The Smuggler's Trail, Dundonald to Troon

Despite being very ill, and very depressed yesterday, I agreed quite willingly to my husband's request to go for a walk. The fact is, he wanted to go for a walk, I just decided a walk was what I needed to make me feel better!

We got the bus to Dundonald. A complete rip-off at 1.50 each!! We had to wait 45 minutes for the bus, because the timetable on line was out of date, and there is only 1 bus per hour!

The track starts at Dundonald Castle and very pretty it is too. The path is nicely marked, but what they don't tell you is that after the first 15 minutes of gentle incline, there is a STEEP incline which nearly killed me - asthmatic chest, snotty nose and all! However once that steep incline was out of the way, and by the by, for those of you with a stamina good enough to run for a bus, it wasn't THAT steep! It was a lovely walk. I heard a woodpecker, but despite scouring the trees around me, couldn't spot him anywhere.

The best thing is when you round a corner and are faced with this view. There is a resevoir nestled next Troon, and I reckon that more than half the folk in Troon don't even know it is there. The Anglers do. There were a couple of them angling. A couple of guys with dogs walking and we passed two couples like outselves out bounding the path. (Note to self: What you were doing, could NOT in any way be described as BOUNDING).

At the end of the farm track where the road turns to go to Loans, I left my husband. Not in a marital sense, but in a "two roads diverged in a wood" kind of way, he wanted to walk the complete 8 km, but I had had enough, my back was starting to hurt, and I was scared that If I allowed myself an indulgent cough, I may indeedy, cough my lungs up.

As I walked back home, I pondered at a derelict house. That house and an adjoining farmhouse have been compulsarily purchased for house building, and to see the daffodils in the garden all alone was a crime so I clamboured down the path and pinched some for my window ledge.

I think I will sneak back tonight with a spade, and get the bulbs!

Oh, and by the by, I doubt very much if this was the route the smugglers took from Troon to Dundonald. There would be NO good reason for them to treck thru Lochgreen House Hotel, The Royal Troon Golf Course, and then Thru Loans! They would land stolen / smuggled stuff at Barassie, and chank up the hill from there. I'm sure that's what they do still!