Wemgou one

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The route started from Wemyss Bay climbing up the winding road through a caravan park but it was not too steep. There were cut through paths on the way up, which are steeper and shorter. Lovely views as you'd expect. At the top you need to look out for the turn off at Kelly Mains Farm, through a gate.
The route continued along a picturesque lane. It was slightly muddy in places and a little bit stony, but with the glimpses of the sea. I guess the lovely row of gnarly old trees alongside the lane would offer some shelter from the weather. Then there was a lovely tree tunnel for the path as it became narrower. The stones of the path were sometimes a bit big and uncomfortable to walk on, but it was a beautiful path.
After a short stretch of pavemented road, I descended through the houses down about seven flights of steps to Inverkip station where there were more steps down, but there was a lift there.
There were several possible lunch stops in Inverkip, and also some toilets on the main A78 road, at the layby just west of the marina.
Leaving Inverkip Marina, the route passed some housing and (by heading a wee bit further south than the plot suggests) reached a nice footpath through woods next to a little beach. This was busy with people and dogs, but gradually got quieter as I walked north. This section away from the road was lovely apart from one or two irresponsible dog owners. There were lots of wildflowers and birds to look out for, and apparently dolphins occasionally. I sat down for a short while, on the rocks by the sea, and I could see Bute and Arran to the south, and Dunoon and Cowal to the north. It was gorgeous!
There were lots of facilities at Lunderston Bay just before joining the main road again. At this point I had three and a half miles of car noise to go but beautiful views to accompany it, as well as a small lighthouse, converted to accommodation.There were also quite a few makeshift beach huts dotted along this last section. This could have been a horrible pavement slog on a busy-ish road, except for the view across the firth to Dunoon, Strone Point and Kilcreggan, which was beautiful.
This is a gorgeous walk of three fairly different thirds, with quite good facilities at the third and two-thirds points.

Review of Slow Ways Route Wemgou (Wemyss Bay to Gourock)
I walked this route on a lovely, sunny day in May 2023. I was staying in Inverkip so tackled the route in two sections (Inverkip to Wemyss Bay and Gourock to Inverkip), joining up the start and finish points using the excellent bus service which runs down the Clyde coast between Glasgow and Largs. It is a wonderful route with absolutely no issues for the reasonably fit traveller but some challenging sections for others. The route out of Gourock is simple and straightforward (following the seafront esplanade) with fantastic views over the Clyde to the mountains of Argyll. The esplanade leads onto a wide pavement which hugs the A770 all the way to Lunderston Bay. At this point the route leaves to roadside, skirts Lunderston Bay and follows a lovely footpath round Ardgowan Point to arrive at a housing complex overlooking Kip Marina. After passing through this complex, the route crosses a footbridge (ramped) to arrive in Inverkip. The way up through Inverkip is extremely steep in places with several flights of stone steps (although all can be bypassed by following the switchback road). Eventually Inverkip is left behind as the route heads into open countryside, initially following Spey Road before taking a long, straight (and lonely) farm track (with several gates to negotiate) all the way to the top edge of Wemyss Bay Caravan Park. It is then a simple task to follow the Caravan Park road down to the seafront at Wemyss Bay and the end of the route. A five-star route from start to finish. Excellent view, a variety of scenery, interesting stopping points, and a regular bus service back to the start.

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