Mossley West - City Hall

Bus Route 1

The Sunday morning bus to Mossley can never have been this busy before.  Eight of us bus-runners piled on-board.  Only three paid their fare which is a good indication of how old we all were.

John Glover wisely opts out of the first photo.

After half an hour going uphill by bus, I knew that this run was going to be wee buns.   We started at Mossley West railway station.

For half an hour, we ran continuously downhill through the excellent new Newtownabbey Way.  A footpath that originally was going to be called the Millennium Way but things ran a bit behind schedule and they had to change its name.  Never mind, it was well worth the wait.

A brief stop was made when we reached Glen Park.  Here we took photos of the impressive railway  

viaduct (am I getting old or can a concrete bridge look beautiful?).

I tried to scare the others with the story of Patricia Curran’s 1952 murder in the woods here.  The book Blue Tango by Eoin McNamee is a brilliant story based upon the incident.  I challenge anybody to read it and then go for a walk up the glen on a dark winters night.

LVAC stalwart unsportingly shoulder-charges passing girl off the path.

We reached the coast at Whiteabbey and a girl sped past us on the coast path.  Was she quick or were we slow?

Brian spots a pub on Duncrue Street.

The fun continued along Duncrue St and into the city via the paths at Clarendon Dock.   

Darren, who had been lying at the back of the group for most of the way, then made an impressive dash through the field on Oxford St to be first to reach the finish at St Georges Market.  Another win for the promising young Orangegrove AC star; I bet that goes down in his running diary.

A post-run snack.