Dalbeattie

We arrived at the Fairgirth Farm CL at midday, and the owner pointed us in the direction of the site. 5 hard standing pitches in a small field at the bottom of the farm, no-one was here so we had the pick of the bunch!  We popped into Dalbeattie where we found a bike shop, Phil went in to see if they had a chainring, no joy.  Then we found a great butcher shop where we got some sausage, mince and chicken stir fry, mmmmm! 

Phil was up at 8.30 the next day to go and ride the trails at Dalbeattie.  There had been quite a sharp overnight frost and everything outside the ‘van was white, it looked lovely as the sun was just coming up. Just a short ride out of the campsite gets you into the forest and I soon picked up the 7 Stanes trail signs.  The red track is very entertaining, with lots of rocky stuff and board riding to keep it interesting, it is the short black sections that are the real thrills though. The Slab, The Terrible Twins and
Volunteer Ridge are all steep, rocky and technical and keep you on your toes.  Once Phil was back we headed out in Tonks with a stop at Castle Douglas at the bike shop to try and get a new chainring, failed.  So we carried on down the road to The Threave Estate.  Owned by the National Trust, the Estate has 64 acres of garden and woodland as well as the 14^th century baronial house, of which they offer guided tours.  We hadn’t realised that the house was by guided tour only and had missed the last tour – boo! So we just ambled around the gardens, taking in some of the sculptures and fountains as well as the large walled garden, which had some huge Victorian replica glasshouses within the walls.  The autumn colours within the garden were lovely, with the trees all turning different shades of orange, yellow and brown.  We then went back to the car and got the dogs out for a walk. As recommended by the reception staff we followed the estate walk out across the fields and over to the River Dee, where we came to Threave Castle which sits in the river on its own little island.  The 14^th century castle was built by Archibald the Grim, Lord of Galloway, and was the stronghold of the Black Douglas’, who also owned the Threave house and estate. Because of its location you can only access the castle by boat, and even have to ring the bell at the jetty to call the custodian to come and take you across the river!  Dogs weren’t allowed on the boat so we decided not to bother this time. We followed our steps back and continued our walk back to Tonks, where we headed back to Castle Douglas to try and find the brewery. We parked on the main street and after some searching found it down a tiny alley.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a busy bar, it was just about to close so we dashed inside for a pint of their ale, as well as buying a few bottles for the road! 

Linda had a hair appointment today, so we got ready and Phil dropped her in Dalbeattie.  From here Linda got a bus to Castle Douglas and Phil went in the opposite direction to ride the 7 Stanes track at Mabie forest.  When he got there Phil took the dogs for a walk in the forest, following the brown waymarkers on a circular route, then went to the bike shop there on another failed attempt to get a new chainring, this is getting silly!  Had lunch before setting off on the 18km red route, a good fun ride with loads of singletrack, it would have been even better if I didn’t have to do the whole thing in the granny ring!   Back to Castle Douglas to pick Linda up, I took the dogs for a walk through the town to the Loch at the other end, and then found a café by the hairdresser where I sat outside with a coffee and enjoyed watching the world go by.

Linda was in the hairdressers for 3.5 hours altogether (no wonder I don’t like going!) and was surprised to step outside and find Phil sitting next door having coffee! Still, it was nice to have a lift home and not need to catch a bus.

Kirkcudbright (pronounced Kir Coo Brie), is known as Scotland’s artists’ town.  We parked up in one of the town’s main streets alongside

