Ayrshire Coast Research Articles

‘That Little Sugarloaf Island’: Ailsa Craig, Romance, Reality and the Branding of Scottish Sport and Leisure, 1707–2013

This article examines the post-1707 history of Ailsa Craig, a small island off of the Ayrshire coast in the west of Scotland. The island was a site of tourism for Scots, and for English and other foreign travellers, who offered romantic depictions of what they saw as a uniquely Scottish natural landscape, inclusive of rare species of nesting seabirds. Of more relevance to the world of sport was that granite from Ailsa Craig comprised the majority of the world's curling stones. In terms of its imagery, the island was also used as both a selling point and narrative device by journalists covering British Open golf tournaments at nearby Turnberry. These uses both represented globally-transmitted ideas of what was represented as an ‘authentic’ Scottish sporting material culture. This article goes beyond these depictions, however, to examine the island as a food store and as a playground for its aristocratic owners, and to examine the quarrying ‘industry’ – both as a small-scale family affair, and later as a larger, even riskier venture. The place of Ailsa Craig in discourses on ‘Scottishness’ will be balanced against the difficulty of life on the islands, and concerns over the environmental damage done by man's presence there.

Robert Jameson on the Isle of Arran, 1797–1799: in search of Hutton's ‘Theory of the Earth’

Abstract The Isle of Arran lies off the Ayrshire coast in the Firth of Clyde, SW Scotland. James Hutton visited Arran in August 1787 with his companion, John Clerk, and together they made the first geological investigation of the island. Hutton returned to Edinburgh satisfied that he had at last found the critical field evidence he had been searching for in support of his ‘Theory of the Earth’. In June 1797, ten years after Hutton's first survey of Arran, Robert Jameson arrived on the island to investigate its geology and mineralogy. Jameson was still only 22 but had already become one of Hutton's most ardent critics. The previous year he had read two papers to the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh refuting critical elements of Hutton's ‘Theory’. Based at Kilmichael, near Brodick, on the east coast, Jameson spent most of June, July and August systematically exploring Arran entirely on foot. On returning to Edinburgh, he combined a narrative of his observations on Arran with an earlier trip to his parents' native Shetland Islands, in what became the earliest published account of the geology of Arran; An Outline of the Mineralogy of the Shetland Islands, and of the Island of Arran (1798). Jameson returned to Arran for a second, shorter visit in August 1799 and subsequently published a second book, The Mineralogy of the Scottish Isles … (1800), which presented a revised and updated geological description of Arran. Jameson's handwritten journals for both his 1797 and 1799 tours of Arran survive. In this paper we draw on these first-hand accounts of Jameson's field observations and discuss them alongside his two subsequent books describing Arran's geology. The journals clearly show that Jameson was an acute observer in the field and consistently made his interpretations in accordance with Wernerian principles. Although he had read the published Volumes I and II of Hutton's ‘ Theory ’, it appears that he had not seen the unpublished Volume III manuscript prior to either tour. Nevertheless, Jameson's exploration of the island closely follows that of Hutton's and they visited many of the same field localities. Here, we use Jameson's Arran journals to retrace his field investigations and discuss them in the light of Hutton's previous work on the island and in relation to Jameson's own Wernerian views. The difference of approach and interpretation between the two in the field on Arran mirrors the wider conflict between Plutonists and Neptunists at this time.

Holocene relative sea level changes in a glacio-isostatic area: New data from south-west Scotland, United Kingdom

This paper contributes to knowledge of Holocene relative sea level change along the mainland Ayrshire coast and offshore Isle of Bute, SW Scotland, UK, where few such studies have previously been undertaken. Morphological studies (mapping and altitude survey), together with stratigraphical and biostratigraphical studies (pollen and diatom analyses and radiocarbon dating) disclose evidence for mid and late Holocene relative sea level changes. The Main Postglacial and Blairdrummond displaced shorelines, previously identified widely in mainland Scotland, are dated in the area at c. 6800 calibrated years (c. 6000 14C years) and c. 4200 calibrated years (c. 3800 14C years) BP respectively. This information is compared with previously published information for Scotland against the classical theoretical model of relative sea level change in areas of glacio-isostasy. For the mid and late Holocene, in conformity with the model, a falling sequence of relative sea level changes near the centre of uplift is replaced by a rising sequence towards the periphery, in which later shorelines overlap earlier ones. In particular, the Blairdrummond Shoreline, which overlaps the earlier Main Postglacial Shoreline, is identified as the highest Holocene shoreline over much of the coastline of Scotland.

