that the crunching together of continents brings rocks from below the deep ocean floor right up to the surface. This has happened at two places in the UK – the Lizard in Cornwall and the Ayrshire coast between Girvan and Ballantrae.
One of the strange stones exposed is the pink Trondhjemite of Byne Hill. This is a primordial rock of the oceanic crust, formed at the mid-ocean ridge as the ocean on either side moved outwards. That rock is usually basalt, but can sometimes be Trondhjemite.
At Bonney’s Dyke, the turning point of this walk, appears a stone from even further down. It’s a gabbro, but with gabbro’s usual black crystals separated by a groundmass of off-white feldspar. This rock originally crystallised below the ocean floor. On the beach at Bonney’s Dyke are occasional dark, streaked pebbles, coloured greenish, reddish or yellow and slippery to the touch. This comes from even lower still. It’s the stone called serpentine (strictly, serpentinite), which is not from the earth’s crust at all but is from the next layer down, the mantle, 10km or more below the ocean floor.
The serpentinite rock forms cliffs at Balcreuchan Port, 5km south down the coast. It overhangs a cave once lurked in by the cannibal family of Sawney Bean.
Bonney’s Dyke to Pinbain Hill – the foreground rocks are speckled gabbro
Return alongside the A77 and up the grassy track. Once through the second gate, the track continues gravel surfaced, contouring below a mobile phone mast. The track crosses the steep hillside to Kilranny ruin. Here a kissing gate on the left lets walkers bypass the former farmyard and rejoin the track through another kissing gate beyond.
The track now runs gently downhill to sea level. Where it bends left across the green meadow of the raised beach (to the A77 just ahead), keep ahead (Ayrshire Coast Path waymark here, below strikingly folded greywacke rock). A rougher track passes along the inland edge of the raised beach. Just before Ardwell farm, turn down left to cross the A77 to a pathway signpost.
Follow the road verge for 300 metres, with folded greywacke rocks offering a very rugged alternative along the shoreline. As the road bends left it is possible to drop left onto the beach (unless the tide is fully in). Walk along the beach back to the walk start.
WALK 2
Ailsa Craig
| Start/Finish | Girvan harbour (NX 184 981) |
| Distance | 2.5km (1½ miles) |
| Ascent | 340m (1110ft) |
| Approx time | 2hrs |
| Terrain | Steep path |
| Max altitude | Ailsa Craig, 338m |
| Maps | Landranger 76 (Girvan); Explorer 317 (Ballantrae) |
| Public transport | Girvan station |
| Access | The author crossed with established boatman Mark McCrindle (www.ailsacraig.org.uk) |
| Parking | Street parking near harbour |
Ailsa Craig is the only island in the world with a variety of onion named after it. And just like an onion it can make you cry – not because of the awkward journey to Girvan and the slightly pricey boat trip, but because even if you extravagantly booked for 3 hours on the island, when it’s time for the boat you haven’t been there nearly long enough.
The boatman will take you right around the island before landing at the pier. Poisoning of the island’s rats has allowed the ground-nesting puffins to recover, while there have always been gulls, gannets and everything else that goes squawk and drops a splat onto the deck beside you. Bring binoculars and a splat-proof hat.
Ailsa Craig north end, with remains of a foghorn tower
The ascent of the island is straightforward, if strenuous. From the pier, head across the island’s small patch of level ground onto a path that slants steeply up left. It zigzags back right to reach the ruined Castle of Ailsa, perched a third of the way up the slope.
Gulls nest alongside the path as it slants up to the right, working up the eastern slope of the island then straight uphill to the trig point, with its magnificent view.
If the summit is in cloud, a compass bearing is useful to ensure you head down the correct slope. Directions other than east lead to a lot of seagulls and possibly a messy and dung-smeared death.
Return down the small path to the cottages near the pier.
A former tramway along the shoreline allows a strangely horizontal walk towards either of the massive abandoned foghorns seen from the cruise around the island.
WALK 3
Cairnsmore of Fleet
| Start/Finish | Cairnsmore Hill car park (NX 463 632) |
| Distance | 14.5km (9 miles) |
| Ascent | 750m (2500ft) |
| Approx time | 5¼hrs |
| Terrain | Hill path, rough grassy plateau and slope, moorland track |
| Max altitude | Cairnsmore of Fleet, 711m |
| Maps | Landranger 83 (Newton Stewart); Explorer 319 (Galloway S) |
| Public transport | Bus 500/X75 (Dumfries–Stranraer) stops at Palnure |
| Parking | Turn off A75 at Muirfad, 800 metres east of Palnure. The minor road bends left across a stream and between piers of a former rail bridge. Ahead 300 metres is a ‘P’ sign – parking is in the disused track on the right. |
Cairnsmore of Fleet is the southernmost 2000ft (600m) summit in Scotland, and its isolated position above the Solway Firth explains its wide views, and also the memorial to crashed aeroplanes at the summit. Cairnsmore is also a high-altitude bog of national importance. However, that area – with granite and peat as austere as Craignaw (Walk 6) – lies to the north of the summit. This gentler route is on comfortable grass, with a mysterious old path (perhaps formed by peat cutters) zigzagging up the wide slope above the lowlands of the Cree.
After the pleasant plateau wander, the descent is rather more rugged, with some granite boulder-fields to weave around. But at the slope foot another old track leads conveniently across the moor back to Cairnsmore farm.
