by Ron Ireland | Apr 11, 2019
Heavy work started Last week we made a good start to our bridge at Balkenna and have dug out the base for the north abutment, getting the first base level fixed. This will let us speed on with laying the concrete slab flat bed for our byre-slats abutments this week. Opportunity has been taken to finish of the cleaning of the Dowhill beach which it was not possible to complete on the day of the official beach clean. Plenty willing pickers still keen to do a good...
by Ron Ireland | Apr 11, 2019
We have been advised by DuPont that the repairs to the recently storm-damaged bridge and pipes at the Milton burn are now complete. When inspected, there was a strong flow of water running through the culverts, and the ground on the bridge has been infilled. The warning signage on the two stiles on either side have now been removed and it is safe for walkers to use the bridge once...
by Ron Ireland | Mar 14, 2019
Jimmy Begg and Harry Peters went down to Turnberry yesterday and were very happy to see that the recently completed reinforcement of the step revetment has resisted twenty-four hours of Storm Gareth (and the sting in his tail!). This despite a short section of dune being washed away immediately to the south of our handiwork. The main purpose of the trip was to see at first hand the high-water levels at Balkenna Hut where we will soon be building a bridge over the burn which is frequently unfordable. Watch this...
by charlie | Feb 15, 2019
Whotter Day! You otter been there! Guess what we saw? Notter too difficult! About an hour after we started work, a big dog otter swam ashore from an offshore reef, and trottered up the beach (into the sun) towards us. With the wind behind him, the sun’s glare, and his natural poor eyesight, we asked everyone to stay still and quiet. As a result, he didn’t see the crowd of folk gawping at him and taking photos, till he was about 25 yards away, when he sensed our presence, turned left and ambled along the beach and into the dunes. Made our day! Pictures by ACP Staff Photographer Euan...
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 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...
