The sea was as flat as the proverbial mill pond on Sunday so we took the opportunity to get out in the kayaks for a trip along the coast towards Brighouse Bay.
Looking across to the Galloway Hills. Cairnharrow is on the left and Cairnsmore of Fleet is the bigger one further back to the right. You can also see the “Coo Palace” (Corseyard Dairy) with its distinctive water tower on the shore to the right of Gabrielle. Click on the picture to get a bigger version.
Paddling back across Kirkandrews Bay towards Craig Cottage.
We were also treated to a very colourful sunset later in the evening.
Monthly Archives: October 2014
Blackberry Pie
It’s been a good season for blackberries this year. The local hedgerows have been producing lots of berries for a few weeks and there were still quite a few last weekend as we walked down the road from Borgue. Some have now found a home in the freezer but the best way to enjoy them is in a pie. Here are a couple of pictures of Sunday’s pie – a magnificent specimen.
Full up with juicy fruit – yum!
Kirroughtree
Kirroughtree is an area in the Galloway Forest Park near Newton Stewart. It is part of the 7 Stanes mountain biking areas and also has walking trails and a new, well-equipped visitor centre. We took Betty there for a look around some of the hiking trails. After an initial thrash around in the woods we eventually found our bearings and worked out how to read the trail map. The recent damp weather seems to have brought out some good fungus specimens including this one on the side of a tree.
One of the trails follows the course of a lade that was used to deliver water to power lead mining activities back in the 1800s.
Just off the trail in the woods there is a set of four Rosnes Benches. We are working our way through discovering all of the locations for these benches which are positioned in out-of-the-way locations throughout the Galloway Forest Park area.
Each of the 7 Stanes mountain bike areas has a stone (stane) carving. This is the one from Kirroughtree, called the Gem Stane. It sits by the Bruntis Loch and is carved from a 1.75 ton chunk of Scottish pink quartz.
The trails have some interesting bridges under and over them. This one is next to the Gem Stane.
And this bridge, in the form of giant bicycle wheels, takes the bike trails over the hiking trails just by the visitor centre.