Tuesday 18 January 2011

Three Pints and a Land Slip

 Good chat and three pints of John Smiths.
Saturday started and continued as forecast, heavy rain and windy. But the day was gaily lightened by the annual Archivist's lunch in the Crown Hotel. This was an excellent couple of hours, good food, good company, good chat and three pints of John Smiths, back home and a kip.

Land Slip on Easton's Walk
On Sunday morning the weather had improved a great deal, so after lunch I drove the car down to the Coop car park (I hate walking back up the Galaside) and proceeded towards the Skippers Bridge with the intention of either going round the Murtholm or round by Jenny Noble's. I hadn't gone too far when I met Big Bill Harkness. Bill is always good for an in-depth discussion about most things and he can tell a good tale or two. He told me about the land slip on Easton's Walk opposite to where he lives. He said it happened at about 9:00am the previous morning. A fair amount of money and hard work has been spent on the walk over the last few years but unfortunately the banking continues to slip bit by bit and it would be a great shame if it had to close, as this has been a very popular walk for a very long time. At this point Gavin and Gaye Graham appeared. Gavin is chairman of the local walks group and has put a lot of time and effort into getting funding for this walk so he was a bit dismayed by the event. They had come the opposite way to which I was going and said there hadn't been much damage done except for the culvert under the path getting blocked and said he would approach the council to see if they would be prepared to clear the culvert. ardlui.blogspot.com

Round the Murtholm
On reaching the Skippers Bridge I decided to proceed towards the Murtholm and see the land slip for myself. Met various locals taking advantage of the good weather and most were in good spirits and quite chatty. When I got to Easton's Walk ( If anyone has any idea why it was named this please let me know.) I met Larry and Jessie Martin, they also live on the opposite side of the river and we discussed the land slip with much the same opinion as before, how long will it be until it has to shut before it becomes too dangerous to negotiate.

An intrusion on the skyline
The Offending Trees
When I reached the Park I could see that some of the popular trees had been cut down due to severe frost damage. I know these trees were planted to strengthen the river bank but I never liked them and thought they were far too tall and an intrusion on the skyline so personally I wouldn't be too disappointed if they all went and were replaced with something less intrusive.
Skippers Bridge

A Bit of Renovation

Murtholm Farmhouse

Murtholm Walk

Murtholm Farm

Ross and Michaela

Larry and Jessie

Mark, Kirsty, Daniel and Matthew

Easton's Walk

Easton's Walk

Land Slip

Land Slip

Land Slip

Felled Populars

Park Compost Bins

River Wauchope

Old Ford



3 comments:

  1. Sandy
    I am delighted to report that after I had e mailed photographs of the landslip to the Council Access Officer he contacted me on Monday morning to confirm he had issued an instruction to a contractor to clear the slip. A good result this time but there will be more slips and I doubt if the next one will do as little damage as this one.

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  2. What an interesting blog. I am glad the landslip is being dealt with. I probably agree about the poplars though it will be a shock when they are gone.

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  3. Looks like a nice walk.
    I think we've been quite lucky with the weather over here in the west.It's been the frost that's been the worst.A few potholes in the tarmac,but no major damage.

    I've just read that there was once a large cairn close to Murtholm Farmhouse.All gone on renovations and new builds apparently.

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