The view from Knock Hill, Largs, Argyll and Bute

Walk northwards along the coast, keeping the sea on your left, until you reach a small park with a pond and a children's play area. (A) Keep a look out for sea birds: Eider and Red Breasted Merganser along the shore, and Guillemots and Gannets further out. The path curves to the right and runs alongside a burn: this is Noddsdale Water. Follow the burn upstream until you reach a road.

Cross the road. (Caution: fast traffic) Turn right and then first left which is Barr Crescent, passing the Woodhouse Hotel on your right. On your left you pass a bridge over the burn leading to the Noddsdale Meadow housing estate. Ignore this: keep straight on keeping the burn on your left. Just after the bridge the road curves to the right. Leave the road at this point and follow the path along the burn. The path curves away from the burn and ends at a road.  Turn left along the road to reach another junction. Turn left: there is a green signpost for the Ayrshire Coastal Path. Continue along the road until you reach a cemetery on your right. (B) Just after the cemetery there is a squat stone pillar on the left of the road which holds a plaque commemorating Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane who was born in this glen in 1773. He became the Governor of New South Wales, and the city of Brisbane was named after him. In 1825 he returned to Scotland and pursued his astronomical researches. He died in Largs in 1860. Continue along the road. (Caution: there is no pavement beyond this point. Traffic can be fast).

Turn left onto the farm road leading to Brisbane Mains Farm. The farm road crosses a stone bridge and heads for the white building with the prominent archway. Beyond it, and slightly to the left, you can see Knock Hill with its trig point. Walk past the white building and turn right through the gate. Go straight on with the farm buildings on your right and go through another gate. The path climbs steadily. Ahead of you is a corrugated iron enclosure. Follow the signs: go to the right of the enclosure and left through a gate to regain the track. (Caution: there may be cattle on the track) The track curves to the left and there is a burn on the right. Fork left onto a smaller path marked by wooden posts. Follow the posts through a line of trees. As the path levels off you reach a fork. You return to this fork later in the walk.

Fork left. As the path rises and curves to the left, Knock Hill and its trig point come into view. The path spirals up the hill to the trig point at the summit. (C) The view from Knock Hill extends from Ailsa Craig in the south, past the islands of Arran, the Cumbraes and Bute, the coastal towns of Rothesay and Dunoon, to the Arrochar Alps on the horizon to the north. From the summit follow the faint path down the hill northwards, in the direction of the huge concrete chimney of Inverkip power station, to regain the path you followed on the way up. Ignore the marker post directing you to the left and retrace your route back to the fork. At the fork turn sharp left along a grassy track, following the marker posts. Go through the gate and continue downhill with Blackhouse Burn on your right.  The path descends with a line of trees on your right. You reach a wood enclosed by a fence. Carry on down the hill keeping the fence on your right. Go through a gate in the corner of the wood and descend more steeply through the wood to reach a minor road.

Turn left along the road signposted ‘Low Road Red Road to Largs 2 miles’. Cross the bridge and keep straight on. Follow the road all the way back to Greenock Road, passing a golf course. Turn left at Greenock Road and walk to the bridge over the Noddsdale Water. (D) The sandstone building with the turret is the gatehouse of Netherhall, the home of physicist William Thomson from 1875 until his death in 1907. Thomson, a pioneer of thermodynamics and electromagnetic theory, was made Baron Kelvin of Largs in 1892. There is a commemorative blue plaque on the wall. Cross the main road. (Caution: fast traffic) Turn left and then right into the park. Retrace your steps back along the coast to the ferry terminal.