by Ron Ireland | May 28, 2021
This week’s work party ventured into pastures new with a visit to one of the more popular, official, ACP detours: The Smugglers Trail between Troon and Dundonald Castle. Recent work to sign and erect information panels at either end of Dundonald Woods (initiated by South Ayrshire Paths Initiative and funded by the Hillhouse Group) has recently been completed. Today the ACP team, with help from SAPI, dismantled and removed 140m of flattened post and wire fencing for later uplift by SAC who will install new fencing along the entire length of the path adjacent to the reservoir. Hillhouse Quarries will then carry out essential drainage and surface improvement work on wet and muddy sections of the path which have been an obstacle to path-users for some time now. If you are walking on the path when these works are taking place, please respect social distance rules and stay clear of volunteer workers and other path...
by charlie | 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....
by charlie | 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...
by charlie | 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...
by charlie | Nov 23, 2020
On 11 November 2020, we launched our first ever Go Fund Me! As many of you will know, the ACP is managed and maintained by volunteers and we rely on donations to pay for equipment, tools and materials to carry out ongoing path maintenance. So if you have ever enjoyed a walk on the Ayrshire Coastal Path, this is your opportunity to support our work. If everyone who follows our work on Facebook was to donate the price of a cuppa, it would cover our costs for the coming year. Thanks a million! But the great news is that we reached our target in just 10 day! That was £1000, which allows us to continue our work erecting signs, and carrying out maintenance. All teh labour is done by the volunteer Pathminders, but we do need funds to buy equipment and...