a row of colourful houses which is typical of the town, and looks really effective.  First we had a walk with the dogs to the harbour where we watched one of the fishing vessels coming in and mooring up.  We also passed MacLellan’s Castle, the ruin of a 16^th century noblemans residence which dominates the town and is now in the care of Historic Scotland, unfortunately closed during our visit.  We put the dogs in the car and headed for the National Trust owned Broughton House.  It is an 18^th century town house which was owned by the artist EA Hornel one of the “Glasgow Boys” and a renowned Scottish Colourist.  The house is impressive to look around, but it is the studio and the gallery that are really impressive, with the gallery being set in a huge room, deceptively big for the outside of the house, displaying an array of Hornel’s later works.  The house is followed up with a great walk around the garden, only a small town garden but there is a lot to see in there, including the resident cat who is very friendly!   Before lunch we popped into a sandwich bar to get some hot chocolate, it looked too good to drink, topped with cream, marshmallows and a flake – a bargain at £1.20 each! Afterwards we headed down the road to the Tollbooth Arts Centre, a gallery and information centre which is housed in the town’s former tax office and jail. The gallery was filled with mainly local artists’ works which included drawings, paintings and photographs and we both picked out our favourites of the bunch.  We also watched a short film giving a history of the town and its links with famous artists over the years.  We also had a look at the Harbour Cottage Gallery a famous gallery in the area, but due to a £1 charge to get in we opted to save our pennies for a pint in the Masonic instead!  We even had a game of Pac Man which was built into our table, a much more intellectual use of our time I think you’ll agree!  Afterwards we set off for the return journey, stopping to take a photo of the Wicker Man, who stands in a field on the site of the annual Wicker Man Festival, a large event dubbed “Scotland’s alternative music festival”.  We also stopped at the Dalbeattie Town Wood where we took the dogs for a short walk around the Plantain Loch and Prince managed to get very muddy which made him very happy!

We were going to go on a long walk the next day. It had been raining all night, and continued to do so on our walk to the bus stop, so much so that when we got there we decided to turn round and walk straight back to the ‘van!  So then we set off in Tonks with the bike on the roof for Ae forest, another of the 7 stanes bike routes.  On the way we stopped at a bike shop in Dumfries to get a chainring, failed again.  When we got to the forest car park there was also a bike shop there, but they didn’t have any chainrings either, aarrgghh!  Phil rode the Red route in the granny ring, a 16 mile ride which had some great singletrack and a really long section of boardwalk that made my eyes go funny! I also incorporated a run down the Downhill track in the ride which was the most fun part of the day!  Linda’s walk was a 5 mile route which roughly followed the path of the river Ae, but included a bit of off piste walking when she ran out of path!  That evening we walked down the road to the nearby pub for our tea.  Phil opted for the butterfly chicken and chips and Linda had haddock and chips. While we were there Phil booked himself on a whisky tasting session for the next night, only £10 and you get to try 6 whiskies!

We awoke to glorious sunshine and a thick frost, so much so all our water was frozen!  The weather was so nice we set off happily for our 8 mile walk, first was the walk down the road to the bus stop in Sandyhills.  We were a bit early so Linda went in the shop and bought a paper, they kindly said she could pick it up from
the house later so we didn’t have to carry it round. When the bus turned up it had the grumpiest driver ever, when we asked if the dogs were ok on board he grunted that they mustn’t disturb the other passengers. We looked down the length of the 40 seater, and could see there was not a single soul on board!  He drove like the clappers all the way to Kippford, including nearly running a campervan off the road, we were glad to get off in the village!  Kippford is a lovely little place, with a number of houses huddled round the bay and a small harbour at one end, we called into the shop at the other end and had a hot chocolate and a biccy each.  Walking along the footpath towards Rockcliff we were passing some lovely glass fronted houses which all enjoyed views over the Rough Firth. All the beaches on the way were made up of shells, from a distance they looked like white sand, and it wasn’t until we got up close that we could see they were made up of millions of unbroken shells!  We walked up through the National Trust owned Motte of Mark, the site of a seventh century fort - it was a great spot for a picnic so we found a bench and parked up for half an hour.  Rockcliffe is a slightly smaller village than Kippford, but just as picturesque, with lots of lovely looking houses, and very popular with tourists, there was lots of people about, so we didn’t stop here for long and continued our walk along the

