out and about - 2016
10 September 2016 ............ Around the Garnock estuary
After the foul weather of the previous day, a beautiful morning with barely a cloud in the sky. Sadly, it didn`t last, a lot of high level cloud built up during the day.
However a good chance to get out and about - looking down Irvine harbour, this time in the sunshine -
Down the harbour a bit, and this wooden wharf has seen better days -
Just inland from the final exit of the river Garnock the river Irvine joins the river Garnock, and Irvine harbour is actually on the side of the river Irvine, rather than on the river Garnock. At this point it is of course tidal - this is looking up the river Irvine past the top end of the harbour.
The river Irvine curves around, and further upstream flows through the old town of Irvine - but before it gets to the town centre there is a weir which marks the end of the tidal section of the river.
One of the many cycle routes around Irvine goes right past the weir - the cycle route is shown on my OS map, and in theory it is well sign posted, but in practice I found it quite confusing, and difficult to know where you are supposed to be going.
The river was well swollen with all the rain, so the weir was looking quite meaty - I have kayaked down many weirs in my time, but I`m not sure that I would want to kayak down that one.
At this level there is a side drop, it might provide a better way down, but I am not sure if there is enough water.
A bit further along the cycle path. and you look down on the river as it heads away under the railway bridge. The confluence with the river Garnock is away round the far away bend in the river.
You can just see the Big Idea over the trees.
Back from my cycle run, and looking up the river Garnock from the harbour past the wharf on the north side of the Ardeer peninsula.
A closer view of the wharf -
Looking further down the harbour along to the bridge and the Big Idea -
Looking across from this side of the river, it is actually easier to see how the bridge worked - I thought it was telescopic, but in fact it is the whole of the far away side that slid in and out.
A couple of pictures of the wheels that it ran on -
Standing on the breakwater now, and looking out to the estuary - and there are some interesting shapes in the shore. When I was there I was trying to work out if they are natural or man-made - but it seems that they are the remains of "breastworks" - these were man-made projections out into the estuary - the estuary was prone to silting up at the sand bar across the estuary, and these breastworks were intended to reduce the silting - presumably by concentrating the tidal flow, and so speed it up.
Of course the breakwater is directly across from the south end of Ardeer beach, so this is looking away along the beach.
Lastly, I can`t miss it out - not the clearest of photographs, but a super view across to Arran.
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