by charlie | Jul 11, 2023
6 Jul 2023 Over the last five weeks – at the behest of a farmer keen to protect his livestock from straying close to the A77T at Ardwell – a team of Pathminders has spent 72 man-hours building a new set of up-and-over sleeper steps beside a closed field-gate, which included a specially-installed wicket-gate (plus a Yellow Warning Notice to “Keep This Gate Securely Chained”) to prevent agile animals from escaping over the steps into the next field – and possibly on to the nearby, busy and very dangerous, major trunk road. On 1 July we got a very appreciative email from him:Hi Jimmy. Good job well done. I will lift the waste wood shortly. Cheers. On 6 July – this telling photograph – and the despairing and exasperated comment: All that work you’d put in and they still can’t shut a gate properly. Cheers It is not only the farmer, but the ACP management team who are exasperated and angry at the irresponsible behaviour of a minority of walkers who carelessly disregard or abuse their ‘Right of Responsible Access’ over working farms along the Ayrshire Coastal Path. Coming from the south, they would have already passed through SIX gates bearing the same Yellow Warning Notice. Coming from the North, they would already have seen TWO similar requests. If any walkers who passed through this gate on the 5th or 6th July, happen to read this and realise that they – or their Tail-end Charlie – had genuinely forgotten to close this gate, their hands-up, honest acknowledgment would be much appreciated. We can all make mistakes. If all other walkers who...
by charlie | Jul 11, 2023
5 July 2023 To get on top of the phenomenal growth rate of vegetation resulting from copious rain following our June heatwave, this week our seven volunteers – John W, Jimmy, David McI, David Gy, David Gm, Mike S, and Tim D – split into several groups to try and deal with five-foot Bracken, Sea Radish, and Red Comfrey – from Glenapp to Girvan! After getting his two pairs organised, John started at Glenapp Kirk, and single-handedly cleared foliage from all signage and several kissing gates on the route down to Currarie Port – NB: where he came across a lot of drainage contractor works, that might inconvenience some walkers using that route till completed. He also cleared foliage around all signage on our Inland route, before going back to join the others. Meantime, having cut back dense bracken up the steep brae north from Currarie Port, the 2 David’s then began strimming the cliff top path, and joined up with Tim and Mike who were battling through huge bracken clumps to making a clear pathway north to Langdale. At the rate they were going, you might have expected – “at their age” – that they might have cracked up … but it was their machinery that cracked-up first, when two of the three strimmers developed mechanical problems, and they had to stop about 85-90% along the route to where they got to last week from the Langdale end. Nothing daunted, en route back to Ayr they stopped off at Curragh Cottages, Dipple, and using the big mower, levelled a very heavy re-growth of Sea Radish and Comfrey from...