coast.  We got to CastleHill point just as a group of people were leaving, so had it to ourselves for a brief while. As it was so clear the views were great, and we could see the Robin Rigg windfarm and the mountains of the Lake District behind it. Looking further out to sea we could see all the way over to the Isle of Man, as well as more of the Galloway coast.  We were soon joined by another pack of people, so we decided to continue along the cliff top path. After going over a couple of walls with styles we met a couple of elderly ladies who were making their way slowly towards us, they asked if we could give them a hand over the wall we had just crossed, so we walked slowly back with them, and helped them on their way. One of them said she had just had a new knee, and was very pleased with how it was performing, we couldn’t believe the

terrain they had covered on the cliff top paths!  The hedges along this stretch of the path were very strange due to the way the wind had blown them, we came across one extreme example where the hedge had grown up the wall and then been blown so much it looked like it was reaching out into the field, trying to grab the cows! Further along we came across a monument, a cairn with a cross on top to remember the Schooner Elbe, a ship which came to grief in heavy gales in 1866, the captain Samuel Wilson managed to offload the crew onto a rock before she sank into deep water. Further on we passed through the tiny hamlets of Port O’Warren and Portling before reaching Sandyhills Bay to retrieve Linda’s paper.  With tired legs we walked back to the ‘van for our tea.  Phil took down the awning, and was entertained by a group of quad bike riders tearing round the adjacent fields doing wheelies, stoppies and tilting the bikes on one side and riding on two wheels!  Then we went down to the pub where Phil had his whisky tasting, a really interesting experience, which had the delightful result of making him quite drunk too!

Garlieston - with visitor!

On arrival at Garlieston CC site the relief warden recognised us from our visit to Melrose in June!  The Garlieston site is a lovely lochside site right next the quiet former fishing village.  Phil found a perfect spot for practicing some unicycling, the bridge over the burn had a hand rail on either side, so he was doing that for around an hour before tea!

First stop the next day was Aldi! We got some groceries and Phil bought a waterproof biking jacket for £20! After that we headed west, with a detour off the main road to Luce Sands, we drove down a little lane to a picnic spot and had our picnic sat on a bench, then took the dogs on the small beach for a bit of play. We then got back in the car and drove a bit further round to Torrs Warren, a small patch of woodland just inland of Luce Sands where there is a forestry car park. We had a walk through the woods where there were lots of bits of rubbish (bottletops and bottles) hanging in the trees, no signs to tell us why though.  The huge sands and sand dunes themselves are actually out of bounds due to military activity, as we found out when we got to the edge of the woods and spotted an MOD sign, so we trod carefully on the way back, making sure not to tread on any shiny metal things!  We got back to Tonks and drove on to the village of Portpatrick, a small fishing village that now has a new industry in tourism, with a huge hotel at the top of the hill and lots of small ones within the village.  We had a look around the harbour (where we read in the local paper that a boat was sunk a few days before, apparently deliberate..) and walked up the cliff path for a great view over the village.  Then it was off to Stranraer as the local paper had told us of an award winning butcher.  We drove round the town, another typical port which we have become accustomed to (there is 2 ferry companies operating from here), and after a brief stop we found the butchers. It was great, with lots of selection and advice from the staff!  We carried on up the coast until we reached Corsewall Point the northernmost tip of The Rhins where there is a lighthouse that has been converted into a hotel.  We parked up and went in for a beer, a bottled beer turned out to be £4.60 so we settled for tea for two at a much more reasonable £3! 

We set off for Kiroughtree the next day, one of the 7 Stanes bike routes which has walks and a visitor centre so we were all going to be happy!  Linda and the dogs did 2 walks, both very quiet through lovely woods and by the side of a small loch, with no other walkers around, one 2.5 miles and then back to the car for lunch, then the next walk was 1.5 miles and by the time we were back at the car and had a drink Phil was back from his ride. The Kiroughtree black and red route is great fun with lots of variation on the route, from wooden board riding to singletracks, jumps, drops berms and a feature called ‘McMoab’ a section where riders are taken over huge sections of rock which bulge out of the ground like giant slugs! Then on to the visitor centre for well earned hot chocolate and cake – both cakes were far too sickly and we both left some – imagine that!!!

