On my east wind driven jaunts to visit my wee ma in Ayr, on the borders of south Lanarkshire and east Ayrshire just as a form of wind assisted quickening and a desire to make like a hockey player and get the puck out of here kicks in, I am travelling quite quickly for me but I have always spotted a disused railway that I have mentioned could be a great cycle route. Alas I have now worked out that this is The river Ayr walkway (44 miles long).
This is also one explanation for the Muirkirk totem poles.
The river Ayr walkway begins in Glenbuck. The start is marked by the first totem pole.
Glenbuck was a remote mining village abandoned in 1931 when the pit closed.
The football team inexplicably called The Glenbuck Cherrypickers had notable alumni - e.g. Bob Shankly who played for Scotland and managed Dundee to the semi-final of the European Cup in 1962-63. Bob's younger brother was Bill Shankly. Of Liverpool fame.
At one point the five Knox brothers who played for Glenbuck Cherrypickers formed a five aside team that won. 40 plus tournaments in one season. The prize for the winners was a clock or a barometer. Towards the end of the season they were just handing the timepieces to fans at the side of the pitch rather than take them home.
Just to underline, this is one of the most bleak places in Scotland. There are no cherries. The coal was so rubbish that after the rock was hewn it went on a conveyor belt and the good coal was picked out in lumps I.e. Cherrypicked (apocryphal reason for the least apt name for a football team you can find. Some sort of Shanklyian mind game to lull opponents into underestimating the team maybe as this was not the original name and they won the league the season the pit closed).
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