Balgonie Loop

 We left the church wrapped up in hoodies and scarves against the snell wind despite this being officially summer. There were blue skies but some dubious clouds hung over our heads like an impending dental appointment. 

http://www.walkfife.com/maps-routes/balgonie-loop/

We started our walk  in Coaltown of Balgonie leaving the Main Street via Lady Nina Cottages.
The question arose who Lady Nina might be but the leader hadn't a scooby. She has since discovered that Lady Nina Balfour was the wife of Charles Balfour, owner of Balfour collieries and estate. He provided the bowling green in the village for his employees 100 years ago.
This was very much a flat, country walk through fields of crops though most of us were not confident about naming them. The views were pleasant and very familiar to us being so near home, but we were all too caught up in our customary in depth conversations on politics and religion to mention the landscape today.

The sun won through and, working up a heat, you can see by our first photo that some had to discard the hoodies. Lovely sunny faces don't you think?

There was a wee incline near the end of the walk but we all coped and even managed a smile for another snapshot.

The last stage took us in a straight line between the muckle boulder above, past disused farm buildings into Coaltown itself and we wandered through the main street towards the Cooperative where we had left our cars.
From there we headed for nearby Thornton where we enjoyed coffee and scones at the Golf Club. Full marks given for quality coffee, delicious scones, good service and an amazingly cheap bill!

Before taking leave of our friends once more, we snapped this pic at the 18th hole. We also planned the next meeting which will be our summer trip to Dunkeld and we sincerely hope that the weather this visit will be a whole lot drier than last time. Our usual prayer brought another lovely afternoon with close friends to a contented close. 

    Kerry, Stephen, Sybil, Ian, Audrey, Rona, Dianne, Janis and Ronnie. Hilda took this pic.

Kinghorn

Lovely sunshine was what was on order and we weren't disappointed. 13 walkers left the church heading along the coast to todays destination, Kinghorn. The walk started with a slight uphill climb with Kinghorn Golf course on our right and the spectacular sea views across the Forth on our left. It was such a clear day, you could see for miles. Our first memorable encounter was a mounted policeman on his horse.

We continued along the path where we soon encountered our first views of the Craigencault Ecology centre and stopped for our obligatory photo.

Time to move on, we continued along the trail until we reached what was reputed to be the home of the last of the Kinghorn witches where we stopped to have a look at the coins pressed into the walls of the ruin.

On we travelled, crossing the road which would take us on to the ecology centre itself, stopping for a moment to have a look at the plaque in the wall commemorating the opening of the Roddanbraes path in 2014. On reaching the Ecology Centre we paused again, basking in the sunshine at the loch watching the ducks and the beautiful swan with her cygnets, wishing we had brought a picnic. We spent a short while wandering the ecology centre until it was time to head for our coffee stop, The Carousel, where our tea, coffee and lovely cakes were awaiting us. A fitting end to a great day with a great bunch, some of us vowing to go back, suitably summed up in the wall of the ecology centre.