WORKING TO WALK
Creating an Ayrshire Coastal Path was a challenge that paid off for retired GP Jimmy Begg and his team of dedicated volunteers
I ’ve just finished three hours of hard grass-mowing on the clifftop between Culzean Castle and Dunure. My bones are feeling a bit stiff but I can’t complain. As one of the old boys helping said, ‘what a place to be doing outdoor work’. People have driven the Ayrshire coast since motor-cars were invented, but to walk along it, stopping to sniff the air, watch the seals and basking sharks, and with the sun and wind on your back, well, it’s something to be savoured.
I’ve lived in Ayrshire since childhood. I was born in an old mining village called New Cumnock, a bit upland from where we are now. We used to come down to the shore during the miners’ holidays, perhaps with an old caravan, and park at Croy Bay.
Although vague ideas about creating an Ayrshire Coastal Path had been around for years, it wasn’t until December 2005 that a plan began to take shape. That was after I’d been asked by the Rotary Club of Ayr to come up with a suitable project to mark the centenary of Rotary International.
I was a GP in Ayr for 34 years and, for 11 years I was a search and rescue doctor with HMS Gannet. I flew up and down the Ayrshire coast and out to the islands. Usually it was in foul weather so I knew and loved the coast from many different perspectives. And that surely made our new task a little easier.
The whole thing started from small beginnings. Our initial proposal was for a simple walkers’ path from Ayr to Dunure. However, this quickly grew to extend south along Croy Beach to Culzean Castle. We then had the realisation it was virtually all beach walking from there to Girvan and, likewise, from Ayr to Largs. This left only the small matter of finding suitable routes from Girvan to Glenapp in the south, and from Largs to Skelmorlie in the north.
Much of the infrastructure for the path was already in place, but there was still lots of hard work needed. Our group of volunteers, mainly comprising fellow retired Rotarians, cleared 200 to 400 metre sections of thorny jungle and built two new beach access paths down steep escarpments between the heads of Ayr and Dunure. We also organised installation of 55 kissing gates, two small bridges, two causeway
‘Walkers on the path will encounter Bronze Age settlements, Roman camps, medieval castles...’
fords, short sections of fencing, 47 way marker posts and 430 way marker signs.
If you include essential detours to the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, Dundonald Castle Visitor Centre and Kilwinning Abbey, the overall length of the finished route is 100 miles. The diversity of its terrain reflects that of Scotland itself, with sea and seashore, cliffs, hills and moors, rivers and estuaries, woodlands and open pastures all to be found along the way.
All of these are home to their own bird species, so for birdwatchers it’s a brilliant place to walk. If it’s the basking sharks you’ve come for then you need to pick a calm day in late July or August. A couple of years ago I saw seven off Lendalfoot.
Coastal Ayrshire has numerous castles, including Culzean, Dunure, Ardstinchar, Turnberry, Greenan, Dundonald, Seagate, Ardrossan, Portencross and Kelburn. It’s also worth looking out for Sawney Bean’s Cave at Bennane Head and Tam o’ Shanter’s Auld Brig o’ Doon.
Along the path, walkers will encounter Bronze Age settlements, Roman camps, Iron Age duns, Norman mottes and medieval castles attacked by Vikings, visited by Mary, Queen of Scots, demolished by Cromwell, or rebuilt by Robert Adam.
It was our good fortune that the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 became law around the time of our project’s inception, greatly clarifying the rights and responsibilities of walkers and landowners. The crux of the Act is that walkers must be responsible at all times for their actions, and the safety of themselves and others. It was on this basis, and with the generous consent of farmers and landowners, that the Ayrshire Coastal Path was established.
The path is ten-years-old next year, but we’re constantly working to maintain and upgrade it. We get letters from the public letting us know if there’s a bit that needs sorted. The West Highland Way is part of the Loch Lomond National Park so they can dip into a budget of about £1.5 million – our route is run by Ayr Rotary Club with a budget of £1,500 a year to maintain 100 miles of path. A team of young full-time rangers is out on the West Highland Way all the time, while I have a team of 15 retired Rotary Club members, but we’re fit and go out a few times every week. And what better place to work, with those views across to Arran...
Talking of which, walking on Arran is equally stimulating, especially if you dare to tackle the long-distance path around it under the dominating silhouette of Goatfell.