Try, try, try again . . . and again.

Superficially there appears to be little in common between Janet Baum Director of the Department of Radiology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and the 14th Century King of the Scots Robert the Bruce. Yet although Janet freely admits that she had not heard of King Robert I (1274–1329) who ruled over Scotland from the declaration of his monarchy in March of 1306 until his death allegedly from leprosy in June of 1329 she shares the same philosophy of not capitulating in the face of defeat rejection or failure as exemplified by her battle with medical journals just over 30 years ago to publish the novel observation that oral contraceptives steroids (OCS) induce hepatic adenomas. Robert de Brus Earl of Carrick and 5th Lord Annandale was born of Norman and Celtic ancestry on July 11 1274 at Turnberry Castle on the Ayrshire coast in the west of the lowlands of Scotland. Although he was a grandson of a former claimant to the throne of Scotland Bruce wavered initially in his Scottish patriotism and even paid homage to the notorious “Hammer of the Scots” Edward I of England. (excerpt)

Auldhill, Portencross

Auldhill, on the Ayrshire coast of the Firth of Clyde, is a site with a very long history. Excavations were conducted there for a total of ten weeks in 1987, 1988 and 1989, and seven main phases were recognized, as follows:I the timber-framed fort occupied in the first millennium B.c.;II the iron age or early historic dun;III the timber castle of the twelfth-thirteenth centuries;IV the stone castle of the late thirteenth century;V the hall of the end of the thirteenth or early fourteenth century;VI the remodelled hall; andVII dismantlement and stone robbing of the site from the mid-fourteenth century. Significant finds from the prehistoric deposits include an antler cheek piece and cannel coal jewellery. The main objective of the excavations was to understand the use of the site as a lordly residence in the medieval period. An architectural analysis is offered of Portencross Castle, the fourteenth-century successor of Auldhill in an appendix.

The biology of harpacticoid copepods in the meiofauna of shallow subtidal sands

SynopisAn account is given of the benthic harpacticoid copepods of a medium grade subtidal sand at a depth of 8–5 m (below chart datum) off the Ayrshire coast at Hunterston. It is the first account of seasonal changes in subtidal harpacticoids in the Firth of Clyde.Most of the population is restricted to the top 1 cm layer of sand and this is considered to be related to food availability. There were considerable variations in total densities with largest numbers occurring in late June, as seawater temperatures increased rapidly towards the summer maxima.Two species examined in detail, Asellopsis hispida and Harpacticus flexus each had one distinct period of reproduction during the year. Gravid females appeared first during the coldest months (January and February) followed by large numbers of copepodites from late April to June, culminating in large numbers of adults in June. Adult males clasped female stages only in May and June, after the main period of egg production. It is thought that viable sperm is carried by the adult females for about six to seven months, supposedly until the next period of egg production the following year. Adults of Harpacticus flexus are thought to be an important source of food for juvenile and small fish, particularly during July.

The climate of the Estuary and Firth of Clyde

SynopsisThe climatic character of this particular shoreline environment is analysed with a major emphasis on the contrasts between the upper estuary and the Clyde coast. The relatively mild, dry and sunny conditions along much of the Ayrshire coast are described and explained, although attention is also drawn to the effects of smaller-scale variations in topography, especially on temperatures. Sea breeze mechanisms are identified and illustrated with reference to a specific event.

The benthos of the deeper sediments of the Firth of Clyde, with particular reference to organic enrichment

SynopisA general survey of the biomass of the benthic infauna of the Clyde Sea Area and the distribution and abundance of the dominant species throughout the area, based on data from surveys undertaken in 1972 and 1974, is described. Recent surveys of the distribution of species along a well-defined gradient of organic enrichment on the Garroch Head sewage sludge disposal grounds in the central Firth of Clyde are used comparatively to suggest that benthic populations in the inner sea lochs, Kilbrannan Sound and in areas along the Ayrshire coast are markedly enriched. It is suggested that this enrichment may be caused by a general eutrophication of the Clyde Sea Area enhancing the effects of localised carbon inputs from urban areas.

