Culzean Estate to Girvan. November 2011

Bridge on the Dunure to Maidens light railway.

Road under the railway.NB. The engineering bricks on the underside.

Young monkey puzzle tree.

Remains of Turnberry Castle. circa early 1200's

Turnberry war memorial on the golf course.

Turnberry Lighthouse stands on the ruins of the castle.

This is the world famous 9th tee on the Ailsa course.

This farmer still has a sense of humour.

Today Thursday November 24 I joined the teacher at the main gate to Culzean Castle Estate to walk the 10 miles to Girvan. On a cloudy windy morning we set off along the old railway line looking for the remains of Glenside Station which should have been near to our starting point. It is so overgrown now we abandoned that idea and will return in the spring when hopefully the paths will not be so wet. Back into the estate we were able to rejoin the line further on  to take us to the village of Maidens. A couple of the bridges that still remain today are worthy of mention not least for the very detailed brickwork on the underside which must have taken great skill to construct. Once clear of the village we made our way over the disused runways that once formed the airfield till we arrived at the famous lighthouse that was built in 1873 on the top of the ruins of Turnberry Castle.(circa 1200)It is rumouresd that this could have been the site of the birthplace of Robert the Bruce. Again the teacher went into detail on this subject but with the noise of the wind I did not really have to listen to him.Onto the shore the wind picked up which made the next 6 miles fairly difficult as it was blowing directly into our faces. Undeterred we soldiered on jumping burns which were difficult to cross due to it being high tide at this time.At one point we took to the road (A77) for a short stretch when a rather large Range Rover pulled over and the driver asked us if were walking the Ayrshire Coastal Path, he then said we had taken a wrong turning and  should be on the shore when we told him about the rivers he apologised as he had not realised how difficult this part could be. It turned out this man was none other than the retired doctor from Ayr who was one of the original instigators of the ACP and is the author of the book that a lot of us have used to navigate the path. He also explained the improvements they have made recently particularly around the Turnberry area but agreed there is still more work to be done.Arriving in Girvan a couple of windswept walkers agreed it had been a great day out but extremely difficult in the stormy conditions.