Inverclyde

9 miles / 14 km

This is a bit of a weird walk. It is a viable emergency alternative to the Greenock Cut as that path may be muddy and slippery on a rainy day. The surface is gravel and tarmac all the way here. This is still a very good walk.

Pretty Hard

There is one big climb on this walk and two medium hard climbs. The hardest one is from Drumfrochar train stop to the Overton car park and the first reservoir. The two other ones are the gravel road over to Greenock Cut visitor centre and the climb up from Spango Valley over towards Gourock. The rest of the walk is a blend of flat road and descending. Bring plenty of water and good shoes here.

Train from Glasgow Central Station/Paisley/Port Glasgow to Drumfrochar train stop 2 times an hour.

The walk starts with this pretty hard climb up Peat Road, then Drumfrochar Road and after a right bend past the school... Papermill Road. Picture taken just after leaving Drumfrochar train stop...




Take the road to the left signposted Overton Car Park. This car park is by far the steepest part of the whole walk. Continue up the hill past the Greenock Cut signposts to the right (don't take that path). Climb past this house on the top of the hill, go straight ahead through a gate and up to a moor, the first flat part of the walk. The walk here are moderate steep past two dams/lochs.



The good gravel road climbs up to the highest point/hill of the whole walk. The hills seems steeper than it really from afar. The climb from this cattle gris is pretty gentle and not as bad as feared.
There are normally a lot of sheep here too. The views back the hill towards Greenock and Cardross is very good from here. The path now now gently descends past Loch Thom and the path, now a tarmac road, is flat to the Greenock Cut Visitor Centre. The visitor centre is sporadically open. When it is open, they are selling some bacon rolls, chocolate, coffee and soft drinks.



From the Visitor Centre, go straight ahead and take the road to the right towards this farm in the picture.



This road is closed to all car traffic and the reasons why soon become obvious as you can see below. I would be surprised if this road ever opens again for cars, as there is a lot of work to be done on the steep hillside/canyon down towards the river from Loch Thom to Inverkip. The road is good for us walkers, though. See the two pictures below.







At the next crossroad, take the Dunrod Road to the right. This road crosses the railway line past a farm and over a bridge before it ends up on the busy Inverkip Road motorway. Cross this road, and be very careful as the cars are very fast here, before heading over to a road going up to the left, signmarked with a horse rider signpost.
This road climbs the hillside on the other side of Spango Valley. Greenock Cut can be spotted on the hillside on the other side of this valley.



The ex IBM Spango Valley site now comes into view. This site employed at most 6000 people over a period of half a century. I got my first computer back in 1994 from this site. The IBM Spango Valley serial numbers started with 55.xx.xx.. I also worked in two of the offices here for many years, commuting to and from the now-closed IBM Halt train stop every day. The two pictures below are what remains of IBM Spango Valley, with the Greenock Cut in the hillside above the now-empty site. One of my offices was actually looking up towards the viewpoint where these two pictures were taken from. Strange...







Some contemplations aside... make that a lot of contemplations... the walk continues over a small crest before the first houses in the housing estates appear. Take the Braeside Road at the next crossroad up to the left and then, after a climb, the Burns Road over to Larkfield Road which takes you to the descent down to Gourock.



The descent is pretty steep at the end before the roundabout. Take the Shore Road to the left to the Gourock train station where this walk ends.

Train from Gourock to Paisley/Glasgow 2 times an hour.
McGill's Bus 901 from Gourock train station to Greenock/Port Glasgow/Braehead/Glasgow 2 - 3 times an hour.