Migratory salmonids of the Estuary and Firth of Clyde

SynopsisThe paper describes the salmon and sea trout stocks of the rivers entering the sea via the Estuary and Firth of the Clyde including the Rivers Clyde, Leven, the Carts, the rivers of the Ayrshire coast and those entering via the sea lochs and from the Mull of Kintyre. Particular attention is paid to the recent return of salmonids to the Rivers Clyde and Cart, which have been denied to migratory species for over a century because of pollution in the upper Clyde Estuary. The changing environmental conditions, which have made the reappearance of migratory salmonids possible, are described and the future importance of the fishery assessed.

The population dynamics of O-group flatfish on nursery grounds in the Clyde Sea Area

The plaice, Pleuronectes platessa L., is the most commercially important flat-fish in the Clyde Sea Area. For midsummer (1 August), population estimates of 10–20 million O-group fish were derived. These fish were mainly distributed on fine sand in bays at depths of less than 3 m. Over 95% occurred in bays along the Ayrshire coast; Irvine and Ayr Bays were the most important nursery grounds. The mortality rate appeared to be of the order of 50% per month during the late summer and autumn but this was probably a considerable overestimate. Comparable data for the common dab (Limanda limanda L.) are provided. The benthic communities of the intertidal and shallow sublittoral zones which provided food for the flatfish were examined. The Ayrshire bays carried an extremely well developed Tellina tenuis da Costa community with abundant individuals, varied species diversity and high biomass. Irvine Bay was the most productive area.

Archaeological implications of a new palaeoenvironmental model for part of the Ayrshire coast

SummaryNew evidence suggests that in part of Ayrshire the old shore-line of the post-glacial high sea level was nearer the present coast than was previously supposed. Some finds of Mesolithic flints from near Shewalton are now seen to be the debris of coast dwellers during the high sea period rather than, as they used to be, interpreted as anomalously late.

The Deglaciation of the Island of Arran, Scotland

The use of a nomogram constructed by J. T. Andrews (I970) has allowed an approximate chronology of deglaciation to be established for the Island of Arran. The last ice cover of the area began to build up about 25 000 years BP, and reached a maximum about 18 000 BP, after which a retreat began. It is thought that the Aberdeen- Lammermuir readvance and the Perth readvance were not major readvances but stillstands or minor oscillations of the ice front. The south of Arran became free of ice by 13 000 BP and the island was totally free of Highland ice by 12 500 BP, although there was still a local ice centre in the northern hills. There was a quite extensive ice cover during the Loch Lomond readvance, though there was no ice in the south of the island at this time. The ice retreated gradually, and there is some evidence that there was either a stillstand or a minor readvance after the glaciers had shrunk into the high corries. The last ice on the island disappeared about 10 300 BP. THE Island of Arran is located in the Firth of Clyde some 30 km west of the Ayrshire coast and 5-10 km east of Kintyre. The island has an area of about 400 km2, and has long been noted for its variety of relief. In the north of the island there is a group of hills, cut in granite, which present a rugged appearance and display many features such as glacial troughs, horns and hanging valleys normally associated with Alpine glaciation. The highest point on the island is Goatfell (Fig. i), 873 m, while several other peaks exceed 700 m. The overall plan of these hills is in the form of three north-south ridges separated from one another by glacial troughs (Fig. i). The hills are surrounded by a well developed surface, the so called 'iooo foot platform' bounded by steep slopes descending to the coast. Much of the south of the island consists of rolling upland covered with moorland vegetation, the hills rarely rising above 450 m. Lowlands are limited in Arran, the largest being in the south west, while smaller lowlands are found at the mouths of the major valleys. Though the island has been overwhelmed by ice from the Scottish Highlands at various times (J. Geikie, I894), it is evident from local relief that the north of the island has also been subjected to glaciation from a local mountain ice centre. The study of the relics of these glaciations has helped to elucidate the sequence of deglaciation for the island and, by extension, for the lower Firth of Clyde. Arran is a key area in the study of the deglaciation of the Firth of Clyde for its geomorphology has been influenced by all the major glacial events in the area. Indeed, Arran might well be considered to contain a microcosm of the entire Scottish late glacial sequence (Table I). It lies completely within the limits of all but the Loch Lomond readvance, and deposits relating to these earlier glaciations are to be found in the southern part of the island (A. M. D. Gemmell, I971). Moreover, the Loch Lomond glaciation affected only the northern hills in Arran, thus helping to preserve the older deposits in the south of the island. It is therefore possible to

