by Ron Ireland | Jan 20, 2019
The main job on the Coastal Path this week was on the path down to Bracken Bay from the caravan park, where there had been a small landslide, which needed to be repaired. The good-sized party of nine scraped off the re-usable whin chips from the path, we barrowed stones up from the beach, we built a small retaining wall, we then cut and filled from the high side of the path to the low side and finally spread the re-usable whin chips to form a level walking surface. As if that wasn’t enough, we erected 2 new direction signs, pruned and trimmed the overgrowing vegetation and repaired a couple of kissing gates – and of course we managed to grab a “piece” and have a “cuppa” looking out towards Arran on one of these blue-sky...
by Ron Ireland | Jan 20, 2019
It’s that time again! The Big Beach Clean is now an established and hugely successful annual event and we all want to build on its success as a great annual community effort. The Thirteenth Ayrshire Rotary Beach Clean is to take place on Saturday 30 March 2019 and all local organisations businesses and individuals are invited to help. For the past 13 years, South Ayrshire Rotary Clubs (Ayr, Prestwick, Alloway, Troon and Girvan) have been well ahead of the environmental curve, and it is good to see the UK and Scottish Governments, as well as members of the public, now beginning to take positive action. Our 2019 Beach Clean is an ideal opportunity for everyone interested in the marine and coastal environment to make their own contributions to this amazing exercise – only 3 hours light work and it is fun too ! More information to follow...
by Ron Ireland | Jan 20, 2019
The ACP feature on the BBC Scotland, Out-of-Doors programme was broadcast on Saturday 19 January. Catch up on Radio iPlayer or BBC Sounds and listen to the interviews with the pathminders and a super selling of the delights of the path. Well done all. (Link to https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00022c8 and the feature starts 01h:01m:39s into...
by Ron Ireland | Jan 10, 2019
The Ayrshire Coastal Path was targeted by BBC Radio Scotland’s “Out-of-Doors” programme makers for a feature to be broadcast shortly. Mark Stephen, the show’s presenter, was accompanied by six of the regular “pathminders” who, every week, work hard to maintain and improve the path to make it an even more enjoyable experience. This is not the first time the ACP has been the subject of an Out-of-Doors broadcast. Four years ago, Mark Stephen walked the path from Dunure to Culzean with Rotary members Jimmy Begg, Gus Iannotti and Harry Peters. This time Jimmy and Gus were back again along with Ron Ireland, Paul Williams, and two non-Rotarian pathminders, Bob Gibson and Chris Swaine. This time they proudly showed Mark the fruits of their recent labours by walking the Smugglers Brae and the Fisherton Gully where a combined total of around 200 helpful steps had been built, some with timber sleepers and some with local rocks, to facilitate the arduous climbs and descents. These were completed only recently, after three winters of hard graft by the...
by Ron Ireland | Jan 6, 2019
After many months of negotiation and re-negotiation, a recent meeting with Transport Scotland and their agents TranServe has obtained their commitment to improving routine vegetation clearance measures where the path runs alongside the A77 trunk road at Bennane. It is hoped that this year will see passage along the path between Bennane Lea, over Bennane Hill, and down to Bennane Shore Holiday Park substantially improved and significantly...
