Walk 149

That Bridge..........

Troon to Largs 31miles

Yes it does say 31miles.....there are two reasons for this silly amount of mileage 1) BNB owner cancelling my reservation in Fairlie 2 days beforehand and 2) a bridge that no longer exists at Irvine!!!

Today started with a lovely walk along the seafront in Troon with and equally lovely walk along a 4 mile sandy beach all the way to Irvine bay. I had decided to take off my shoes and socks to walk along this beach which was really nice, however halfway across I was bitten by something (sandfly maybe) and my foot started to hurt, I carried on regardless and made my way to the bridge that I hoped to cross at Irvine.

Ardrossan Beach

The bridge at Irvine was put in place to give access to the Science Park on the other side of the river Garnock, but unfortunately the Science Park went bust two years ago and some bright spark decided to take the middle out of the bridge so now no one can get across the river, this added 4 miles onto my already long day! so I had to follow the cycle route inland which eventually takes you through Stevenston and then on through Saltcoats and eventually arriving in Ardrossan.  At Ardossan you are able to get a ferry across to Cambletown.......now I'm using ferries where possible on my walk around the coast but I think this one would be a step too far!!!!!!

Arran and Millport

I stopped in Ardrossan for lunch by their marina which was nice and then I started on the main task of the day which was walking along yet another busy road, however lucky for me there was a footpath which took me all the way through to West Kilbride.  I picked up two new neighbours today in the form of the Isle of Arran and the Isle of Millport, it was nice to watch the little ferries come and go to these islands chugging there way across the bay.  Just after West kilbride I was able to take a back road to Cambleton passing by the lovely Hunterston House, this took me onto the big Iron Ore terminal at Fairle which is where my walk should have concluded today but alas I had to walk and extra 3 miles to Largs for my nights BNB.  Largs is really nice and vibrant and in the evening sunshine is was just a treat to sit and watch the world go by.

Largs Needle