A Love Letter to
KILMACOLM
The journalist and broadcaster Paul English revisits his idyllic childhood home. National Cycle Route 75, photo by Little Studio Photography
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didn’t properly appreciate it until long after I’d left. The discovery of R.J. Price’s 2002 short story collection, A Boy In Summer, and its references to a Renfrewshire coming of age, helped me realise. Now when I return to Kilmacolm, which I do regularly to see my parents, it’s with a gratitude for its beauty I couldn’t fully possess as a child. I vary the drive, meandering through country lanes off Bishopton Road, passing Finlaystone Estate via Langbank or beckoned by the rolling hills of the Gryffe Valley on Bridge of Weir. It’s one of my favourite westerly drives. Whatever my approach, the road home grows fonder with the years. DUCHAL WOODS Among the many books Mrs Smith, my P5 teacher at Kilmacolm Primary, introduced us to in the 1980s was The Animals of Farthing Wood. The wildlife described in Colin Dann’s children’s series was right outside our window. The school looks on to one of the village’s most popular assets, known in our house simply as The Duchal - part of the larger Duchal Estate, which includes ruins of the 13th Century Duchal Castle, visited by King James IV in the 1400s, and many a stravaiger since. This mature woodland 44 MILL
of meandering bridle paths, rivers and bridges was the location of many a lost childhood afternoon. If Stand By Me had been set in Scotland, it would have been here and starred me and my mates. Folk come from all around to walk here. I still do, too. Home to Pinewood Trout Fishery. Off Lochwinnoch Road, PA13 4RS NATIONAL CYCLE ROUTE 75 A sunny summer’s morning in the early 1990s. Four 14-year-olds, a BMX, a Grifter, two Raleigh Racers, and a new way to somewhere else. The trains were stopped in Kilmacolm in the early 1980s, so my generation depended on buses to broaden our social perspective. The railway line joined the National Cycle Network and a ride to Lochwinnoch and back felt like we’d gone ‘round the country. ‘The bike track’ as we knew it, provided a first taste of horizons broadened, on our own terms. Sculptor David Kemp’s artworks playfully punctuate the route. His metallic Roman Legion and steampunk structure Brick Traction references the nearby Roman remains and the track’s railroad history. Someday an artist might compose a piece remembering the present era when idiotic dog walkers left bags of poo in the trees … Off Lochwinnoch Road, PA13 4DW