Gav arrived at around 9:30 that evening, so we had our tea, Phil and Gav had a beer and several large measures of whisky before bed!

We awoke to glorious sunshine, and so we set off on a walk from the site.  The 7 mile walk took us past

Galloway house and out onto Rigg Bay, where we walked across the sand, and saw the remains of a WW2 ‘Hippo’ being lapped by the water.  Rigg bay, along with Garlieston Bay was used by the navy to practice using the ‘Mulberry’ floating harbours in preparation for the D-day landings in 1944.  The Hippo, a part of the harbour structure, was found to be an unsuccessful method of supporting the temporary road spans, and was abandoned.   We continued along the coastal path until we reached Cruggleton Point, where the cliffs rise up out of the sea, and you can see the small remains of an arch which was once a castle keep. When we were there it was surrounded in scaffolding as Scottish Heritage are doing some preservation work on the structure. We sat on top of the cliffs and had our picnic, looking out to sea we could see for miles, including the huge Robin Rigg off-shore windfarm (60 wind turbines which only became active in April 2010) and we could even see the faint outline of the Lake District mountains 40 miles away!  We re-traced our footsteps, stopping on the way to pick a load of sloes, ready for some sloe gin and vodka manufacture!  When we got to Galloway House we headed into the gardens where we had a wander around the lawns and pathways, eventually coming to the walled garden.  A bit of a disappointment inside in that it is now just one big lawned area, and looking very neglected.  There were some pear trees in the greenhouses though, which Linda couldn’t resist scrumping from! Across from the greenhouses were 2 baby pigs snuffling for some apples which had been dropped for them.  The route we took home passed by the front of the very impressive Galloway House, once the seat of the Earl of Galloway, built in 1742 and subsequently enlarged it is now owned by overseas owners and looking a little unloved to say the least.  Just before reaching the campsite we passed another set of pig houses, and spotted the owner coming round to feed them. We leaned on the fence for a bit and got chatting, he told us they were large blacks, and he had a litter of them only 3 weeks ago, and already they had been sold on to breeders!  The unlucky pair in front of us were unfortunately heading for the bacon factory in a few months, but they were having a great time in the meantime!  Back at the ‘van we had a brew before going onto the campsite bridge for a play with the unicycle. Gav’s attempts at staying on the thing made Linda laugh so much she nearly wet herself!  After a short while we tired of that and Phil and Gav went for a walk out into the bay, paddling in the freezing cold sea and throwing skimming stones for Prince to chase.  After showers we donned our glad rags and went to the nearby Harbour Inn for some food, good old fashioned pub grub gave way to a few pints in the bar, watching an assortment of locals from large to small, scruffy and smelly to dolled up for a night out, one chap even brought in his crazy Labrador which wreaked havoc! 

Up early, we had breakfast, got ready and headed off to Glentrool in Galloway Forest Park.  We wanted to do a walk with Gav before he had to set off for the long drive home, so we chose a 5 mile route that took us through the forest and out to Loch Trool before heading back

along Trool Water to the car park.  Prince got dunked in the river a few times by Linda and we had a great walk amongst all the autumn trees.  We had a look in the visitor centre which was very quiet and had our picnic sat on a bench outside, then had to wave Gav off so that he could make it home in the daylight.  We then got the bikes off the car and set off on the 6km ‘Green’ mountain bike route, the bumpy terrain and the loose rocky descents scared Linda to death, and she was heard to holler “Where’s my Mummy?” on one of the descents!  She made it back to the car park in one piece, much to everyone’s relief, and we set off home.  Back at the ‘van Phil was out for more unicycle practice, for the first time managing to leave the safety of the bridge and pedal off down the site!  

