Ayr is a fine seaside town with a good town centre and a two mile stretch of sandy beach. It also has a racecourse where the Scottish Grand National is run every year.
Scotland’s greatest poet, Robbie Burns was born close to Ayr at Alloway where he lived for the first seven years of his life. There is an interesting museum maintained by the Scottish National Trust.
Unfortunately I lost my favourite hat whilst walking through the park. It had ear pieces that kept me warm, it was like a comfort blanket. I even went back looking for it.
Today I set off back through the Country Park by the Visitor Centre in a courtyard by the Old Stables. I pass this and continue above the shoreline before making my way down to the beach.
I return to start my walk today bt the harbour at Girvan. The harbour itself seems quite busy with a boatyard catering for yachtsmen. I head alongside the river and I can not miss the clock tower, Auld Stumpy. It was part of the McMaster Hall which burnt down.
I cross over the bridge and walk along the other side of the harbour passing the Coastguard building. I pass the golf Course and follow the coast northwards, sometimes on a track and sometimes on the pebbly beach.
I start todays walk at the attractive seaside village of Ballantrae. Apparantly the whole Ayrshire coastline has a history of smuggling. Ballantrae celebrates this with a Smuggling Festival every year in August.
The village has a pretty seafront with a little harbour at the end. The route nortwards follows a busy road with lots of lorries making there way to and from the ferry terminals. The route takes me northwards along the road with occasional attempts at walking along the rocky beach.
As I have travelled around the Rhinns I seem to have passed through Stranraer several times but now it’s time to leave.
The old ferry port looks rather sad with all the parking area overgrown. The terminal must have provided many jobs for the locals at one point. Anyway, the site is now up for sale. What will it be next? a marina, a water theme park, who knows.
I thought I would give a plug to the wonderful campsite I have been staying at for the last few nights. It is the North Rhinns Camping at Leswalt, near Stranraer.
Kath and Rob have done a good job in setting up an idyllic woodland setting with clearings for individual pitches. They are keen on promoting the site as a quiet site and the facilities are clean and tidy.
Portpatrick is the Start or End point for the South Upland Way. This is a long distance 212 mile coast to coast walk to Cocksburnpath on the East coast.
I start today by following the path out of Portpatrick and along the coast to the lighthouse at Killantringan Bay where it then turns inland towards Stranraer. I follow the path until it crosses the road and this is where I part company with it.
My intention today was to walk from Port Logan to Portpatrick but after about three miles I got a phone call from my daughter to say that my wife, Christine had been taken into hospital overnight with stomach pains. It turned out that she had a hernia and they were operating that morning to repair it.
After retracing my steps back to the car, returning to the campsite I was staying at and packing up I set off back home. Six hours later I has able to see my wife at the hospital who was still a bit sleepy after the operation.
Today I reach the Southern most tip of Scotland, the Mull of Galloway. It is hard to image that this point is roughly the same latitude as Hartlepool on the North East coast of England.
The day starts as as one of those stop and go days, stopping to chat to people on the way. I leave Drummore by the harbour where I meet the first person.
My day started badly with my car running on empty all the way to Glenluce. I had to drive all the way to Castle Kennedy to get a fill up and then back to Glenluce to start todays walk.
I imagine that for locals the town of Glenluce is a much more leisurely place now that the A75 bypasses the town. No more big lorries thundering down the main street as they come from the port at Cairnryan.
Breaking free and paving my own way.
Mad dogs and Englishmen decide to walk the coast of Britain! I don't think I'm a mad dog but many think I'm a mad Englishman!
1 Year - 5000 miles
My challenge to change my life this year...
Coastalwalker.co.uk - walking around the British coastline, very SLOWLY.
Tony's walk around the Coast of Britain 