Ayrshire Coastal Path Girvan - Dunure

If all went well today was to be a big day in that I was hoping to complete this walk from Girvan to Dunure which in turn would mean the completion of the Ayrshire Coastal Path route for me. My plan was to walk to Maidens as a minimum and depending on weather and more importantly the tide, the last section to Dunure. I had checked the tide tables and we were due high tide at 1.15 which did put the second stretch in balance.

Girvan boatyard

I took the train down to Girvan and started my walk at 11am, a bit later than normal but it would give me a chance with the tidal stretches. This was the first time I had trained it to Girvan and enjoyed the some times familiar scenery from a different perspective, very enjoyable. But, it was a sad entrance to Girvan. The train went past an arable field and I spotted a swan sitting in the middle of it, a bit strange but further into the field it looked like a body of another swan lying below some power lines. I believe swans mate for life so I wonder how long it would wait in that field? 

Ailsa from Girvan

From Girvan station the walk goes via the small operational harbour where a couple of fishing boats were receiving care and maintenance. One of the few operational shipyards left on the Clyde. There were some good views of Ailsa from the harbour then the walk proceeds to Girvan golf course. I have played this course a few times and it is a little gem of a course with 8 links and 10 inland holes. The walk takes you down the side of the inland section. The terrible rains have impacted on this section and the course looks very damp and boggy underfoot.
The route now takes you through a working farm. I was a little apprehensive but the cows were all eating away in their barns so little interest in me.

Rocky walking

Down towards the shore and I stuck to the farm track bordering the sea edge. The high tide meant the beach walking was along large boulder formations and would have been very awkward. Keep going past more farm buildings where I finally went onto the beach. Not easy walking but enough patches of sand around to get a footing. A little further ahead I thought I saw 4 large plastic bundles, probably hay or something but they didn't look quite right. As I closed in I realised that they were 4 bulls. Thankfully a small fence separated us as I went by and they showed little interest but the 1st one was undoubtedly the largest bull I have come across.
Onwards I went and had to take the tidal detour behind some cottages before going onto the beach again.
The going was still awkward, not many clear sand patches to walk on. At the agate factory I thought I might get through on the beach side but the burn was running too fast and deep so once again took the tidal detour via the main road.
Back on the beach another burn blockage at the Turnberry turn off, feet immersed in water but the waterproofing of the boots held good.
Because it was a flat stretch I did not bother with walking poles but they would have been helpful today giving another anchor point when crossing the many burns. 

Balancing Rock

At one point there are some rocks just out at sea. One of them is balanced on top of another. What must have been the power of the sea storm that moved a rock of this size?
Now striding along a proper beach with the lighthouse at the end of the golf course firmly in my view. However once again an impenetrable water obstacle meant I had to climb the dunes and go onto the golf course which is under major reconstruction by a certain Mr Donald Trump.

Unpassable water

I meandered around the edge of the course, not sure where the real path had gone, and came out at the Maidens nursing home. Again a barbed wire fence to climb, more blood gushing, I walked through the complex to the main road and down to Maidens. I'm sure the formal route does not go through that but there you go.
The weather had threatened rain but this seemed to have blown though, the wind was colder but I was on track time-wise so decision made, try to finish at Dunure.

Lighthouse Turnberry

The last time I walked the beach at Maidens I came across a dead seal but nothing in my way today except more rocky ground.

Culzean Castle

Up off the beach and followed the wooded trail through the grounds of Culzean castle, many of the trees uprooted by the storms this year. One bright spot was the number of snowdrops coming through, a first for me this year. The lake was well stocked with coots; merganser; golden eyes; mallards and a few others.
Past the impressive Culzean castle, worth a tour around if you are not familiar with it and its outbuildings. You now get a good view of the route ahead via Croy bay. At this section there was a very weird occurrence, as I descended through the wooden path to get to the beach. There was nobody else around but three times I stopped thinking I heard/felt that someone was right behind me. Spooky or what? I have never had that type of experience before, not scary but made me think, do I believe in ghosts?

