Portencross

This morning we awoke to a light frost, meaning clear skies and sunshine, yay! As it's the September weekend the children had a day off school/nursery so we decided to visit Portencross. We've been before. It's a beautiful spot and has enough there to occupy us for a whole day.

I took numerous photos (as usual!). I was spoilt for choice for subjects - there's a castle, the sea, the Isle of Arran, a beach, and there were many butterflies too visiting the wild flowers which grow beside the rocks at the back of the beach.

We parked in the large car park near the castle.

A & N having a rest from "rock climbing"

The castle. Sadly not open today but it will be the rest of the weekend and bank holiday Monday (free entry).

Castle wall ad sky.

The little boat is called Twinkle.

A view of Arran.

Another Arran view with A at the very end of the jetty.

Looking back at the castle from the jetty, I love the sparkly sea.

Jetty detail.

We're back in the village now, great lifebelt sign for a seaside house name.

One of the big buoys at the car park. We're heading in the opposite direction from the castle as we're going to the...

...beach.

A view back towards Arran over a golden field at the back of the beach. There were lots of swallows swooping and diving after flies here.

The Arran ferry about to pass in front of the Ailsa Craig.

Picnic time, including yummy banana muffins.

A sky full of birds. These little flocks would regularly rise up, fly around and then land in a new spot.

Another beach view with a close-up of one of the many holey stones and boulders to be found on the beach.

Dear, sweet A doing a spot of paddling.

Arran again.

And again.

Yacht.

One of the many small tortoiseshell butterflies we saw today.

Daisy.

My first (and only) sighting of a red admiral butterfly this year.

Ailsa Craig, yacht and ferry.

After several hours spent paddling (with wellies on, too stony for bare feet), rockpooling, pebble collecting, picnicking and just wandering around admiring the views (and taking a few photos), we decided to head back towards the car park area.

It was too nice to leave yet though, so we hung around a little longer out on the rocks in front of the car park.

The tide was coming in. It was fascinating to watch the rockpools filling up with fresh sea water and the closed sea anemones opening up to display their frilly tentacles.

We decided to have a last visit to the castle too, the sea has filled up the little bay beside it now.

The two cottages opposite the castle. The one on the left with the red door is Shore House for which we saw the lifebelt house sign earlier.

A last view of the bay, then finally we do head home.

Really just an excuse to share lots of photos of a pretty part of the world on a lovely sunny day.

The weather forecast is looking great for tomorrow too, so I'll try and make sure I'm up and off early for my bike ride. I'm away now to start crocheting a mitten to match the one I made last night, the second  mitten/sock of a pair is never as" exciting" as the first is it! Crochet update post to follow soon too...