The next day we set out in Tonks for Wigtown, Scotland’s ‘book town’.  It is a very quaint little village and reminded us of some in England with its large square in the middle with car parking all around it.  There are a lot of bookshops, hence the name, but we didn’t go in as Linda had to refrain from buying before her birthday!  Instead we made do with a look around the information centre, which had a display on Wigtown and an Osprey centre (due to the nest which is nearby).   Back at the ‘van Phil went out on the unicycle again, making the most of the site’s great unicycle facilities inbetween the showers of rain, this time managing to get all the way around the site!  (Roy - Does this mean I beat you?!)  (Gav - you have to get one!!)

Ayr - with visitors!

Before moving to Ayr we saw the Google street view car which drove past with its 360degree camera on the roof, we’ll keep our eye on Google to see if we appear in the photo! Our first impression of Ayr is that it’s a nice seaside resort but a bit let down by the number of down and outs that seem so be scraping their knuckles around the streets! This proved to be pretty accurate during our stay..

We went into town on the first day, and after a wander around got some lunch from Greggs and sat on a bench to eat. It was a great place to watch the circus of Ayr’s locals, including a guy shouting and swearing at someone on his mobile phone and a lady who we swear was doing some very dodgy dealing! Later on, after Mum and Ian arrived we walked with the dogs to meet them at their hotel, on the way we back were accosted by a creature of the night who had just come out of the pub, dressed all in black with smeared eyeliner and a drunken sway she told us that she had a German Shepherd once and said something undecipherable about Prince! After that she staggered off down the street, looking for the next person to leer at!

The next day we parked up at the hotel and set off for a walk, first to the beach then along the promenade until we came to the harbour wall, we walked to the end where there was a fisherman watching his 2 rods which were doing nothing much at all, he hadn’t caught a thing. We spotted a range of birds out on the other harbour wall, the harbour is largely disused now, but there was a bit of industry going on over the other side, scrap metal, coal and even some huge wind turbine blades were sat on the side of the dock. We continued our walk and headed back to the hotel. Just by the hotel is an old church tower called St John’s Tower, the church is long gone and the tower is all that remains. Very well preserved it is one of Ayr’s oldest surviving buildings and dates back to 1300 and was even used as Scotland’s first parliamentary building at one stage.  

In the afternoon we set out for the Robert Burns memorial park, just outside Ayr. It is National Trust and includes Robert Burns’ birthplace, the Burns memorial and a large new museum. We started with the house in which he was born, a long thatched property which had room for cattle as well as a living room and a kitchen, it also has a well looked after garden that probably looks much better now than when Burns lived there! A little way down the road we went to the new Burns museum, which we found wasn’t open until December, but they had a café, so we sat outside and ordered paninis for lunch. A man came and told us off for having dogs on the premises, but we weren’t for moving as we’d ordered food so he let us be. After lunch we went into the memorial park where there are more gardens and a large memorial which you can go inside and up a set of stairs for a better view of the garden.

We also went to the medieval Brig ‘o Doon an old cart bridge which spans the river Doon and featured in one of Burns’ famous poems, as was the Alloway Auld Kirk, a tumbledown church just round the corner from the bridge which is also the burial ground of Burns’ parents. After all that history we decided it was time to head back to Ayr and go for a play on the beach, so we parked by the hotel and set off for the sand. The dogs had a great time, and even little Ben was running around like a spring chicken (he turned 16 this year, which is incredible for a little dog!). That evening we ate at an Indian restaurant, Linda had the inspired idea of asking a couple of local girls and they recommended The Kashmir just up the road. It turned out to be a great recommendation as we all had a lovely curry!