Progress on the design of multiflash evaporators

Progress in the design of multiflash evaporators, during recent years, is outlined with reference to improvements in performance and the efficient use of materials. It is not considered that there will be a sudden major break through in terms of cost reduction and efficiency with this type of design but instead, a gradual advance is expected as development of existing ideas is undertaken. Due to very keen world wide competition, the possibility exists of a cutting of margins by designers and it is considered that this is detrimental to the customer and to the science as a whole. The chemical aspects of sea water desalination of flash evaporators are discussed and certain solutions are examined with possible avenues for further study and exploration being suggested. To further the necessary experimental programmes in multiflash distillation, a multi-million pound research and development programme into distillation is underway in the United Kingdom, in collaboration with the U.K.A.E.A. One part of this programme includes the construction of a Desalination Research and Development Station at Troon on the Ayrshire Coast of Scotland, and this Station is described in the paper.

Three great Scots: William and John Hunter and Joseph Lister.

William and John Hunter were born in the Lowlands of Scotland in the beginning of the eighteenth century, in a time of political strife and poverty, when loyalties were sharply divided in relation to the exiled Royal House of Stewart not only between Scotland and England but between roughly equal factions in Scotland itself. The family had originated in the early part of the fourteenth century on the Ayrshire coast, and the name commemorates a royal appointment to preserve the hunting there and in the adjacent islands. The Hunters' father, a farmer, moved thirty miles or so to the east and, as a result of a favorable marriage to Agnes Paul, daughter of the City Treasurer of the City of Glasgow, became a small landowner and built the farm steading of Long Calderwood, until recently preserved unchanged as to structure and environment but now engulfed by the new satellite town

XIV.—Studies on the Scottish Marine Fauna: The Fauna of the Sandy and Muddy Areas of the Tidal Zone

In 1926 a quantitative examination of the fauna of the intertidal sands in the Cumbrae, Firth of Clyde, was begun, and the results proved so interesting that it was decided to extend the survey to other parts of the Scottish coast, the object being to study the variation in density and composition of the fauna, with special reference to the two groups of molluscs and polychætes, from place to place, and at various levels on the beach. During the past two years observations have been made in three widely separated areas, namely, on the Ayrshire coast and Firth of Clyde, on the southern shore of the Moray Firth, and on the east coast of Scotland and in the Firth of Forth. In all, twenty-five bays or stretches of coast have been visited, and over one hundred and fifty quantitative collections worked through.

Local Extinction of a Recently Abundant Lamellibranch

THE Lamellibranch Spisula subtruncata (Da Costa) is reported in various old records as occurring abundantly in parts of the Clyde Sea Area. For example, in “The Mollusca of the Firth of Clyde”, 1878, p. 33, A. Brown writes: “Exceedingly abundant a little above low water in Ettrick and St. Ninian's Bays, Bute; and in Fintry Bay, Cumbrae. It is common also all along the Ayrshire coast, and in most sandy bays throughout the district. In Cumbrae they are known as ‘Aikens,’ and are used both for food and bait”. Further confirmation is found in the Medusa records and in the fauna and flora published for the British Association in 1901—records of almost thirty years age and older.

XVIII. The Igneous Geology of the Ayrshire Coast from Doonfoot to the Heads of Ayr

Introduction. The coast immediately southward from Ayr, including the striking and picturesque double headland of the Heads of Ayr, has attracted little attention from geologists. It is briefly mentioned in the old Survey memoir upon the district by Sir A. Geikie (1869),1 who later gave a few facts regarding the volcanic vents of the coast in his Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain (1897). W. Burns had previously contributed a short discursive paper to these Transactions (1888). The fullest account is contained in a newspaper article by the late R. Boyle describing, in a popular style, the geology of the coast from Ayr to Dunure (1908). Much the same ground had been covered by J. Smith (1895) in a short paper which made a brief mention of the Greenan—Heads of Ayr shore. The same author has also contributed a brief note on the globular shale of the Deil’s Dyke to these Transactions (1898). An examination of the coast had long been projected, because the magnificent vertical and horizontal sections exhibited in the Heads of Ayr, of one of the Carboniferous volcanic vents so common in Scotland, seemed to promise much information regarding the mechanism of this type of vent. Unfortunately the sections, good as they are, were disappointing in this respect; but their examination, along with that of other igneous phenomena of this stretch of coast, has yielded a quantity of interesting data, which are presented in this paper. General Geology .—The coast consists of gently rolling strata of the Cementstone Group This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

