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...

Heathfield

The ruined farm I explored a little in my last post intrigued me. From my OS map I could see it was called Heathfield. A little googling later and I discovered...

This site which contains a little collection of memories from writer Betty McKellar who once lived on the farm. She desciribes herself as a city girl and on marrying the farmer she moved to Heathfield farm in 1956...  

" No tractor, no machinery; hay was cut with the scythe. Sheep were clipped by hand in the reciprocal neighbouring system which turned out to be the great social gathering of the sheep-farming year. The house cow lived in a byre through the side door from the kitchen. You could smell her as you went about your chores. I learnt to milk her like the dairy maids from the story books of my childhood, sitting on a three-legged wooden stool with my head against her flank, and squeezing her fat teats so that her milk frothed into a luggie between my knees. I remember the big shallow milk binds in the dairy with the layers of cream on top that I skimmed and churned into butter in the barrel-shaped butter churn, ca'in the handle."

And this site describes how in the winter of 1942 an aeroplane crashed on nearby moorland. A shepherd only discovered the wreckage three weeks after the crash happened. The bodies of the three airmen were brought back via pony and sledge over the wintry moors to a makeshift mortuary at Heathfield farm.

It's wonderful what you can find out on the internet!

I still haven't found just when it was abandoned though. Sometime since 1956 so fairly recent really considering the state of it now.

Here are some more of the photos I took...

Saturday Morning Bike Ride.

Again, reluctant, then the sun shone through the window. Off about 8:30am.

Tree silhouette perched above the fields.

Handpainted farm sign.

One of their cows.

Farm and gate.

More lovely old farm buildings, I especially like the little four paned windows (though in reality they probably make things a little dark inside)

A little patchwork of fields. I've just come down the road on the right.

On a whim I decide to head up to the country park. 3 miles to go...

Brambles. Not quite ready yet. Must remember to take my tub next week.

Zingy red bramble leaves.

Swallows. Still here, nice to see.

2 miles to go...

The glen is starting to narrow and we are reaching the higher hills. It's very pretty, I love this kind of landscape - a little wilder than my usual terrain.

Nice old forged gate.

I find it very impressive that someone has at some time taken the trouble to build stone walls up to the tops of some of the hills along the glen. Hard work I would think.

Pretty cottage, tiny window.

Twisty road.

1 mile to go...

I find a little patch of heather.

This week's umbellifer picture.

Wonky fence posts.

Onwards...

...pausing to take a close up of the post on the left first.

Passing place.

Fence detail.

Just before the entrance to the country park is a little collection of tumbledown buildings. I think there used to be a gate or something that always dissuaded me from taking a closer look, this time the little lane was open so up I went. I took loads of photos, here are just a select few...

I love poking about old ruins. I wish I knew more about these ones though. I wonder when it was abandoned. There is still the remains of an old door which was unexpected. Some of the rooms were full of nettles and so I didn't go into them. It was rather an odd layout overall. Most intriguing.

I almost don't bother going into the park, then I remember that there is a large horse chestnut next to the visitor centre which always looks most impressive in its Autumn colours...

...a little early yet, but it's starting to turn.

Since I've gone this far I decide to go a little further and venture up the tracks to the mines and moor. There is no more road.

Lots of large loose stones, not great for cycling.

This sign is new. I've cycled along the left hand track up to the mines before and there's not much left of them to see. I decide to head along the moor path a little. I'd heard of the railway track that used to be here - I find it quite amazing that one was built (it's pretty much the middle of nowhere!) just for shooting parties to be transported to the grouse moors.

I don't get very far. The track starts to look very much like the river and I don't really fancy off-roading. Time to turn back.

More lovely rowan berries this week.

Finally I get a photo of some sheep who don't run away (they're thinking about it though).

From here is back downhill for the three miles till the road junction. At the junction I can go straight on downhill for a couple more miles to join the cycle path for a few more easy flat miles home. Boring! I decide to turn left and stay on the back roads. The only thing is, it involves going past a farm with a scary dog. I haven't been past it for probably about two years as the last time the dog came far too close for comfort, I'm sure he'd have bitten me if he'd been a few inches closer. Well, I'm prepared, I'll make sure I'm ready to cycle past as quick as I can...

...but when I get there there is no dog.

Nothing. The farm is empty and looks like it's in the process of being renovated. I'm almost sad not to see the dog, it feels soulless now somehow. On the other hand I now know this road is safe to use again.

One last pretty view. I decide I've enough photos for this trip so am able to enjoy cycling the rest of the journey home without any photo stops. Though I am tempted once or twice...