Croy Bay from Culzean

The tideline was still high but I could make it beachside, albeit again very awkward walking on the boulders. The bay sweeps nicely around with good views ahead and out to Arran. I could see a dog walker in the distance a good sign that the beach was passable.
As I neared the caravan park it looked like I could get by the first obstacle. the guidebook warns that the caravan park is private property so cannot be accessed if high tide prevents the beach passage. I would not have turned back but headed up to the road via either the caravan park or I'm sure there is a track coming down from the road to Croy Bay. In Scotland there is the right of responsible access so I was confident that I would have an exit route.

The Point

Over yet another burn and an easy clamber over the rocks, feeling good until I realised that the blockage mentioned in the guidebook, The Point, was still ahead of me. Fortunately the tide had retreated just far enough to let me get by with a little scrambling but no doubt it would be interesting at full high tide.
The next short stretch was again hard walking on a very rocky surface. The guidebook talks about shingle beaches on these stretches but these are far removed from shingle in my view.

Looking back Croy Bay

At the end of this section there is a short but steep climb up a grassy path. The route then follows the edge of some arable fields. There has clearly been livestock in the recent past in these fields and some of the ground is well churned up with your boots sinking well into the gloop at the kissing gates, now some very muddy boots and trousers.
This bit is a bit of a trudge, in the second field I have lost any sign of markers , the tops of posts painted white, so I follow the field edge and then I recognise the top of the road going into Dunure and spot a kissing gate ahead.
Now I can see my destination, the castle of Dunure and journeys end. A short grassy, muddy track leads you down, watch out for dog poo, disgustingly frequent I'm sad to say. Then I have arrived.

Dunure Castle

I had managed to get my GPS bike tracker working and it logged the walk as 15.2 miles taking 5 hours. About right considering the terrain. This was probably the hardest section of the path in terms of hard stony walking, rocking the joints quite a bit. For some it might be better to split it into 2 sections stopping at Maidens and enjoying the fabulous food at Wildings.
So that's it done, over 100 miles of Ayrshire, a really enjoyable set of outings. There were plenty of excellent views, some I never expected, ground that I had never covered before and I learnt a lot about Ayrshire in the process.
It is definitely time for that celebratory pint or two and think about which long distance route to tackle next.

Great Glen Way Fort William - Clunes

We were visiting Fort William for a few days to attend some  of the Mountain Festival events as well as enjoying the great outdoors but the weather had played havoc with our during the day adventure plans. I had hoped to cycle to Mallaig and also climb a couple of hills. But the great Scottish weather forecast was for torrential rain, stormy winds, snow and the odd glimpse of blue sky. At least we knew this in advance so I did not even take the bike.

Neptune's staircase

During today's walk we experienced the full spectrum of the weather.
I had pencilled in walking this long distance path, the Great Glen Way, which runs from Fort William to Inverness, in stages for later in the year but we decided to do this low level section and get it started. Better being geared up and outside in the weather than sitting indoors looking out.
After a good breakfast it was time to walk. Our hotel was located right on the front near the town centre so we were quickly into the walk. The initial stage of the walk is through a retail park and housing and I do not really think it starts properly until you get to the beginning of the canal at Corpath. The last time I was here people were fishing for mackerel and trout, but not today.

Moorings above the staircase

The rain was now full on as we walked up to the road/railway crossing at Neptune's Staircase. The bridge is under some form of major repair work and does not look pretty at all. Once over the crossing it now feels like a proper country walk.
Neptune's staircase is a magnificent sight and is the work of Thomas Telford and is the longest staircase lock in Britain. It has eight sets of locks and it takes around 90 minutes for a boat to pass through the full set. The staircase has had its problems in the past, both financial and workmanship, but it is still operational to this day.
Sadly no boats were traversing the locks today but at the top level a few boats were moored up and some of them had people inside them, maybe wisely sheltering from the weather.

Grey canal section

This 6 mile canal section to Gairlochy is not the most interesting in some peoples eyes, allegedly with little variety, particularly in this type of weather. However I do not agree with this, the views to the other side of the canal have some nice mountain/hill scenery to keep one's attention away from the walk. From time to time you also get good views of the River Lochy on your right hand side and if the weather is good you will get good views of the Nevis range. There are also a couple of interesting points along the way to explore.
The Sheangain Aqueduct also known as the Torcastle aqueduct is the first of these. It has three parallel tunnels, two for water and one as a road.
The second is the Loy aqueduct, a similar construction, which covers the River Loy a tributary of the Lochy. The views can be excellent up towards Glen Loy, a place I want to explore in the future. Just as I reached this spot a storm blew through, only lasting about 5 minutes but it was pretty wild. When it was over I looked back at a mountain peak which was snow covered, bright blue sky, then the snow cover on top lifted up by the winds, magical scene but glad I wasn't up there.

