A straightforward circuit of the moorland south of Muirkirk following the course of long-abandoned railways and canal.
Good footpaths and surfaced minor road.
None to start.
Walkers car park, Kames near Muirkirk.
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From the car park at Kames, turn away from the information board and hills on the horizon ahead to take the path on the right adjacent to the car park entrance. Go through the gate and onto a well-made footpath following the route of a former railway which has been refurbished to become part of the River Ayr Way. This long distance path is well waymarked with red double-headed arrows where necessary. The railway was opened in 1848 and designed to transport minerals from the local pits to the iron work furnaces in Auchinleck. Now long gone, the railway bed certainly makes a convenient footpath.
Continue along the path before turning left at a River Ayr Way waymarker post to drop down onto the bank of a former canal dug much earlier than the railway in 1790 to transport coal by barge from Lightshaw, Auldhouseburn and Crossflat pits. At a pair of kissing gates turn left as indicated by the waymarkers and continue along a path corralled neatly between two fences. After a short distance the path reaches a quiet country road by a kissing gate; go through the gate and turn right to leave the River Ayr Way.
This minor road heads uphill through the remains of an old railway bridge to reach Auldhouseburn House, dating back to 1610 though modified in 1884. There is rumoured to be an escape tunnel running from the house to a nearby burn - a reminder of the house's historical links with the Covenanters. Keep left at the entrance drive to skirt around the house and outbuildings, then bear right to pass by a large poultry unit and through a gate into open farmland.
Now on a good farm track there are panoramic views over the moorland and hills south of Muirkirk, including the popular 593m Cairn Table with summit war memorial. Later the prominent clock tower of Kames Institute dominates the view, built as a recreation centre for the miners formerly housed in the village but now sadly neglected. The path continues through a series of gates before rejoining the outward path and returning to the car park.
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