I have said before that it is often the start of a walk, particularly one starting from a village, is often the most difficult part of the walk; and today was one of those days. We arrived at the outskirts of Fairlie village only to find that the road through the village was completely closed due to roadworks, and not even our pleading with the fellow manning the barrier would get us through. He did eventually relent and let us pass through the barrier to turn immediately into the car park of the local bowling club, which thankfully was empty, and two member on site were happy for us to use their car park. And so, after some delay, and a 2km walk through the village we headed up Fairlie Glen to pick up our intended route to Kaim Hill.

A fine woodland walk climbs up through the glen, alongside Fairlie Burn, and passed the remains of Fairlie Castle, currently undergoing extensive renovation works to prevent what remains of the castle from becoming a pile of rubble.As we left the woodland behind and reached the open hillside we were treated to some amazing views out over the Firth of Clyde, or to be exact, the Fairlie Roads, as the stretch of water between the coast and Arran is known, to the Arran hills, silhouetted against a bright blue sky.

We continued along the course of the Fairlie Burn to the head of the glen before turning south east for a gentle climb to the summit of Lairdside Hill, at 336m, a fine viewpoint across the coastline to the distant islands. A short descent west from Lairdside Hill, across some rather wet ground, took us to the broad grassy north ridge of Kaim Hill, from where a faint grassy track winds its way to a fine cairn, enclosed in circle of stones marking the 387m high summit of Kaim Hill.

In still glorious weather, we made a leisurely descent south to join the minor road, along which we headed west for a short distance before detouring south west to Glenburn Reservoir, an ideal spot for a break, and just to enjoy the quietness, and to observe some trout rising to catch their lunch. An easy contour along the base of Kaim Hill, through the woodland, and across the Fairlie Burn and we were once again on the woodland path, making our descent back into Fairlie, where all that remained was for us to make the 2km walk, back through the village to the bowling club, where, once more we had to negotiate our departure point with the road maintenance crews as they were now directly outside the car park and re-surfacing the section of road we needed to drive over before exiting their barriers.

A wonderful little hill - Thanks everyone for your company, and thank Idris for a great walk.