Walk: That sinking feeling on Cairn Table

📌 Muirkirk, East Ayrshire
★★

Ayrshire’s Cairn Table reaches nearly 600 metres above sea level, giving excellent views over southwest Scotland and as far as Galloway, Arran and even Ben Lomond in clear conditions. Broad, heathery slopes, isolation from other high hills and massive summit cairns make the summit comparable to Tinto (visible to the east), but here the similarities end. Unlike Tinto, Cairn Table’s slopes are pockmarked by seemingly bottomless bogs. Until recently, the few duckboards placed along the path were laughably inadequate, but we hear that recent improvements have eliminated the wettest sections. The westerly return is drier and has an interesting quirk; the last leg passes the ruined residence of Springhill: once belonging to local entrepreneur John Loudon MacAdam, a pioneer of tarmac (short for Tarmacadam). The track here comprises some of his early road surfacing experiments in the 1700s. If only he’d concentrated his efforts on the hill path!

📷 Chronological photo guide

🌍 Location

📌 Start / finish at Kames, minor road 1 mi south of Muirkirk

🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NS 696265

🛰️ GPS coordinates: 55.514683,-4.066197

🚌 Bus to Muirkirk (0.5 mi)

🚗 Car park

📝 Key info

▶ 9 km / 6 mi | ▲ 350 m | ⌛ 2.5-3 hr

Features: △ Cairn Table (593 m, sub-2000′ Marilyn); ✞ Macadam’s Cairn

⬤ Tough | Often eroded paths and tracks, with the boggiest sections now mostly avoidable. Going improves high up, and for return track. Easy route for this grade.

➡️ Clockwise circuit with extension to summit: start – The Steel – Cairn Table – return to path junction at 🧭 NS 718245 – Garpel Water – Macadam’s Cairn – start

Download file for GPS

🥾 On our last visit

Wildlife: Lots of sheep lower down, especially on descent.

Weather: Slightly hazy sunshine, although with a cool breeze and temperatures in single figures.

March 2016