VIII. The Shore Section at Portincross, Ayrshire

There is probably not a more interesting section anywhere in the West of Scotland than that exposed along half a mile of the shore at Portincross, on the Ayrshire coast, opposite the Lesser Cumbrae. The coast line, from the place in question, to the neighbourhood of Ardrossan, is occupied by a series of soft red sandstones belonging to the Lower Calciferous series, dipping, at low angles, generally in a southerly direction. On the west shore of Ardneil Bay these rocks are seen to be suddenly truncated by a fault ranging towards the south (A in diagram on next page). West of this fault comes a series of red, mottled, and grey sandstones, and deep red mudstones, standing on edge and striking parallel with the fault. Crossing it in a westerly direction is a dolerite dyke, 25 feet in thickness, which, at the fault, is inclined towards the north, at an angle of 10 degrees from the perpendicular, which increases to 25 degrees as it disappears below low-water mark. This is the same dyke which runs through the village of West Kilbride, two miles distant, where it has a thickness of 60 feet, and is vertical. Passing on over the edges of the vertical sandstones for a distance of 200 yards, we come to another fault (B) which ranges parallel to A, and beyond it appears a series of neutral-tinted strata, also standing on edge, and so severely crushed and contorted that most of the beds assume quite a lenticular aspect. This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

XXXII. Cleaves Cove, Dalry, Ayrshire; its Exploration and History

The extensive and interesting Ayrshire cavern, long known as Cleaves Cove, is situated on the southern side of a romantic glen on the Duisk Water, about a mile and a half above the junction of that stream with the River Garnock at Dalgarven, and a mile and three-quarters south-east from the Dalry station of the Glasgow and South-Western Railway. It is seven miles from the Ayrshire coast, and 170 feet above sea-level. The spot is rendered charming by the presence of a small waterfall, situated a short distance farther up the glen, and attractive to the geological eye by the mural face of an old limestone quarry, right in front of the principal entrance to the cave. Having been familiar with this cavern from my schoolboy days, I had long cherished a desire to explore it to the “benmost bore.” Had the traditions concerning it current in the district turned out to be true, this would have been no easy task. There was a story of a dog which, having gone into the cave after a fox, came out, after many days absence, at a place several miles distant. Another tale was that the poker in a neighbouring farmhouse having fallen into a crack at the side of the hearthstone, was believed to have found its way into the Cove by a fissure in the rock. Again, a piper who had gone into it playing his pipes, not being able to find his way out, was said to haunt the This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

Proceedings for Session 1878-79 (21st Session)

The Chairman congratulated the members on once more assembling to begin the work of a new session, and expressed a hope that the labours of the winter would prove both pleasant and profitable, and that the papers and other material brought before the meetings would worthily maintain the reputation of the Society. Messrs. R. M. Cairney, Mathew Clark, D. M Millan, and John Adamson were elected Ordinary Members. Mr. Walter Burns exhibited a series of Rolled Chalk Flints, which he had found in the course of the past summer in the drift beds of the Ayrshire coast, near the Heads of Ayr, at an elevation of about 20 feet above the present sea-level; also, a Flint Flake, from a quarry in the same neighbourhood. The Chairman stated that this collection possessed extreme interest, as flints had not been previously found in quantity in Ayrshire. No doubt they were originally derived from the Cretaceous strata of the North of Ireland. The flake, or knife, closely resembled some of those found by Mr. Christie in the caves of Perigord, in France. In connection with this subject he mentioned that an extraordinary find had been lately made by a member of the Society in Ayrshire—hundreds of flint knives, arrow-heads, &c., evidently on the site of a manufactory of flint implements. The locality could not at present be stated, but the finder intended to bring his discovery before the members as soon as he had worked it out fully. Mr. John Kirsop exhibited, through This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract