ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.
A trip down to Troon on a good sunny day to do the Troon to Irvine beach walk. This is a straightforward walk from Troon 8km or 5 miles along the beach at low tide to Irvine then getting the train back 2 stops to the car. We noticed a couple of things that had changed in Troon since the last time I visited pre- pandemic. One was the Ferris Wheel. The other was the free car park and free toilets near the beach just beside the ferris wheel, seen above. Both toilets and car park are contactless card payments only. 50 pence for toilet. No cash payments allowed for either. As the car park was full anyway, no spaces left, we parked in a quiet back street. Would not be surprised if all car parks and toilets up here eventually follow this model. I have read that some South of England car parks are charging £10 to £20 for a day's parking so this will probably creep north at some point as well.
Normally this is a very popular beach walk and much easier at low tide as you are walking on firm sand. You can do it at high tide but then you have to walk high up the beach or over the sand dunes which is deep soft sand and much harder. Although it was a sunny day there was a strong wind blowing so walkers on the beach were reduced to a handful on this walk.
Walking past Barassie and enjoying our hot mince pies which Alan got from Morrison's supermarket for £1 each. A bargain.
A broad sweep of firm sand awaits you on this beach at low tide and to discover any UK beach at low tide you can look up BBC tide tables for each day online. You can also get a train or bus down to Troon or Irvine.
I have seen this beach walk very busy in the past with families, dog walkers and horse riders appearing every two seconds from start to finish. I prefer it quieter though and as we normally do less fashionable walks these days I'm always amazed at how busy more popular walks are from my last visits years ago. And how changed they are. The big difference with this walk though was a positive one with a blue litter bin every inch of the way, around 40 to 60 at a guess stretching the entire length of the beach. Each a stone's throw apart. Although from a photography or visual point of view not ideal... it was clean with no litter in sight.
The downside of the strong wind was that sand grains soon buggered up my zoom lens so I was restricted to non zoom shots. A red catamaran pulling into Troon Habour here. Possibly the one that goes to Larne in Northern Ireland. I eventually got the zoom working again but not until a week later. A expensive business if it knackered it altogether with an equivalent replacement camera around £500.
Same non zoom shot for this one. I thought at first this was some strange new ferry service until Alan twigged it might be Roman Abramovich's superyacht Eclipse, moored offshore for the Golf tournament taking place at Troon. Same number of decks anyway although a different colour hull from the original white in online photos. Or maybe just the poor light and lack of a zoom to pick out details better.
It's a walk of around three hours and we eventually reached the Magnum beach park and the outskirts of Irvine. Seen above.
This took us to Irvine Harbour with its attractive but modest row of pubs, art studios, and maritime museum.
Carter and horse sculpture.
A close up view.
Irvine Harbour view.
River Garnock view and the Ardeer Peninsula. It used to be possible to explore the Ardeer Peninsula on foot and I've posted about us walking across it previously but it might be harder to do now due to a new barbed wire perimeter fence and new keep out signs appearing. A shame as it was a great and interesting walk. Abandoned Engineering style through the various factory ruins.
Scottish Maritime Museum.
Local pub doorway with ship's figurehead above.
Then up to the train station and two stops later back at the car. And later still I had my dinner in the house. I've recently had a taste for sliced black pudding, sliced haggis, and asparagus... Pork sausages and buttered potatoes as well. Very tasty.
Just found this article online and it's very true of the UK as well. A perfect explanation of modern life facing young people today.
https://uk.yahoo.com/style/29-old-just-gave-best-164757673.html
6 comments:
Have definitely done this one! Though the other way round, we got the train from Troon and walked back. It was lovely.
So, why aren't you allowed on the Ardeer Peninsula? And I didn't know it was so easy to look up tide tables for anywhere around our coast so thanks for that.
Like the horse and carter sculpture (and I'm not normally a fan of most artworks).
Talking of soft sand - 2 things. I once b*ggered up my achilles tendons on both legs and my knees walking across a long beach of soft sand on Harris. And also, while in the Army, they used to get us to play rounders on the beach in the soft sand - that was a killer!
Hi Anabel. Yes, Ayrshire has some really good sandy beaches, as you already know. My favourite beach walk though is Heads of Ayr to Dunure as it's more adventurous with remote rocky sections and some tidal jeopardy if you miss low tide starting off the route .
Hi Carol. Ardeer is where Nobel had his explosives factory on a remote peninsula. I've walked through it a couple of times exploring the old abandoned buildings as the old fence had wide holes in it. Now it has a new fence and some of the site is still being used. Maybe still for explosives. Low tide also depends on the moon cycle as some tides are lower than others but this is also obvious on the day graphs and only relevant if you want to reach a hard to reach location that requires a really deep low tide.
Parking is becoming more and more of a nightmare. It is a particular worry when travelling to somewhere new in case you don't have the correct means to pay - some places now only accept payment courtesy mobile phones.
We are fortunate in our small Cotswold town as one of the main central car parks is now free for everyone from 2.00pm onwards.
Hi Rosemary, Yes it's creeping in here as well and cash is dying out. Not many free car parks left now.
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