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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!