Читать книгу Our Western Hills: How to reach them; And the Views from their Summits. By a Glasgow Pedestrian онлайн

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Though the hill is not very high, yet with the exception of Misty Law, near Lochwinnoch, and the Hill of Staik, on the borders of Lochwinnoch, Largs, and Kilbirnie, it is the highest eminence in the county of Renfrew. It is principally composed of the trap rock, which is prevalent in the district, but several specimens of barytes have been found in its vicinity, and a species of stone which bears extreme heat without cracking, and has therefore been found to be well adapted for the construction of furnaces and ovens. It is also said to contain silver and lead ores, but if so, there is no outward appearance to show that this is correct.

The prospect from the summit, however, more than repays any disappointment which we may have on this score. It commands a most extensive and beautiful series of landscapes, embracing many counties within its scope. On the one hand are the moors of Fenwick, formerly called New Kilmarnock, with its memories of William Guthrie, its first minister (1644), author of “The Christian’s Great Interest,” and from whom the parish takes its chief fame. Beyond are the fertile woods and fields of Ayrshire, with Loudon Hill, near which the battle of Drumclog was fought, and an extensive sweep of the Ayrshire coast, with the lonely and conical Ailsa Craig and the jagged peaks of Arran in the distance. On a clear day the view in this direction commands the land of Burns. On the other hand, we have in sight the grand valley of the Clyde, with Glasgow and Paisley, and many other towns and villages in its capacious bosom, while away in the dim distance we have a perfect wilderness of mountain-tops. A little to the south and west is the farm of Greenfields, with 1000 acres—somewhat of a misnomer, however, for all around is a waste of peat. As we pass the farmhouse we see a herd of lowing cattle, and hear the song of chanticleer in the farmyard. And as we move along we come upon a fresh upheaval of earth, the work of Master Mole, and still more frequently upon the burrow of a rabbit, with tufts of downy fur strewing the neighbourhood. Near this there is a road that leads to lonely but historically and otherwise interesting Lochgoin, where John Howie wrote the “Scots Worthies,” where there are still to be seen many things which will rejoice the heart of the Christian patriot and the antiquary.