Moy swing bridge

The final interesting piece of engineering is the Moy swing bridge which remains in use to this day to support access to Moy farm. There were other constructions like this on the canal but this is the only surviving version. This bridge is operated by hand even to this day and the keepers cottage with its eye windows to either side still survives also. The bridge is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Looking back to Moy bridge

A short way further on you come to Gairlochy. The path now goes left up a short road but before doing that I went onwards walking up to the point at the end of the canal and had tried to enjoy the view up Loch Lochy but a squall blew up, more hailstones.

Loch Lochy

After a short walk the track drops you down onto the banks of Loch Lochy. More variety here, both tree lined sections and loch views. We came across an old shell of a boat with a tree on top of it, interesting, what happened here?

Across the loch I can see that there is a large salmon fish farm in operation. Not good news for natural fish as these farms are reputed to infect the area with disease and parasites.
There are a few very informative boards along this stretch illustrating the activities of the commando units that trained here in the 2nd world war. I knew about the memorial at Spean Bridge but I was not aware of the rest.

Unbelievably we even had a spell of some blue skies which lasted about half an hour which was a wonderful relief and gave us some super views.
We came across a male mallard duck which had paired up with a pure white duck with an orange beak. Was it an albino? Later on I spotted four more of the white duck breed sitting in a pool in the trees, strange. Also there were four bird feeding stations, well stocked, a local dog walker?

The track now comes back on the road for the last stretch to Clunes. Not many cars on the road but the tree logging trucks came down this road at a fair speed so take care. There are some expensive looking large houses along this road, very nice if you like the isolation. We also caught a brief glimpse of a red deer stag in one of the fields but it saw us at the same time and quickly disappeared from view.

Typical wood stretch

We reached the hamlet of Clunes, the end of todays stretch. There is now a T junction, turning left you can go to Loch Arkaig, a place I want to fish sometime. The Way route now goes to the right and is a 7 mile trek to Laggan through isolated country, I would have liked to have completed that stretch but too much for Mrs B. We had arranged to be picked up and returned a lot quicker to the hotel.
But that is the starter for my next leg and now I am ready for a beer and hopefully better weather when I pick up this walk.

Blue skies Loch Lochy

Ayrshire Coastal Path Ballantrae - Girvan

For a variety of reasons it has been too long since I have been out on my ramblings so it was a great feeling to get started again. The weather forecast was for a day of blue skies, unreal after all the storms. I still had two sections of the ACP to complete so with the bright forecast I went for the furthest away stretch, beginning at Ballantrae and walking north to Girvan, this ensured that the bright sunshine was at my back to avoid the glare.
I drove to Girvan to get the bus to Ballantrae. The buses only run every two hours so I did not want to take the risk of hanging about at the end, better to finish at the car and leave straight away.

It ended up a bit of an adventure before I even started walking.
Getting the bus in Girvan was not so easy. I had checked the Traveline Scotland app the night before and it indicated a local bus then the main Stranraer one which seemed odd, I thought it would be straight onto the latter. Arrived at Girvan, parked up and went to the nearest bus stop which did not mention my bus!! I tried the app but my phone would not go onto data roaming which was strange. I then asked a postman and 2 other passers by but no conclusive answer, nobody uses buses here. I remembered the time to get on the bus was 10.36 so I hung about with the view that if nothing came I would just start walking and do the route in reverse. About 10.40 I started walking south and sure enough a bus appeared. I ran back to the stop and yes it went to Ballantrae.
When I got off the bus there was a scenic church opposite, I checked my camera which would not open, message battery needs charged. Curses, I had charged it fully just a couple of days ago, luckily the phone was charged.
I had brought my bike GPS to see if it would track my walk. However it would not locate a satellite, curses again it has never done this before.

The beginning of walk Ballantrae

I went down the waterfront to start the walk in very warm conditions. After 5 minutes I stopped to remove the mid layer. I also checked the GPS and it had found a target, pressed start and got a walking indicator of 3.2 mph, a lot slower that the bike but that was not the point. I wrapped it in a plastic bag and into the mesh side of the rucksack to keep its signal.

