44 RECORDS OF EXCURSIONS IN ARYSHIRE. 



Park, an opportunity was afforded of examining the tall strong 

 plants of Poa aquatica, this being its only Ayrshire station. The 

 excursion may be said to have terminated on the old shale-heap 

 above and beside the remnant of the old Court Hill, from which 

 coign of vantage a magnificent view is obtained of the Garnock 

 Valley. 



On the 27th May, 1893, twenty-one of the members visited 

 Kilbirnie and Glengarnock old Castle. The old Parish Church, 

 situated in the level haugh of the Garnock, was inspected on the 

 way, and the carving on the gallery and above the pulpit — 

 remnants of what once existed in this church — was much admired. 

 In the churchyard was seen the tomb of Crawford, the bold captor 

 of Dumbarton Castle. Passing through the town of Kilbirnie, the 

 party again crossed the Garnock, and held by the road which 

 leads to Glengarnock Castle, noting by the wayside a large 

 number of the plants of Mimulus luteus in the ditches. 



The Castle of Glengarnock stands on a jutting peninsula of 

 rock high above the waters of the Garnock, which here makes a 

 loop partly round it, and evidently at one time was defended on 

 the land side by a dry ditch. From here a considerable view is 

 obtained up the deep unwooded part of the glen, the slopes of 

 which lie at a very different angle from what they do at and 

 below the castle, the latter ravine having evidently been cut out 

 of the rock since the glacial period, the old pre-glacial glen of the 

 Garnock at this part being apparently now at some distance to 

 the north-east of the present glen, and in all probability filled up 

 with boulder clay. On a bank beside the castle there is a great 

 quantity of the masterwort (Peucedanum Ostruthiuni). 



After inspecting the castle, our course lay down the bottom 

 of the glen, and as this is not often traversed, the vegetation 

 was of the most luxuriant and fresh description. A thin vein of 

 barytes was seen cutting through the trap, and here and there great 

 beds of garlic {Allium Schcenoprasum). The banks were covered 

 with the beech and the oak ferns, and at parts the damp rock 

 faces with the filmy fern {Hymenophyllum Wilsoni). The glen 

 being well shaded with wood, its recesses at parts are dark 

 and solemn, many deep brown pools, the safe retreats of the 

 finny tribe, having been cut out of the softer parts of the rock. 



