Ayr (Scotland)

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Stopped in Ayr for a look round the many shops. I felt the town had a rather ‘faded’ feel as though it was struggling to survive but we enjoyed a look around the Department stores and bought presents to take home with us.

On the way home we stopped by the Electric Brae which is an optical illusion on the road. Although we read the description of the Electric Brae we did not discover the secret of the illusion despite putting ...
...not sure what to expect although we guessed that we should feel that the car was going uphill when it was in reality going down. I’d love to know how it works so any enlightenment would be appreciated

Friday - Our last day exploring and we decided to go to Galloway Forest Park and the Glentrool Visitor Centre. Again there were several trails to choose from and we opted for the 4.5 mile circular walk through pine and deciduous forest. ... more

A weeks walking holiday in Scotland with my mother and mother-in-law .. it had seemed a good idea when we booked it but as the date got nearer I started to panic wondering just what we were going to do in Scotland if the weather was bad. Looking at the map didn’t help as there didn’t seem to be much of interest in the area.

We had booked a week in a bungalow at Brunston Castle resort at Dailly in Southern Ayrshire. Some of my panic subsided when we arrived as the bungalow was spacious (3 double bedrooms) and very clean and well equipped. Following our welcome meeting we started to investigate the various leaflets in the reception area and to our surprise and my enormous relief we discovered a host of walks and places to visit.

I thought I would write this review of our week so that anyone else thinking of a holiday in southern Ayrshire would have a ready list of places to explore.

Sunday: A local walk by the river Girvan at Dailly. We were amazed to see the ruined shell of a magnificent mansion in the style of a castle which stands on a hill overlooking the town. It was finished in 1790 and is extremely imposing. Sadly only the shell remains although we heard that there are plans to turn it into a luxury hotel and golf centre.

In the afternoon we went to see Scotland’s wonderful Culzean Castle. It was given to the Scottish National Trust in 1945. It costs £10 for adults for a visit to the house and gardens or £25 for a family ticket. The castle sits on top of the cliffs at Culzean and dominates the surrounding area. It was built by Robert Adam and overlooks the bay. A circular tower was added at a later date and these were my favourite rooms as the windows give fantastic views over the shoreline in both directions. Anyone interested in the Second World War would find the exhibition on General Eisenhower fascinating. He was given the use of the top floor of the castle as a gesture of gratitude from the Scottish people and now there is a permanent display of letters and documents as well as videos of the war years.

We had a lovely walk through the grounds as well which extend to over 500 acres. There are woodland walks, a walled garden, playground and a swan pond although lake might be a more accurate description!

Monday - Packed up a picnic and our walking boots and went off to the village of Barr. The Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire and the South Ayrshire Council produced a leaflet with five walks starting from the Barr car park. Each walk is colour coded and is of varying degrees of difficulty. We decided to do Kirsties Trail (red coloured markers) which was 4.5miles long. The longest walk on the leaflet was 8 miles. Kirsties trail was a delightful walk through mixed woodland on wide paths. There was a gradual upwards gradient and at the top we found the cairn which was put there by the young men of the village as a memorial to a young shepherd who lost his life in 1913 when he became trapped by a blizzard. We enjoyed our lunch sitting at the picnic table before we retraced our steps back to the car.

Tuesday – A super day at Logan Botanic Gardens near Stranraer. I fell in love with these gardens which are really wonderful especially the herbaceous borders. The gardens fall under the influence of the Gulf Stream and so the 7 gardeners there are able to grow many fascinating species of plants from warmer climates. It is a magical place and even more so if you have a love of plants like I do. If you like tree ferns you will be amazed at the collection that are growing here in a special woodland grove. The colours of the herbaceous borders are spectacular and have interesting and unusual specimens wherever you turn within the walled garden.

The gardens are open every day from 1 March to 31 October. I thought that the entrance price of £3.50 for adults, £1 for children and £3 for concessions very reasonable. For only £1 you can hire an audio guide. We found this very helpful as you just key in any number that you see marked on posts around the gardens (in any order) and you can hear about that particular plant. The enthusiasm for the gardens comes over the audio recording really well.

We enjoyed a delicious slice of cake and a pot of tea at a very reasonable price in the small café and their sandwiches looked very tempting too.

Wednesday – Rambling again at Straiton this time. Another leaflet this time with six walks of varying lengths. We chose to do two walks. The first walk was only 1.25 miles and was called Church Walk. This was an ideal ‘before lunch’ walk Everywhere is so peaceful and tranquil and this walk, although short, was delightful in offering varying scenic viewpoints of fields, rivers and trees.

Our second walk was called Lady Hunter Blair’s Walk and this was 2.25 miles. Another lovely walk which finally ended at a small waterfall (30ft). We needed to take care on some of the paths as they could prove slippery after rain and you had to watch out for some of the steeper parts. The walk takes you through lovely deciduous woodland and many of the trees have markers telling you which species of tree it is.

That evening we enjoyed a delicious meal at the Aroma restaurant in Girvan. Our walking had given us a keen appetite and the 3 courses for £12 was too good to miss. The raspberry crème brulee was fabulous!

Thursday – A visit to Scotland has to take in a visit to Robbie Burns Heritage Centre where you can visit the cottage where he was born. The £5 passport ticket gave us entrance to his cottage, museum, Tam O’Shanter experience and monument. We found the cottage and museum very interesting as there is lots of fascinating detail about his life and his writings. The only disappointment was the Tam O’shanter experience which is his poem shown as a video and lasts 12 minutes. Somehow I had expected more and felt rather cheated – hardly a memorable experience. The rest of the building has a gift shop selling the usual mix of pottery, prints, glassware, sweets etc and a restaurant.

Stopped in Ayr for a look round the many shops. I felt the town had a rather ‘faded’ feel as though it was struggling to survive but we enjoyed a look around the Department stores and bought presents to take home with us.

On the way home we stopped by the Electric Brae which is an optical illusion on the road. Although we read the description of the Electric Brae we did not discover the secret of the illusion despite putting the car into neutral down the hill. We were not sure what to expect although we guessed that we should feel that the car was going uphill when it was in reality going down. I’d love to know how it works so any enlightenment would be appreciated

Friday - Our last day exploring and we decided to go to Galloway Forest Park and the Glentrool Visitor Centre. Again there were several trails to choose from and we opted for the 4.5 mile circular walk through pine and deciduous forest. It was a great day for walking, cool but bright and the walk encompassed many landscapes from mixed woodland to moor to rivers and lochs. There were clearly marked posts along the way so there was no chance of us losing our way. Back at the visitor centre we had a cuppa and piece of cake. There are clean, well looked after toilets at the car park which meant there was no need to disappear into the bushes!

Saturday – As we packed to return home we reflected on a really enjoyable week. I thoroughly enjoyed driving around Ayrshire – the roads were so quiet it was a real pleasure. The scenery is quite breathtaking in a quiet serene kind of way and all the time the Ailsa rock sits in the bay watching the mainland. It has a mystical quality and looks quite unreal as if an enormous plum pudding has just landed in the sea.

I would thoroughly recommend this corner of Scotland for the friendliness of the locals, the varied and beautiful scenery and the empty roads – a real tonic for big city dwellers. I haven’t mentioned golf but if my husband had been with us then this review would have contained at least one mention of the famous Turnberry course where so many great tournaments have been won.

I hope that this review inspires you to go and explore this delightful part of Scotland.
 

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