Half an Hour From Heaven: Monday Morning at the Moor's End

In chaos there is opportunity. Paul Klee

The other morning on my way out on the bike I got a puncture within the first ten minutes and missed my train to Barrhead from Pollokshaws West. Instead of panicking which I am apt to do, I composed myself, got my map out, and decided to head over to Muirend a few miles away on the Neilston line. Not only had I never been to Muirend train station but there were several wide avenues along the way through Newlands that I had never cycled (or walked) through either. And these were some avenues! (Notably, the wonderfully car-empty Langside Drive with its sandstone villas). New lands indeed!

In a world where we have become inured to best laid plans and organization, it is sometimes refreshing to be jolted out of your comfort zone. In the east, they say that the obstacle is the path. And to be sure, there is nothing more satisfying than encountering an obstacle and surmounting it, whether that obstacle is simply a puncture or a missed train. Or getting lost.

I also realized in getting the train from Muirend to Neilston (four stops away) that the relatively citified Muirenders are a mere thirty minutes from paradise (15 minutes on the train and another fifteen au velo onto and along the Old Kirkton Road). I wondered, as I travelled the train and gazed out at the spectacular scenery, if they knew that...

Judging from the empty bike-rack, not many cyclists in Muirend. But what a lovely station chalet!

The last section between Patterton and Neilston reveals the full extent of the Glasgow strath to the north. This is the idea: get the train uphill and cycle back down...

Meanwhile, to the south, we have the knobbly outlines of Duncarnock Mount... and many others.

Heaven. (At the junction of the Old Kirkton Road and the Barrhead Road).