It was time to start my quest to bag all of Fife's gridsquares - or, to be more precise, time to start blogging about it. I've been doing it for nearly a year. Hence, my 'shorthand' version, which, with any luck, or bad luck (depending on which way you look at it) may lengthen as I catch up with a year's worth of walks.
Ramornie Bridge over the River Eden. Heading north-west. NO3209.
River Eden at Ramornie Bridge - NO3209
Turn off at Sweethome. NO3210. Where I didn't realise I was near The Wilderness where Tim has taken me birdwatching. Still seeing lots of Pink-footed Geese. Hedge planting continuing too.
The ideal coffee stop! Near the railway tunnel at Ballomill. NO3310. Fly tipping really.
Rankeilour Burn. NO3310. The railway runs over the top of the bridge to Springfield and Cupar. I went through a tunnel to the right of this photo.
Approaching Springfield. NO3311
After going through the tunnel there may have been a path to the left, which I wish I'd taken. If it was there, this may have been an easier ,more straightforward route than the one I took skirting The Moor. It was very muddy. The attractive looking, island shaped pond shown in the middle of the woodland on the map, seemed to have disappeared. At any rate, I joined a well-marked track and met a man coming in the opposite direction who had walked from Cupar and wanted to do a circular walk. Was that possible? I tried to help him by showing him the map on my phone, but he made no attempt to look at it and I wondered if he was illiterate. He set off south along a track. Looking at the map, there are quite a few paths across the railway near here. Handy for someone who wants to complete every one of Fife's gridsquares!
Springfield Parish Church. NO3411
Entering the village of Springfield, the church was the first thing I saw.
Springfield Old Post Office NO3411
Then I saw the old post office. There was a village shop further up the street. I'm always sad to see post offices closed - and there are so many closed nowadays. They used to be such an integral part of our communities, as did the ubiquitous red phone kiosk. This one housed a defibrillator, which is making good alternative use of an otherwise obsolete facility.
I had a decision to make now. I either headed south towards Hospital Mill and Cults Mill, or crossed the River Eden east of the village and head south that way. I thought perhaps I would not have time or energy to include Cults Kirk in this walk as it was on a bit of a spur of its own. It looked like I would have to walk along the A914 in order to make it a doable part of a circular walk - and I wasn't keen on doing that. I decided I would go east and cross the River Eden and then see if I found a path to the Kirk from the east, which was the side that no path was marked.
I'm now keen to go back and try the route south as it looks more interesting than the one I took - and I ended up going a little wrong anyway and approaching the Kirk from the west along the path. But I'm ahead of myself and making this into a longer post than I promised at the start.
Clushgreen Bridge, east of Springfield. Bridges the River Eden. NO3511.
I didn't like walking along this road as there was no footpath and it was quite busy. Fortunately I did not have to walk along it for very long before turning south towards Crawford Priory. This was one of those roads that you don't know if you're allowed to walk along. Was I going to be accosted for being on private property? There were no signs to say so other than 'Private Road'. I sauntered along through pleasant woodland and past an old building with a sculpted horse's head above the archway. I later found out this was the Stables. Ah! Now it made sense.
Crawford Stables. NO3411. You can't really see the horse's head above the archway. Someone came out with a wheelie bin just as I was about to photograph it and I felt too self-conscious to linger.
Next up was the Priory. What would that be like? The stables were elaborate enough! I entered through a huge archway next to an equally huge sign warning people not to enter on account of 'Danger of Death'. The sign was obviously meant for the ruinous building next to it. It was like something from Dracula. \I imagined James loving it here. Jackdaws flew ominously round its castellated ruins.
Crawford Priory. NO3411. I found some excellent old photos of this place here. I would have loved to linger and explore, but not only did the signs warn of danger,but it did look like bits of masonry and woodwork were likely to fall on your head at any time, so I resisted temptation. I later bumped into a local with a chihuahua who told me there had been a fire here in the 1980s. I won't go into any of the history of the place as the blog I mentioned is of immense interest and contains a wealth of knowledge far beyond anything I could concoct. See also here.
This was by far the most interesting of my sights today, and I definitely intend to return to explore more. pondering the history of this place, I continued, past the nurseries and lodge. It was here that I managed to take a 'wrong' turn. I could have corrected it and retraced my steps, but, on looking at the map I realised I could use my mistake to my advantage in being able to visit Cults Kirk after all.
Priory Nurseries. NO3410.
I arrived at the A914, which I knew had a footpath running alongside it from when Tim and I had driven along the road and I'd been scouring for signs of the church. I'd noted the footpath then as I'd worked out it would be difficult to make a circular walk which included this church. I only had to walk along it for a couple of minutes before crossing the road and being warmly welcomed to the farmtrack to Kirkton of Cults.
I was to be further pleasantly surprised to discover that this one was open. So many in Scotland are locked, and I get why, but I was missing being able to explore church interiors as I did in Dorset.
This church was not only open, but it also had lots of information about its history, in particular about one of its minister, Rev David Wilkie, who was apparently a famous artist. I knew nothing about this man, but the church and community are obviously very proud of their heritage and I am always happy to discover new things so I was particularly glad to stumble upon this little treasure today. 'Stumble' is the wrong word, however, as I had deliberately sought out Cults Kirk. My reason for doing so, however, was its connection with the Covenanters.
Another minister, Rev George Dishington, was deposed of his charge in 1668 by the synod because of his adherence to the Solemn League and Covenant and refusal to accept the Episcopalian Order of Service in his parish. He was one of about 400 ministers all over Scotland to lose their livings.
My exploration of this delightful church over, I decided to press on as it was a little early for lunch. This was the part of my walk I was unsure about. There was no track or path marked on my 2004 map and I wasn't sure if I could get from here to the minor road without going back on myself and walking along the A914. I walked through the farmyard to a makeshift stile into some regenerated woodland and continued walking eastwards. Then I came to a ploughed field, rather soggy from the recent rainfall, I could see from the map that this was all that stood between me and the road, so I made my way gingerly across it, realising when I came to the gate that there was a track of sorts which circled the field and which might be worth remembering if I ever repeat this walk. I picked my steps carefully across mud and sand to the gate and onto the welcome hard surface of the road.
Now it was a case of road walking nearly all the way back to Pitlessie.
I had not long passed this farm and was huffing and puffing my way uphill when a car pulled up next to me and three men asked if I knew where the mines were. I got out my phone map for the umpteenth time that day and said I wasn't familiar with the area but there were mines marked on the map just up the road. "Turn right at the crossroads," I said, realising that was exactly the way I was heading too. I bumped into them again, armed with torches and a ball of string. "Be careful!" I shouted after them. I read afterwards of a couple of incidents when the emergency services were called out to people who had got lost in the labyrinth of tunnels here.
There was further evidence of mine works along the road as I walked, looking for somewhere I could safely sit for lunch without worrying about falling into a shaft.
Cults Lime Works. NO3408.
I perched gingerly on a tree stump and munched at my sandwiches, realising that, for all the interest of this walk, I was now nearly back in Pitlessie. The walk had been shorter than I'd expected, but that was good because it meant I could maybe bring Tim and Elaine another time, perhaps in spring. I do love the thought of redoing walks in a different season. Trouble is, there are so many other places to explore that I never get round to doing them all again.
At Claybrig, I turned sharp right to gain a beautiful view of the Lomond Hills and my destination village of Pitlessie.
Claybrigs with West and East Lomond in the distance. NO3308.
Miles walked: 8.4
Number of new gridsquares: 12
Number of trigpoints bagged: 1
Walk worth repeating: Yes, but look out for better track through field after Cults Kirk.
No comments:
Post a Comment