Category: Heads of Ayr

Greenan Castle reflections

On the first weekend for months without any rain or sleet, we just had to pretend to be  real Glaswegians and head ‘doon the water’. We drove down to Ayr and wandered along the shore from Doonfoot to Greenan Castle and the Heads of Ayr on a magnificent day.

These are my favourite shots of the day (without one or both of my two girls in it), with Greenan Castle reflecting in the waters left behind by the tide. I just cannot make up my mind which one works better, the square or the portrait format. What do you think?

Chasing reflections

What else to do than go ‘Doon the Water’ on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

We drove down to Doonfoot and wandered along the beach to Greenan Castle and the Heads of Ayr. I found the perfect spot for a shot of the castle with the reflections in the still water left behind with low tide. Nearly the perfect landscape shot, but Lola had other ideas and decided to pose for the camera.

Eventually, I got the shot I wanted, without Lola and any walkers, as you can see in my next post. This post is all about Lola who enjoyed the afternoon’s wander immensely, and nothing was more fun than run back and forwards between Lynn and I, splashing through the water.

Ayr and Greenan Castle

On Sunday afternoon we headed to Ayr for a wander through it’s old town, along the promenade and beech, hopefully ending up with some time to chill on the beach in the end. Although it was fairly windy, it was sunny and warm, so we had a very pleasant stroll along the promenade, to the old dry dock and back through the old town.

In the old dry dock, we stumbled upon an old fishing boat called the Watchful, an iconic symbol of the glory days of Clyde coastal fishing. The vessel was restored to it’s original state with the help of West Coast Marine and ‘volunteers’ from the Community Service Rehabilitation Programme.

During our wander through the old town of Ayr, we came across some wonderful old houses and St. John’s Tower, the towering remnants of a once proud church that stuck it’s feet in the ground in the 13th Century. In fact, St John’s Tower is the oldest surviving building in the Town of Ayr and was restored in 1914 to it’s full glory by Lord Bute.

Eventually we ended up on the beech close to the where the River Doon enters the sea. A wonderful position with views across the beachfrom South to North, from Greenan Castle and the Heads of Ayr to Arran. While Lynn stuck her head in the newspapers, Lola and I ventured onto the flats for some photography. I haven’t had much chance recently, but a wonderful opportunity calling for use of my tilt and shift lens and polarising/graduated filters.