacolm. The bus stop is on Clippens Rd, outside Linwood Parish Church, which is approx half a mile from the ON-X.

There are toilet facilities at Kilmacolm Community Centre close to where the walk starts (check opening times – at time of writing it was closed on Sundays) and at the ON-X Sports Centre in Linwood where the walk ends. There are also customer toilets (and refreshments available) at the River Inn, Crosslee, which is a little over halfway through the walk.

route map image - GVW from Kilmacolm to Linwood

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Begin your walk at Carriages Bar & Restaurant, Kilmacolm – to the south of which you’ll find the entrance to the cycle track. Walk along the cycle track for the first 1.3 miles, coming off to the right at a set of gates opposite a National Cycle Network signpost (NS 362 677).

Go up the ramp and turn right onto Craigends Rd (signposted ‘Gryffe Valley Way’). After crossing the bridge over the River Gryffe, go down a set of steps immediately to the left (signposted ‘Quarriers Village’) and onto a grassy trail leading to a large open area. Head towards Mount Zion Church and follow the road around its right-side to emerge onto Love Avenue.

Turn right and follow Love Avenue past several large villas. The road naturally curves to the left and eventually meets with Faith Avenue at a small memorial. Turn left here and follow Faith Avenue to the very end, turning left behind a building marked ‘three sisters bake’, and turning right at a fork (signposted ‘Bridge of Weir’) to where the street meets with a footbridge over the River Gryffe. There is a picnic bench and some interpretation boards here. Cross the bridge and follow the lane, lined with information boards, as it zig zags back uphill towards the cycle track.

Turn right on the cycle track, and pass into Renfrewshire! You will be on the cycle track for around 1.5 miles. Turn left off the cycle track at Amaretto restaurant (signposted ‘Gryffe Valley Way’ and ‘Bridge of Weir Village Centre’ – NS 387 655).

Walk through the car park and down onto Main Street / A751. Carefully cross the road, turn right then first left onto Mill Brae. At the end of the road continue onto a gravel footpath. Cross the river then turn right onto the Mill Lade Path. Continue along the Mill Lade Path, with the river to your right, for approx 1 mile, emerging at a large grassy area close to Brierie Hill Road. Turn right to follow grassy tracks across the open space, keeping left at the fork and heading uphill at the other side and onto Whirlie Rd.

Turn right to reach Houstoun Rd. Cross carefully and turn left along Houstoun Rd /B789. Take the first street on your right Crosslee Park. About halfway along look out for a lane on the left which takes you between houses 8 and 10 and across the river.

Turn left at the fork to walk through a wooded area in the Craigends Estate. After approx half a mile you’ll come to a bridge on your left – don’t cross it, instead continue to the right through the woods. Look out for the ancient Craigends Yew tree just off the path (see waypoint 4 on the digital map)!

The path emerges onto Gryfebank Avenue, where you turn left along a residential street. Where the street starts to bend to the right, look out for a lane straight ahead – this will lead you onto a (sometimes overgrown) riverside trail for a short distance, de-touring around the back of the houses. Where it meets with Craigends Rd can become badly flooded, in which case turn right along the fence-edge and down onto the road wherever possible.

Turn right on Craigends Rd – a quiet country lane. A little more than half a mile along, take the first road on your left (small green Gryffe Valley Way marker discs on the trees here, can be easily missed) – Clippens Rd. Take the first left again onto Auchans Rd.

You’ll eventually come to a crossroads – turn right towards a metal gate and along Moss Rd for half a mile. Look out for two metal gates on the right, beside a bin, giving you access to the woodland trails of Linwood Moss. Continue ahead and after approx 400m at a fork keep left – the sports pitch of the ON-X should come into view ahead – walk past it with the sports pitch on your right-hand-side to reach the ON-X car park, where this walk ends.

Walk Report: 28th June 2026

Part two of the Gryffe Valley Way for us! We split into two groups – one group doing the whole 10.5 miles and the other doing the first part between Kilmacolm and Crosslee, approx 6 miles. The group doing the whole walk parked at the ON-X in Linwood and walked approx 10-15 mins to the main road for the bus to Kilmacolm. En route, the group doing the shorter walk jumped on the same bus outside the River Inn, Crosslee, having parked there. We all disembarked in Kilmacolm and enjoyed the first 6 miles of the walk together.

