Blairadam 3rd Nov 2013

Bennochy Walkers Blairadam Forest

 

Well, following a dreich Saturday, Sunday dawned bright and sunny albeit with a cold, westerly wind. A dozen walkers set off for a walk in Blairadam Forest at Kelty.

 

Parking at Baxters (formerly Kathellen) we strode across the B914 and entered the forest. A vast amount of tree felling had been taking place and what previously would have been dense wood now gave a great panorama which includrd the “sleeping giant”, West Lomond, Largo Law and Bay, the wind turbine at Fife Energy Plant at Methil and Berwick Law

 

Striding on, we were careful as the narrow road we were walking on also led to another parking area for walkers and the Forestry Commission Blairadam Depot. The nice day had brought a lot of people out from young people’s groups to families and dog walkers. A short walk into the forest we took a fork to the left of the track which took us along the Glen Trail alongside Kelty Burn. We noted along this track some type of old building work which caused some discussion. Having now had the chance to look at an information leaflet I can say that what we saw was the “remains of the “100 foot bridge” which carried the railway over the Glen to the Blairenbathie pit” which was just one of the many pits in the area

 

Walking to the end of the glen we exited it via an underpass of the M90 and continued on until we reached Keltyhill, where we commented on the lovely old cottages, one even had a clock tower with a commemoration plaque. Moving briskly on we headed towards Kelty and cutting through a large park area eventually came to the footpath over the M90 and again back into the forest for a brief time. The last half mile was what could be classed as a “lang hing” as what goes down must eventually go up again. However the thought of tea, coffee and scones at Baxters, fair geed us up because some of our “tongues were fair hinging oot”.

 

Back at Baxters we enjoyed the lovely scones, butter and jam and general chat around the table before we managed to squeeze a wee look at the shop, fair bedecked with Christmas goodies. What a lot we packed into the afternoon and as always the good company made a good walk even better