Another Fantastic Donation!

Another Fantastic Donation!

by | Feb 9, 2021

Thanks very much to Firstpoint Flooring! Here is an excerpt from an email sent to Firstpoint by Trail Manager, Jimmy Begg. “I was suprised and delighted to get a phone call the other day from Marion Young of SAC telling me that you and Firstpoint Flooring Contract Ltd had chosen the Ayrshire Coastal Path as the recipient of a £300 donation from your company, and that the money was due to be lodged in our account.  This couldn’t have come at a better time, as we have to raise all the money to maintain and improve the 106 mile-long ACP by ourselves, as the Path is managed and maintained on a purely voluntary basis by a Management Board of nine, and a group of 56 Pathminders who do all the maintenance work.  Recently, after a year of repairs and improvements, our maintenance fund (to cover costs of all materials and service of our brushcutters and mower) had dropped to just a few hundred pounds – and it takes at least £1500 a year to cover all these expenses and more. To pay for replacement signage and other big items we always need to seek grants from various bodies, and your donation of £300 is a big help and will be put towards the costs of replacement of four large information panels that are beginning to show signs of deterioration and need re-designed and brought up to date.” Donations are always gratefully received, and allow the ACP Team to keep the Path in good order....
Dog Dirt is Offensive!

Dog Dirt is Offensive!

by | Jan 29, 2021

Dog owners may think they are doing well by picking up their pooches’ poo and putting in a nice little plastic bag. But just consider how our volunteers have to deal with it. This week over 100 bags of Dog Dirt, weighing over 30lbs – and many of them burst – were removed from just one Blue Bin near Croy by two of our Volunteers. A most unpleasant task! Another at Turnberry was also badly abused in this selfish manner. The Blue Bins have been a great success, with many beach walkers gathering rubbish and placing in the bins, but they are not for Dog Dirt.  It will be a big Environmental Set-back to our beautiful coastline if the ACP is forced to remove Blue Bins from beaches because they are abused by a minority of unsocial Dog Walkers. To this minority of Dog Owners – don’t leave others to do your dirty work! Take it home!  And many thanks to those volunteer Pathminders who clear the Blue Bins – and to all the caring walkers who litter-pick our remote beaches....
Surprising Donation

Surprising Donation

by | Jan 14, 2021

You never know where a donation might appear from! Out of the blue, we received a whopping £500 donation from Clair Ridge Welfare Team. Clair Ridge is an oil platform 75km west of Shetland, and through one of our Pathminders, they got to know about the Ayrshire Coastal Path, and how we were desperate for funds to allow us to continue our maintenance programme. Without any further correspondence, we received the donation. Thanks so much to the Clair Ridge team. It is worth having a a look at the excellent video on their website, showing the vast scale of the platform. Please note the above photo is not the actual Clair Ridge, which is much...
News Round-up – December 2020

News Round-up – December 2020

by | Dec 8, 2020

Season’s greetings to all our supporters, volunteer pathminders and path-users. What an unusual year it’s been! The path was effectively closed to anyone other than local walkers during the early-months’ lockdown and more recently under the local restrictions. Also the ACP maintenance teams, in common with other businesses and organisations have had to adapt to meet the various changes in the regulations. But adapt they did and the essential work of keeping the path in good order has continued without interruption since the end of national lockdown in June. Recent improvements include the forming of an easier, 300m off-beach section through the bracken, south of Ladywell burn waterfall at Drumbain (see previous news post) and handrails have been added to the footbridge over the Mill burn at Drumbain Mains. In association with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, eight new information boards have been sited at selected locations to highlight the wonderful range of wildlife to be found along the path and work has recently been completed on the establishment of a wildflower meadow on the grassy slopes at Drumbain. This latter work is part of the SWT project to create a “Nectar Network” Irvine to Girvan. Of course, all of the activity to enhance the ACP for the benefit of walkers comes at a cost, even although much of the effort involves reuse and recycling of resources wherever possible. A recent, new, on-line appeal for donations to assist this work has been highly successful and thanks is due to all those who have contributed so far and thus helped to ensure that the ACP retains its status as one of...
Improved path at Drumbain

Improved path at Drumbain

by | Nov 24, 2020

During the summer months when COVID lockdown finally eased, our Pathminders created a much-needed improvement north of Dunure at Drumbain – where walkers have had to negotiate several hundred metres of rough, rocky shore south of Drumbain waterfall. They have cut a new wide path through 300m of head-high, bracken jungle along the bank above the foreshore – which was previously impassable, and is now accessed by a flight of stone steps built up the bank just south of the waterfall, next to one of our Blue Bins. Now we have a level grassy path that is already much appreciated by our regular walkers After- 300m of good path Before – Drumbain...

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