Our group posing beside an art installation on the cycle track, designed in the shape of a train — The whole group taking the opportunity of a photo together at this interesting art installation along the cycle path. After a bit of looking and wondering, we noticed that it takes the shape of a train – the cycle path being a former train line – and has been built using a variety of materials. A black post beside it had the markings ‘David Kemp Bob McKinnon 1990’ on it, which I now know to be the names of the men who built it. I found out online that the black post – which looked like the base of a lamp post – used to have a large red number 18 on top of it: a mile marker (mile 18). I found out that this is linked to another art installation at mile 17, both commissioned by Sustrans (now Walk Wheel Cycle Trust) when the cycle track opened. Mile 17 features artwork representing the Lost 17th Legion (Legion XVII) of the Imperial Roman Army, who according to myth, vanished without a trace as they marched into Scotland! There is a good photo of it on the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust website. Seeing the photo once home, I couldn’t understand how we would have missed it! Unfortunately for us, it is located on the small section of the cycle track we didn’t walk on – due to de-touring into Quarriers Village.

The Gryffe Water surrounded by lush countryside and grazing cattle — This picture was taken on the Quarriers Village de-tour. It took us down a quiet road and across the Gryffe Water for the first time – very exciting!

A colourful flower display in Quarriers Village — A snapshot from within Quarriers Village. I highly recommend this de-tour and reading up a bit on the history of Quarriers Village before you go. It is a fascinating place. To be honest I’d never even heard of it before researching this walk. I guess that is one of the benefits of these sorts of walking routes existing: they encourage exploration of unfamiliar places and the opportunity to learn about the history and heritage of an area. On a different note – can you spot the ice cream van? Yes we did!

Welcome to Renfrewshire sign on the cycle track — The route back out of Quarriers Village was lined with information boards and we didn’t have time to read them all but it is something I’d like to go back and do in the future. I reckon this would make a nice short circular walk in its own right: from Kilmacolm, following this route into Quarriers and then back out the other side onto the cycle track, then back along to Kilmacolm. Taking the time to read all the info available. This would also mean passing the Legion XVII artwork on the way back! For my group on this first visit though, we were heading onwards – over the border into Renfrewshire!

Narrow earth trail with trees either side — This is the ‘Mill Lade Path’, which the route follows pretty much all the way from Bridge of Weir to Crosslee. It looked a bit like an old wagon way to me: long and straight, on raised ground. To our left the lower ground looked like a huge big long ditch, mostly dried out but sometimes with watery mud in it. The ditch we were seeing, or ‘lade’ to give it its proper name, was effectively an artificial water channel, built to divert and carry water from the Gryffe Water to the Crosslee Cotton Mill in the late 1700s. It was a very scenic, green and peaceful part of the walk, with plenty of birdsong to be heard.

Group of walkers crossing a large meadow filled with long grasses — After the Mill Lade Path came this open grassland – presumably part of the Gryffe floodplain. I do love walking through long grasses, through which a path has been mown (or trodden) but the rest has been left to be wild. We enjoyed an abundance of butterflies here during our visit in late June.

Between the open grassland and the next photo of the Yew tree, the group doing the shorter walk reached the end of their adventure, and before saying cheerio we all enjoyed a refreshment at the River Inn, Crosslee. We were out in the beer garden, and unfortunately my lasting memory is going to be the awful smell of sewage which was being blown over from somewhere south of us. Yuk! No wonder we were the only ones sitting outside….

An old Yew tree, it's branches all intertwined — The Craigends Yew, thought to be 500-700 years old and one of the largest layered Yews in western Europe! So impressive! It is located a little off the main path, but is marked on the OpenStreetMap, so if you know how to use my digital map then you will easily find it at waypoint 4. The Yew grows within the Craigends Estate, which we were surprised to read belonged to the Cunninghames until the 1950s. The same Cunninghames, we wondered, as in Ayrshire?? According to the interpretation board on the route – yes! From where we were walking, it was difficult to imagine there once being a huge mansion on the Estate grounds – now completely gone and replaced by modern housing.

Just beyond the Yew Tree, the route emerges out of Craigends Estate onto Craigends Rd. Well…. on our visit the access down onto the road was completely flooded, even though there hadn’t been a great deal of rain lately. There would have been no way through it, but we noticed a lady out walking her dog who had taken a right turn along the very edge of a wooden fence, and had managed to keep going, so we followed her and got down onto the road further along. Access still wasn’t easy, with some of the group needing a hand down over the mud. It looked as though there had once been steps, but not any more. Someone had placed a car wheel trim in the mud to act as a ‘landing spot’ or stepping stone between the fence path and the dry road. Something to be aware of!

Between Craigends and Linwood the route followed a series of quiet roads in open countryside. It is quite amazing, that until the very last few minutes of the walk, we had absolutely no sign or sense of being close to a large town! The map told me that we’d be finishing within the next mile – but all around us was farmland, trees, and quiet spaces. Linwood is very well hidden from this angle!