We were mildly hung over this morning, so postponed our meeting time to 10:30! Once we were sorted we picked up Mum and Ian and headed out for Culzean Castle. On the way there we had a stop at the phenomena called ‘Electric Brae’ it’s a short section of road on the A719 which has an optical illusion where the road appears to be going uphill, but is actually downhill. We weren’t really sure whether to believe it, but there was no traffic behind so I flicked on the hazards, stopped the car in the road and put it in neutral, we were all convinced that the car was facing downhill, but as I let the brakes off the car slowly started rolling backwards, seemingly being drawn up the hill! We were all very impressed, and we saw a couple of other cars doing the same thing while we were there.

Anyway, we soon decided to carry on and drove to the Culzean Castle car park. First we walked the dogs in the country park, ending up at a huge walled garden with an astonishing variety of different plants, including veg patches, flower gardens, vines, a huge rockery and even a floating hedge! On the way back to the car we met a lady on a huge horse called Robbie, so we stopped and had a chat with her for a bit. We then went over to the castle where we went inside and had a look around all the very grand public rooms, the entrance is an armoury with one of the biggest collections of pistols and swords in the UK all arranged in amazing patterns on the walls. The main oval staircase is also very striking and is the centrepiece of the castle.

We headed over to the old stables where there is a café so we had our lunch there before carrying on down to the gas factory. This is where the

gas was produced to be used for light and heat in the castle. Coal was heated until it gave off the gas which was then refined and piped up to the castle. We ended up at the visitor centre courtyard so we had a look around at what was there including a craft fayre. Linda was very taken with some glass necklaces and after the lady has explained how she made them she had to have one (or two!). We went back to the car and got the dogs out and took them for another walk this time ending up at the Swan Pond, there was a kiosk there so we all had ice cream. Back at the car we headed back to Ayr, with another brief stop at the electric brae to try freewheeling up the hill again!

The next day Mum and Ian came over to collect Ben for the journey home, we reluctantly gave them Ben back and waved them off. In the afternoon we went to homebase where we bought some builders foam filler, the shower tray in the ‘van had cracked again as it is unsupported, so we drilled a few holes in it and filled it with the hard setting foam, the joys of owning a written-off ‘van!. That evening we went over to visit Roy and Julie with the Airstream (we had previously seen the 'van at the Morvich site a few weeks ago), Linda met Julie the day before and said she’d always wanted to see inside an Airstream! We went in for a brew and a blather, they told us they had recently retired and were now thinking of touring Europe for the next few years! Roy is into his mountain biking and skiing, so we had plenty to talk about!

Loch Lomond and Glasgow

On the way to the Loch Lomond Balmaha Camping and Caravan Club site we nearly ran out of fuel, we always forget we can’t get in little petrol stations with the ‘van on the back!  We had to ditch the ‘van in a forestry entrance and go in search for diesel in nearby Callander.  When we were fuelled up and arrived at Balmaha  the site was lovely and they gave us a lochside pitch, straight away we chatted to our next door neighbours who were at the end of a weeks holiday from Edinburgh where he works for RBS, they had an inflatable canoe which looked loads of fun!

Woke up to heavy rain, so we donned our full waterproofs and took the dogs for a walk along the West Highland Way  heading towards Balmaha alongside Loch Lomond, we walked for just over a mile when Prince hurt his foot on the little stones on the beach.  We decided to head back and Prince was a hoppy spadge all the way, we think he was putting it on though because by tea time he was fine!  

We went out to The Hill House at Helensburgh which is a National Trust for Scotland property and was designed by architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It is deemed to be one of the best examples of Mackintosh’s style with strikingly modern interiors, and even the furnishings were  designed by the architect. It was built for the Blackie family who ran a publishing house in Glasgow. Work commenced on the house in 1902, and was finished by 1904.  It was lovely with a really dark woodpanelled hallway leading into a lovely light drawing room with stencilled walls and angular metal light fittings.  The dining room was again dark wood and then upstairs there was a very modern for its day power shower with side jets!  The main ladies bedroom was lovely and again, very light and pretty.

