by Gillian Craig | Jan 22, 2023
Back in February 2020 one of the Ayrshire Coastal Path’s metal signage posts worth £130 went missing at the Pow Burn following Storm Jorge. Despite the best efforts of our volunteer Angus and his metal detector, we never found it. Assumed washed away, we gave up hope of ever finding it….. Fast forward almost exactly 3 years to yesterday, 20th January 2023: after the big storm of last week, we were down at Pow Burn on a site visit. We found that the big NW gale had scoured out a new deep channel and must have removed many thousands of tons of sand from the gabion reinforced area which was exposed right down to the channel. As we walked along, we were talking about how we had even lost a signpost here some years back, and then pointed down to a post lying deep in the channel and said “Look someone’s lost another post!” Going down to check it, we saw part of a green sign sticking out of the sand. It was ours – and after three years the signs were still in perfect condition!!! We managed to drag it a few feet out of the water, but with its heavy concrete base, we knew we would probably need four bodies to shift it up the bank to safety and remove the signs. So our volunteers Bob, Chris & Mike returned on a rescue mission! The post was carried above the high water mark for future removal and re-use, and the two green Ayrshire Coastal Path signs and fixings were removed and returned to storage. Miracles do happen…....