Looking towards Bennane Head

The initial beach stretch to Bennane head was along the rocky beach, quite hard underfoot at times but nice and peaceful with just the sound of the waves crashing in. Along the beach I spotted a small jellyfish freshly washed up, I'm no expert but I thought this was a bit early. Also in the beachside scrub two yellow heads of dandelions, what, definitely too early for them.

At the end of the beach the path cuts inland slightly and you walk up the old road. However problems with my route at the kissing gate, the field was full of young cattle with no way to pass other than to walk through the herd. With my previous experience that was a no go. Also the ground was so churned up by them it would have been awful in the mud and gloop.
I went further along over some rocks and came to a fence near the old road, threw my bag over and put my hand on to climb over, electric shock it was wired, more curses. Further along again I got over a safe bit and backtracked for my rucksack which was beside the small cairn named after a local hermit and his cave across the road.

Old road

Up the old road I went with rewarding views out to sea, the cliffs to my right occupied by ravens and rock pipits.
At the top of the hill the next field to cross was again full of hill cattle. I met two walkers going the other way who said there was also a big bull with them, they had climbed into the field to avoid them. I decided to do likewise but as I clambered over the rock I was standing on gave way, my hand slipped and my hand and weight went on to a rusty barb wire. The sound as I popped it out was a loud squelch and the blood flowed freely along with many curses.
My plan had been to visit Sawney Bean's cave but the coos did for that.
I got to the top of the field and reached the public car park. From here you do not have any choice other than to walk the roadside verge of the A77 to Lendalfoot.

A77 to Lendalfoot

Before you arrive at Lendalfoot you come to Carleton Bay where there is a memorial to a Russian battleship called Varyag which apparently is hugely famous to the Russians and sank in the bay. Do an internet search, it is a fascinating story and one I knew nothing about until today. It was a lovely spot to eat my lunch and contemplate the Varyag and its story.

Varyag memorial

The  high tide was against me so I had to continue with my roadside walk and indeed this was almost all the way to Girvan.
I walked along for a mile or so until the guide suggests you go up Pinbain Hill. There are warnings about hill cattle, no dogs allowed, so the true coward in me decided two cow adventures were enough for 1 day and also I was on my own. Out of my peripheral vision I spotted a pair of roe deer just in the heather near the start of the hill. A nice sight and once they spotted me they disappeared into the bracken.
I continued on my walk and despite the proximity of the road it was ok, north traffic was light. I could see the radio pylons on the suggested route just above me and I was a bit annoyed at myself for not taking that route. That track started to descend to meet the road again but lo and behold at the bottom of the track where it joins the road there was another herd of cattle right at the gate. If I had taken the hill track there was no other option other than go through them, no chance, they looked a lively and inquisitive lot, or retrace your steps.
Farmers have a living to make and these are their lands but I think there is something wrong when an official walking route puts walkers in danger. I think a bit of forethought, even short narrow fenced of sections could accommodate both parties.

Old ruined cottage

There are some pleasant properties on the right of the road and a very old ruined fishing cottage on the beach side as the picture shows.
Again my vision was taken towards the sea, was it just an eider bobbing on the waves? No, through the binos it was the head of a seal tearing pieces off a large squid, the tentacles of which were wrapped around its head. When the seal finished eating it dropped under the surface not to be seen again.
The guide mentions another old road section that could be used for a mile but I did not see it unless it was where I went back onto the beach.
Venturing onto the beach for the last couple of miles, it was not easy walking but still nice to get away from the road for a while. There is another short stretch of road walking then you can walk all along the beach to the end of the walk at Girvan harbour.

Girvan in sight

Back at the car I checked the GPS, the message said press button to start, yet again more curses.
However a good stretch of the legs if not quite the walk I anticipated. Magnificent views all day seaward taking in Northern Ireland, Ailsa Craig, snow capped Arran and the Kintyre peninsula.
Lots of birdlife including two pair of stonechats, a rare kestrel, ravens and all the usual seabirds
The walk was around the 14 mile mark and took me 4 and a half hours and slightly stiff legs, well I had done a 30 mile bike ride the day before. As I said at the beginning great to be back on the road.