The cambered road to beyond

March 1, 2023, 4:43 pm , by Richard Lutz

RICHARD LUTZ strides across a well trod slice of history

That hill is Pinbairn. It stands 700 feet above the sea. And curving around it is a special trail. It looks like nothing more than two tracks in the green earth of upland Ayrshire. But it’s a vital bit of engineering history.

The rutted path is the remains of an 18th century coach road that originally looped above Kennedy’s Pass. It’s an example of the work of John McAdam who set about perfecting cambered roads. You can see the original small-stone convex surface below your boots if you stand above it.

To be fair, the Romans had perfected the system 2000 years ago. But Britain seemed to have lost the method. Until the inventive Mr McAdam showed up. Later, tar was added to the method, ergo: tarmacadam or, simply tarmac. So… the first steps, so to speak, at laying a tarmac road surface that now lines the planet.

The remnants are now part of the South Ayrshire Coastal Path that does sometimes encounter a morass of muddy tracks (especially when cattle are around). But many times it offers dry surfaces and endless views.

Such as this vista that roams past a crumbling monument to a forgotten Napoleonic War hero known as Black Bob and past a posse of grazing horses and then beyond and beyond and beyond:

….to the coast, past the volcanic plug of Ailsa Craig sitting in the winter blue of The Firth of Clyde to the Mull of Kintyre and then into an endless western sky.

Ailsa Craig itself is intriguing. It rises 1100 feet out of the sea eight miles offshore and is known locally as Paddy’s Milestone as it is halfway between Glasgow and Belfast. It is home to gannets, puffins, soaring seabirds and granite. When cloud cover is low, wisps stream off its top:

Credit: Angus and Mary Hogg

And when that occurs, folks around here refer to the rock as ‘Paddy with his cap on’.

Ailsa’s quarries, by the way, supply the raw material for those perfect curling stones that slide across the ice rinks of the world. And, yes, it is possible to scamper to the top. Last May, we hired a boat to get us there and back. At the last minute, the trip was axed.

The skipper said he could get us out to the Ailsa landing. But with afternoon winds, he couldn’t get us off. ‘Unless,’ he said as he shrugged: ‘Unless…you really want to spend a night or two there until things improve.’ We accepted his nautical guidance and left it to another day.