ADRC .Brown Carrick Hill Ayr circular via Dunure.October 2011

Greenan Castle circa 1603

On the shore past the Heads of Ayr.

Lots of seaweed after the recent storms.

Coffee stop.

The aerials on Brown Carrick Hill (287M)

Remains of the Kibble School (see text)

One of the steep climbs today up from the shore.

Lunch break on the rocks.

There is always one idiot who has to climb the lookout!!

Then another one follows

And another.

Group on a very windy hill top.

"The Leader"

Todays walk should have been to the Island of Arran to listen to the annual deer rut however the wind got up and the ferry company put the vessel on what they call "amber alert" which basically means it will get you there but you might not get back due to the adverse weather. Based on this information and the fact that I was the leader it was left to me to make the final decision . In my wisdom I cancelled the walk and instead in good old rambling tradition I had another walk planned just in case there was a problem.17 of us set off from the Doonfoot car park onto the shore and along past Greenan Castle over the Deil's Dyke to the Bracken Bay where we had our first coffee stop.From here we left the shore to start our climb up to the summit of Brown Carrick Hill. Lots of different speeds of ascent by the walkers but eventually they all made it to the trig point. The wind was blowing quite strongly now but the forecasted rain had not materialised as yet. Coming down off the hill past Dunduff Castle we reached the main road at the local school at Fisherton just outside the fishing village of Dunure.Going down through a field of cattle we came to an interesting ruin of the local Kibble School Let me explain for those of you who were not with us today this was a man who designed the Kibble Palace in Glasgow's Botanical Gardens. He then went on to develop schools for the bad boys from Glasgow who were sent to him from the courts as an alternative to prison. The really good boys got a wee holiday in the school he built in this field in Dunure overlooking the sea.This all happened in the early fifties and his pupils were known as "Kibble Boys" or as some parents put it if you misbehaved you would be sent down the Kibble.The locals in Dunure did not take too kindly to this type of establishment in their village so it was demolished by them in the late fifties and never rebuilt again.Lunch was taken  on the shore in the shelter of some large rocks before we started our return journey this time utilising the Clyde Coastal Path until we got to the Bracken Bay caravan site where I decided we would take the hill route up and over the Bower hill which is more commonly known as the Heads of Ayr. A very muddy path got us back down on to the shore again and we retraced our route back to the start to end this 11 mile circular walk . Again as walk leader it is difficult to measure the success of your own walk but everyone appeared to enjoy themselves and we completed it in dry conditions after seeing some dreadful forecasts for today. The Arran walk will be rescheduled for next October to hopefully hear the deer do their annual rut.