out and about - 2016
09 September 2016 ............ A very wet Irvine harbour
When I was around the Ayr harbour area in the morning, the weather was grey - but dry.
Just as I got back to my van, the rain started, and it didn`t stop for the next 6 or 7 hours - it was pretty wild.
I then spent an interesting afternoon trying to avoid the rain and strong wind - so a bit of a challenge to place my van so I could take pictures through the side window without the rain blowing in.
I headed up the coast a bit, and at this point I am out in front of the natural breakwater that protects Troon harbour - and a wet and windy view across to Lady Isle.
I also got some pictures of a very wet Irvine harbour - according to Wikipedia, Irvine harbour dates back to 1514 - so it is has a bit of a history.
Down at the far end of the harbour is a light tower - now it wasn`t a lighthouse - it was a tide height marker station.
During the day a number of balls were hung outside to indicate the tide height, and during the night a series of lights showed the tide height.
At some point in its life the signalling was done manually, and at some point in its life an automatic system was developed - known as an "Automatic Tide Marker Station" - and used a tank connected to the sea that had a float in it that drove the mechanism.
Wikipedia has quite a good description of how it worked, so there isn`t any point in me repeating it all here. It would have nice if I had known about it before I went away down to Ayrshire, I could maybe have got some more pictures.
It looks as if the building is being renovated now, and I think it is going to used by Coastwatch Scotland as one of their observation bases.
Another bit of history was the extensive use of Ardeer peninsula as a manufacturing site for explosives - there was a wharf that stretched out from the northeast side of the peninsula into the estuary of the river Garnock - you get quite a good view of it from the Irvine side of the estuary.
The last picture shows a much younger bit of history - just sixteen years old, but already looking tired - the bridge across to the Big Idea, with the front face of the Big Idea just showing beyond the trees.
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