And so it came to be that the term ended, the school holidays were upon us, and we got a week's break from everything in the form of our delayed Easter holiday to South Ayrshire, home of Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, and also Struan Stevenson, Scotland's former MEP, and my ex-boss.
And what a beautiful part of the world. And inspirational. Our bard wrote A Red, Red Rose by these shores, and it's last line 'though it were ten thousand mile' sounds a bit like a song by the well known Scottish band The Proclaimer's, wouldn't you say?
Anyway, we last visited Struan and his wife Pat here in about 2010 in their 17th century farmhouse, and this time stayed in the holiday cottages they previously owned, right on the shore. In front of us (due West) was the Mull of Kintyre, with the north-east coast of Ireland just beyond, to our right was the huge granite mass of Ailsa Craig, and above that, the mountains of Arran. And above us, sun, all week long, save for one howling morning (more on that later).
Our wee Ailsa was delighted with her popularity, and we found Ailsa Shore, Ailsa Drive, Ailsa Walk, Ailsa Way, and probably missed a few others.
Here we are on Sunday morning in front of that famous Ailsa Craig, enjoying the beach with Struan and Pat (note the sunnies). We went on to have lunch outside (covid-rules adhered to) and it was a pleasure, aye, a pleasure, to sit on the patio and have a BBQ, protected from the wind, in the Scottish autumn sun....until about 4pm when the sun went behind the house, the temperature dropped and we left within 5 mins.
Ailsa and Ailsa:
And so on to that overnight storm and the wind and rain it left us with the next morning. I made them go to the beach anyway.
But in the afternoon it cleared up and we went up to Culzean (pronounced Cullain) Castle, overlooking the Firth of Clyde about 20 miles north along the coast. It's actually quite a famous castle, the former home of the Marquess of Ailsa, chief of the Clan Kennedy, and now owned by the National Trust for Scotland (thus the family avoided inheritance tax). Since 1972 and until recently the castle featured on the reverse of the £5 note issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The beautiful and extensive gardens contain a super cool forest and adventure playground, all brought up to date with exciting activities that interest little hands and ears.
They also had a 'spot-the-monsters' (on signs) around the loch, which took at least an hour of late sunny afternoon time.
On the recommendation of Cousin Carina we also visited Portpatrick, a lovely little fishing village past Stranraer, and the start of the Southern Upland Way. We walked, oo, about 200m of it, and then came back down the hill to the awesome playground at the bottom, and lunch in a seaside pub.
And one day we went up to Rabbie Burns' birth place in Alloway, right beside Ayr.
Aye right, more like the birthplace of a man who couldn't keep it in his pants, fathering 13 children by 5 didn't women. And he died at 37.
He's famous for writing in a mix between Scots and English, and one of his most famous poems, written in 1791, is called Tam O'Shanter. The poem describes Tam, who is a farmer and often gets drunk with his friends at the pub. After a market day, Tam gets drunk and rides home on his horse Meg while a storm is brewing. On the way he sees the local Church lit up with witches and warlocks and the Devil playing the bagpipes (what else?). They spot him after he sees a wanton witch with a very short dress and cries out 'Weel done, cutty sark!' (cutty sark being a short shirt). Immediately they all chase Tam who spurs Meg on and flees towards the River Doon. A witch comes close to catching Tam and Meg and pulls Meg's tail off just as she reaches the Brig o'Doon, as the creatures cannot cross a running stream.
We visited all the main sites of the story and really enjoyed the museum cafe and playground.
Running over the Brig o'Doon:
On the way home we drove by Turnberry, and stuck our tongues out at Mr Trump's golf course:
Sunset through salt encrusted windows:
And on our final day we went for a walk with Struan and Pat up behind their house to see marvellous views over to the other famous Ailsa and beyond.
That afternoon we picked up our pumpkins and headed back home, just in time to hand off Small Fry to his second holiday...this time with his cousins.
While the girls showed us their teeth (one wobbly):
And El Puma and I got to doing some home decorating (well, small bits. Others did the big bits) before we move in this weekend.
Getting me an office:
A room for the lassies:
M-day (moving in day): this weekend.
