Plank Road: For a' that, an' a' that

Woke up to a gorgeous sunny day again, but the seaside was mist and more mist. The hiking book talked about fabulous views over the Firth of Clyde to Arran, we couldn’t see a thing.

Our walking route today began in the Burns heritage park in Alloway and then continued to the seashore where we walked a long way to the Heads of Ayr. Burns was born in Alloway and the cottage of his birth is preserved as part of the heritage park which is spread out over a tiny area in Alloway, which is now part of Ayr. Alloway is a really nice area with neat and tidy yards and houses.

Burns was the son of a tenant farmer, as such, he grew up poor and worked the fields as a ploughman. He loved whisky and women and had numerous love affairs and wrote a lot about the lovely maidens he knew.

After looking at the outside of the Burns cottage, we walked to the Burns monument and garden, then to Brig o’ Doon and through the kirk yard of the ruined auld kirk which held the witches and warlocks in the poem ‘Tam O’ Shanter.’ If you have not read Tam O’ Shanter, you should, it is written in Scots and the poem is wonderful. The Brig o’ Doon is where the old grey mare lost her tail. Burns’ father is buried in the kirk yard of the auld kirk.

The National Trust for Scotland has just opened a new Burns Museum but we did not visit as we had a long walk ahead. Our route took us along the River Doon to the sea and we walked along the beach to the Heads of Ayr, which are very steep cliffs.

We were to stop at Bracken Bay and return to Ayr, but we walked up one of the cliffs where there was access and happened upon a guy working on his tractor so we stopped to chat. There was also a guy out seeding feed barley.

They still plough the land in Ayrshire, then put down lime, then seed with a 10 foot seeder, then roll the land, then fertilize after the crop comes up. Barley yields around 125 bu/acre in this area. Interestingly, the farmers don’t farm the land, they hire out everything to custom guys. The guy we talked to grew up on a farm and works custom. They don’t put in the relentless hours that Canadian farmers do.

The farmer who owns the land that was being seeded owns a little over 100 acres which is considered to be a lot of land. The barley comes pre-treated in mini-bulk bags as farming is done on such a small scale.

We then proceeded along the cliffs, through a few fields of grazing sheep then walked back down to the beach where there was access from the cliff top, otherwise you would hurl yourself off the cliff since they are straight up. The sheep pasture is fenced but a risk taker was on the wrong side of the fence in some shrubs. They are always wary of walkers and run away as soon as we come along, so I hoped the sheep would not plunge over the cliff when we walked by. There was a lot of sheep wool hanging in the brambles.

We had lunch on the beach among the rocks and in the mist around 3:00 and we were starving. After lunch we hiked back up the cliff and re-traced our route back to Ayr. Luckily they didn’t lock our car in the Burns cottage car park as it was closed by the time we returned, there was a chain to block off the entrance but it was not put across, we need to start reading signs to know these things.

Then we headed for the Brig O’ Doon Hotel for dinner. The Hotel is very Scottish, tartan carpet, dark wood and a good selection of whisky. The food was really good, I had mussels and John had lobster cocktail to start then we both had ‘Auld Alliance’ escalopes of pork. We are really knackered after our long walk of about 20 km so we ate early for us and didn’t linger.

Tomorrow we drive a bit north of Ayr and get the ferry to the Isle of Arran.

Click on pics to enlarge....

Burns Cottage