Ailsa Craig trip. Kingdom of the Sea Birds. Girvan.

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Nine and a half miles off the coast of Girvan, in the middle of the Firth of Clyde, sits a thousand foot high granite monolith, where some of the UK's finest curling stones were once cut out then polished in the days when curling was a major winter sport, before health and safety, the folly of standing on untested lochs and ponds in large numbers, and warmer winter temperatures kicked in. If you are a big golf fan you may be familiar with the profile of Ailsa Craig already as it features as a TV star in its own right when any of the Ayrshire golf championships appear on telly and this unique island offshore comes into its own, via telephoto lens wizardry and clear conditions,  promoting Turnberry or Troon coastal links with the island often a framed scenic highlight in the background, looming large and seemingly just within touching distance between the shoulders of the famous players walking around the course or as a good talking point history feature between holes.

Although the cliffs look high and imposing enough from the distant mainland, close up they tower over the small boats below. Every spring nesting season this is also a kingdom of seabirds, like those other large isolated sea stacks - the St Kilda group, Bass Rock near Edinburgh and the Great Stack of Handa in the far north west. Unless you are lucky enough  to know someone with a private boat or can book a trip from Girvan to take you out there it's not an easy place to reach and too far out except for the most experienced sea kayakers with marine radio on board and the necessary skill levels required. If things go pear shaped out here it does feel very isolated and a long way back to the almost invisible mainland. Being a nature reserve, landing on the island is discouraged for visitors, except for the tour boat operators, who take trig baggers across in good conditions and is a growing modern trend among list baggers who team up in numbers to collect remote sea stacks by private boat hire or visit other hard to reach locations in a group to share costs. Boat trips from Girvan out to the rock and good info on the island's history and sea bird numbers in this link.
http://www.ailsacraig.org.uk/
  Didn't know about the slow worms living on the island either.

Luckily, we did know a couple with a boat- John and Gail -who have a RIB with a large 90 engine  attached and a smaller spare engine for back up. They used to do a lot of scuba diving years ago all round the Scottish coast, hence the purchase of a boat around 20 years ago. A lot of maintenance is required however when you own a boat, engine overhauls and checks, washing down with fresh water including cleaning both engines after any sea trip, or checking the electric boat launcher and boat trailer for wear and tear or unseen faults. Always something to go wrong or fix on a boat.

As well as John and Gail, we had two dogs, another couple into trig bagging, then myself and Alex. I was invited over the phone and lost no time saying yes to an outing that I've only been on once before in 40 years. Alex seemed to already know about this trip through his Marilyn bagging and trig bagging sites online and invited himself along. Although not a great sailor he was determined he wasn't going to miss out on a once in a lifetime opportunity to bag this illusive and highly prized island.

Although the forecast generally was for flat seas and light winds the 9 mile crossing was pretty rough with a large rolling swell most of the way. By the time we arrived at the landing beach, which was reasonably sheltered, John had decided to stay in the boat and drop us off one by one onto the pier between tidal surges. As I'd already been to the summit and walked a good way around the base of the rock on a previous trip at low tide, I volunteered to stay with him, keep him company, and just go for a tour round the island instead as it was too rough to tie up and leave the boat unattended at the pier in case it got damaged by wave action.
The path up to the summit starts from here, continues past the old castle, then heads for the highest point past the halfway well and old curling industry buildings.

The trig baggers soon had themselves sorted out and proceeded to make the ascent while we travelled slowly round the coastline by boat.

Due to ground nesting seabirds, dogs were kept on a lead and Tiny Temper here also had a plastic muzzle as he was well known for biting fingers if any stranger patted him.

We soon observed loads of puffins...

and more puffins....

then gannets and sunbathing seals on rocks...

More gannets... this one taking off after a dive into the sea, observing then spearing fish from 40 feet up.

Young seal....

Large older seal....

Chalky, seen here, fancied the elegant two tone gannets with their black and white attire so much he adopted a similar black and white profile during his visit to the islands. With unseen ocean currents changing into new patterns and sea temperatures rising due to global warming many seabird colonies are having a hard time breeding in the last 10 to 15 years as the illusive sand eels, essential food the young chicks feed on, can be in short supply. Further north, in Scandinavia, isolated sea-stacks well known for long lasting seabird colonies have seen populations crash due to chicks starving in the nests. Unlike crowded Africa, where a growing human population there means less room and habitat destruction for large key species, such as rhino, elephants and giraffe, this isolated rock gets limited human disturbance and birds of every variety cover the steep ledges. You need enough fish swimming in the surrounding seas to support them all though.

Razor bill taking off...

Gannet's diving around the boat....

Meet the neighbours. Gannets and Guillemots.

I don't know what this year's breeding success will be like but the willing birds turn up every year to try to raise a family on this remote sea cliff.... one of the wonders of Scotland. It was only after taking this photo I noticed a dark shape in the water under the cliffs... probably a seal, seabird, or small porpoise/dolphin gliding along just under the surface.

Although he enjoyed his trig bag Alex was not a happy bunny on the hour long crossing. Although not physically sick into the bounding depths he didn't feel well for most of it, arrival and return,  and was very happy to see Girvan harbour again. A couple of  "sea legs" tablets taken as a precaution beforehand may have been of assistance here.

Colourful Girvan harbour highlighting the two tourist hire boats available for fishing trips or landings on Ailsa Craig, Marilyn trig bagging or wildlife sightseeing.

A view of Girvan beach on our return.

The view on the road home heading down into sunny Glasgow and Paisley. A different world to the seabird kingdom just visited but a metropolis with its own challenges, hopes for the future and complex problems to be managed, decade by decade, year on year. As seen well in this photo the city spreads out across a shallow wide bowl surrounded by encircling hill groups- The Kilpatricks, The Campsie Fells and the Clyde Valley Lava Escarpment Plateau: otherwise known as the Lochliboside Hills, Fereneze Braes, the Brownside Braes, and the Gleniffer Braes respectively.
A great trip during this extended heatwave and thanks to John and Gail for the invite. Hope your engine set back was not too expensive to fix.