Up early the next day for our big day up Ben Lomond. We drove to the car park and set off to the summit, a climb of over 3,000 feet.  The route we took is the main tourist route and because it was a weekend it was pretty busy as we set on our way (a lady in the pub later told us that at weekends the path can feel like Sauchiehall Street, which is Glasgow’s main shopping street!).  The track is pretty steep right from the start and it wasn’t too long before we had a great view over Loch Lomond.  A bit further up the rain was just arriving and we swiftly broke out our waterproof trousers. As we walked up into the clouds the rain became heavier and started falling sideways as the winds got stronger, just as we were getting fed up with the cold and wet we saw the trig point at the top.  Surprisingly the wind and rain eased off up here, and we had a chat with a couple who arrived just after us, they were from Dumfries and this was their first time

up Ben Lomond too, we took their photo as they had forgotten their camera and gave them some of our coffee to warm up!  On the way down the wind howled and rain lashed again until we got off the ridge, we got a bit drenched but were still passing lots of people who were heading up.  We spotted some litter on the way down and started picking bits up, and by the time we got back to the car both our hands were full and even Prince was carrying a plastic bottle.  Rubbish.  That evening we relaxed for a bit before going into Drymen for something to eat.  We ended up at The Clachan Inn, a tiny pub in the centre of the village, and one of the oldest registered licenced pubs in Scotland. It was registered in 1794, and it looks more like a bungalow than a pub! While waiting for our food we got chatting to a couple in the bar, the lady was very animated and loved to talk, while her fella was quiet and shy.  He was into bird watching and had even written a few books, she was a cook who mainly cooked for groups on fishing holidays at the nearby lodge.  She was also an avid CAMRA member, and had campaigned for this pub to be in the guide. We had a lovely meal after our hard day, finished off with a wee dram of Lagavulin!

Before we left we went out to Aberfoyle which is a small village recommended as a good place to visit by the Telegraph.  We parked up in the main car park and had a look round the large Scottish Wool gift shop, most of the other shops were antiques shops and tourist shops, so we just skipped past those and left them to the other Telegraph readers!.  Up the road from the village is the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, a vast forestry commission woodland that has all sorts of activities available as well as a forest drive.  We parked in the car park and took the dogs on one of the walks that took us to the Little Fawn Waterfall, given all the rain we have had lately it was a bit bigger than it’s name suggests!  We had a look at the visitor centre before heading back home to take down the awning ready for tomorrows move.

Lovely sunshine when we woke up today.  Yet again, on the way to the little CL by Beith just south of Glasgow, we nearly ran out of fuel- must be the week for it, eventually a lorry driver pointed us in the right direction of a petrol station just before the Erskine Bridge!  We carried on and found the CL which is on a farm down a narrow lane.  The ¼ acre field had one campervan on it, but was looking a little boggy and cut-up, luckily Tonks made easy work of it and we were soon set up and having a brew and lunch.  Afterwards we went out to explore, and after a few closed roads and diversions we ended up at the seaside town of Largs.  A nice little town with a busy little port where the ferry to the tiny island of Great Cumbrae comes and goes every 15 minutes.  We had a walk along the promenade before going into town and doing a spot of shopping. Back on the sea front again the weather was turning for the worse, with strengthening winds and the threat of rain we could see the ferry swaying more and more as it made the crossing.  We got a giant tub of ice cream each from an Nardini’s Italian style glaciere before running back to the safety of Tonks to enjoy them, yum yum!

Our neighbours in the small campervan were up early, but unfortunately for them they got stuck in the mud as they tried to exit the field! He asked Phil if we could use Tonks to give him a tow, which we happily did, Tonks to the rescue again!  After our heroics we set off for Glasgow.  We had researched car parks the night before, so we tapped the postcode of a city centre car park into the sat nav and found it no problem- a bargain at 60p an hour. From here we went for a walk round the city centre, starting with Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow’s main shopping street which is over 1.5 miles long.  On to the School of Art’s Mackintosh Building, which is one of Charles Mackintosh’s iconic buildings, we had a walk around the outside and continued on to the Tenement House.  This is a 19^th century furnished historic house which is now in the care of the National Trust, the
whole building would have been divided into 8 flats which were called

