Ayr

A few photos from a brief visit to this lovely old town in 2008

The Wallace Tower in the High Street

Built in 1833 to replace the previous structure in which Sir William Wallace is said to have been imprisoned for setting fire to a barn with 500 English soldiers inside. This is a Neo-Gothic clock tower, 113 ft high, with a statue of William Wallace carved in the facade.

The Town Hall spire beside one of the main roads

The 'New Bridge' across the River Ayr

The Fort Wall is very interesting to visit - I came upon it by accident when walking around the harbour area. This ruin is part of the citadel built in the 17th century on the orders of Oliver Cromwell. The round turret overlooking the street and harbour was constructed in the 19th century by John Miller and is known as “Miller’s Folly”. When Miller returned from India he acquired the Citadel and actually lived inside. It’s less than a mile from the town and worth seeing.

A few more photos from around the harbour area

Although we started off with nice dry weather, it didn't last and later in the afternoon the rain poured down. We escaped for a while to the Costa Cafe inside Waterstones (above!) but it was still very wet by the time we went over to the Esplanade. Our plan to have a walk was shattered despite waiting in the car for some time. As with so many other places, it's somewhere to return to in future...

A video from inside the car, windows firmly shut!

Largs: Water Courses

I thought it might be interesting to put together some photos of the various burns which flow down to Largs, starting with these scanned pictures from my old copy of 'Round About Greenock' by T. G. Snoddy (published in 1937) which is now out of print:

The Greeto Burn (sometimes called Greeto Water) flows into Gogo Water opposite Rigging Hill

The Gogo Falls are about 35 feet in height and fall into a deep pool. The Gogo continues through Gogo Glen and flows into the Clyde south of the pier, near to the Putting Green

There is a modern day photo of the Gogo Water flowing under a road bridge in Largs itself here

This is the Coalpit Burn which reaches the Clyde near to the Pencil Monument and which flows down from the Haylie Reservoir further inland. Two more photos of it below:

Noddsdale Water above, near to where it flows into Largs Bay, flows down from Outerwards Reservoir. Another branch of it a short distance inland is called the Noddsdale Burn. The name Noddle Burn is sometimes used too and I have also seen Noddsdale spelt Nodsdale!

There are also the Routenburn which flows into the Clyde slightly further north than the Noddsdale (unseen and under the road next to the Underbank flats), and the Kel Burn which is south of the Yacht Haven. There's a nice photo of the Kel Burn here.

A few of these water courses can be seen on this map of walks around Largs.

Largs: Modern Day 2

Some photos of Largs taken from the ferry coming back from Millport the last time we went over there!