by Ron Ireland | Sep 15, 2019
The tidying operation after the track widening at Chapeldonan has now been completed with a final litter pick between the bull pen and the Chapeldonan quarry at Girvan Mains. A willing squad undertook the final cleaning last week and also emptied the Blue Bins at Balkenna and at Turnberry, with a decent haul of rubbish collected and left in a suitable location for collection by the Council. Thanks to all who have participated in this big exercise over the last few weeks. Hopefully, next springtime, we will see the path along this lovely stretch of shoreline has been restored to its former glory – just in time for the annual Rotary Clubs’ Big Beach...
by Ron Ireland | Sep 11, 2019
Gillian & Supporters The Ayrshire Coastal Path has done it again! We have another Paths-for-All award. This time our fellow board member Gillian Craig is the Paths-for-All Community Path Volunteer of the Year 2019. She was presented with her award last night at the Scottish Parliament. Massive congratulations to Gillian. Her award is well-deserved………and another feather in the cap for the Ayrshire Coastal Path. Gillian joined the growing band of ACP community volunteer “pathminders” three years ago and quickly became an established group member, braving the elements to carry out essential maintenance work, vegetation control and essential signing. Her many talents and boundless energy was evident to the ACP management board and Gillian was invited to join the board in 2017 to which she happily agreed, thus becoming its youngest member. Since then she has helped to promote and develop many new initiatives to improve the effectiveness of path management, administration, organisation and funding opportunities. In particular, her people and social-networking skills have greatly enhanced ACP communications, thus considerably expanding awareness of the accessibility and health benefits of the ACP. She has led a number of community walks on different sections of the ACP and still organises litter-picking days and signing improvements. All of this she does in addition to her many other active travel (and domestic) activities causing people to wonder how she crams so much into her day. Gillian has led numerous other community walks e.g. at walking festivals such as Valley Walkfest and Clyde Muirshiel as well as helping to promote them via her social-media following on her “gillianswalks” website (consulted by hundreds of individuals and rambling...
by charlie | Aug 31, 2019
On Thursday 29th August we carried out a litter pick along an inland stretch of the Ayrshire Coastal Path/National Cycle Network at Kilwinning (Byrehill Rd). On the Irvine to Ardrossan section of the Trail, sadly this single track road is a known problem-area for littering and fly tipping. By the end of the 2 hour pick we had collected 15 bin bags of rubbish and a variety of larger items including a paddling pool and a whirligig! We were also able to report several instances of fly tipping, one of which being a boat! North Ayrshire Council’s ‘Report It’ app proved very useful and we highly recommend giving it a try if you don’t already use it! The litter pick was organised as part of Eco Ayrshire 2019 – a month-long festival celebrating what local organisations across the area are doing to ‘Take Steps today to Sustain Tomorrow’.. Volunteers from the Scottish Wildlife Trust Ayrshire‘s ‘Time out Thursday’ initiative came along to help, as did Ian ‘The Nation’s Favourite Litter Picker’ Cassidy – all of whom were a huge help in the clean up! Within a few hours, Streetscene (North Ayrshire Council) had been along and removed all the collected rubbish, leaving a lovely tidy road behind for visitors and locals alike to enjoy. This litter pick was made possible due to funding which the Ayrshire Coastal Path received from Sustrans Scotland. The Love Your Network Grant Fund enabled us to purchase litter pickers, bag hoops, hi viz vests and a range of hand tools. We are very grateful to Sustrans Scotland for the support and funds received! Photos courtesy of John Linton of Sustrans...
by charlie | Aug 25, 2019
On Saturday 24th August the Ayrshire Coastal Path (ACP) teamed up with Gillian’s Walks to lead a group of 30 people (and 2 dogs!) along the rugged coastline between Dunure Castle and Greenan Castle. This 6.5 mile section of the ACP is known for it’s dramatic scenery and the dry, warm weather we were blessed with ensured that a great day was had by all! This event was organised as part of Eco Ayrshire 2019 – a month-long festival organised by volunteers, celebrating what local organisations across the area are doing to ‘Take Steps today to Sustain Tomorrow’. Five members of the ACP team joined in the walk, including the Trail Manager, Works Manager and some of our volunteer Path Wardens. This presented a unique opportunity for the public to see and hear first-hand all the hard work our volunteers have put into maintaining this particular section of ACP over the past year, as well as the chance to have their Official Guidebooks autographed by the author himself! We were also able to introduce our ‘Blue Planet – Blue Bin’ initiative: encouraging walkers of these remote areas to pick up any small plastics they come across during their walk and pop them in the blue barrel provided. These are then emptied by our volunteer Path Wardens in the area. We would like to thank Harry and Lindsay of Eco Ayrshire for all their support and most of all a huge thanks to everyone who came along on the walk. We hope that we have inspired you to walk some more of the Ayrshire Coastal Path or maybe even give...
by Ron Ireland | Apr 8, 2019
What a magnificent turnout and performance at the recent Big Rotary Beach Clean, coordinated by Ayr Rotary Club with support from the other clubs of Troon, Prestwick, Alloway and Girvan. This was the biggest one ever and included for the first time the beaches at South Harbour, Ayr and at Curragh, north of Girvan, in addition to those at Troon, Prestwick, Newton, Seafield, Doonfoot, Greenan, Craig Tara, Bracken Bay, Dunure, North Croy, Dowhill, Dipple, Girvan and Ballantrae. More than 15 miles of coastline were tackled by over 300 willing and cheerful volunteers who collected the equivalent of 625 large bags of rubbish and other debris. The mile-long beach at Curragh generated the largest collection because this had not been cleaned previously. However, the good news is that all other beaches showed a reduction from previous years which suggests that the annual beach clean is making a big impression and a progressively improving situation. Although it was not practical this year to separate plastic litter from other types of marine detritus the proportion of plastic is very high and was last year estimated at 93%. Next year it is hoped that an attempt can be made to segregate the main waste material types as they are collected, which should allow more effective recycling. Although there is, year-on-year, less large material as the annual clean ups improve the general situation, a dozen or so drums of used engine sump oil dumped at sea were removed. A sizeable number of these drums have been recovered over the past thirteen years, all between Girvan and Heads of Ayr, and these, unfortunately, may be...