tenement houses not flats. We took it in turns to go in and have a fascinating look at what life in the city over 100 years ago. The house has a completely original interior including the cast iron range and the box-beds built into the walls, as well as an inside bathroom which was very luxurious for its day. The 4 room flat would typically house a 10 member family!  It was owned by a coal merchant who bought it from a struggling builder and he rented the entire house out to 8 families. The lady who rented these rooms was a Miss Toward who was a shorthand typist in a shipping firm and as such would have been considered quite wealthy at the time. She originally moved in with her mother ,who was a dressmaker,  in 1911 and after her mothers death she continued to live there alone. After we both had a look we continued our walk to the banks of the river Clyde which we followed until we reached the rail crossing where we turned back into the city centre past the huge Central station and back to the car park. 

We drove out of the centre and parked up at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, a huge imposing red sandstone building built in the Spanish Baroque style in 1901.  The museum is Scotland’s most visited attraction and hosts over 8,000 objects which even includes a real Spitfire hanging from the rafters!  The hour and a half we had left until it closed was nowhere near enough to do it justice and we had to reluctantly leave when we heard the calls from the stewards.  We then took the dogs for a walk in the lovely Kelvingrove Park, an 85 acre park which straddles the River Kelvin, we had a lovely walk around the many paths which we shared with other dog walkers, cyclists and runners who had just finished work. We stopped for a while to watch a load of skaters and BMX riders at a skate park, one young lad who was no more than 10 years old was showing them all up on some in-line skates, doing front flips and 720’s off the concrete ramps! 

The next day we programmed the satnav for Pollok House and Country Park. When we got there we took the dogs for a walk along the river and past the Clydesdale horses that were in the stables.  We left the dogs in the car while we went into the house for a look round.  The house is still the ancestral home of the Maxwell family built in 1752 and only gifted to the National Trust in 1966, we saw most of the rooms, with only the top floor still being closed to the public as a private residence, first we saw the kitchens and servants quarters, then up to the hall and dining room, library, morning room and then upstairs to see bedrooms.  The staff were nice and friendly and told us lots of interesting snippets about the house, but as we got upstairs a bus load of Italians turned up, so they were busy after that.  We went back down to the kitchens where we had a brew and a bit of cake each! We drove round to the car park for the Burrell

Collection, and after letting the dogs out for a run headed inside. Sir William Burrell was a wealthy ship owner and owing to his travels all over the world amassed a fascinating collection of over 9,000 pieces. He gifted them to the City of Glasgow in 1944, and they are now housed in a specifically built gallery which is free to enter. It is an amazing collection of all sorts of items including complete stone doorways and window arches, fully furnished rooms, decorated ceilings, ornately embroidered clothing, Chinese sculpture, ancient egyptian mummies, paintings, armoury, and on and on… It was a fascinating place, and highly recommended to anyone coming to the Glasgow area.  We were in there until we got chucked out, and then went back to the car to take the dogs for a walk.  We took them round the other end of the Park this time, taking in one of the ‘extreme’ mountain bike tracks they had on offer.. Only a mile long, and the puddles were about the only ‘extreme’ feature, Phil was glad he hadn’t brought his bike specially!  Back at

the car we used satnav to guide us to Castelvecchi, a chip shop in Paisley which is owned by Paulo Nutini’s mum and dad. Unfortunately they weren’t there (I don’t think they ever are nowadays) but we ordered our take away and went off in the rain to find somewhere to eat it. In his haste Phil drove through a red light and got beeped at by a taxi driver, whoops!  On the way home we stopped in a car park at the Gleniffer Braes Country Park which had a fantastic view over the twinkling evening lights of Glasgow, and we could even see the lights of planes coming and going at the airport. 

We have now moved to a Caravan Club site in Ayr.