Mud, glorious mud
January 7, 2022, 12:12 pm , by Newsdesk
Before the snows- there was the mud, says Richard Lutz
THE swirl of a tumbling wintry river. The Ayr rumbles down from the Scottish hills for 45 miles until it flows into the cold coastal waters of the Firth of Clyde south of Glasgow.
It’s known for its gorgeous gorges
and for its big rail bridges- this viaduct was used in a Mission Impossible blockbuster on the banks where poet Robert Burns once wooed his battalion of girlfriends.
The River Ayr’s origins are a spring near an abandoned mining village called Glen Buck. It was the boyhood home of revered Liverpool football manager Bill Shankley. There’s a lovingly maintained shrine nearby. The river passes by. Then it flows west to the sea. And this winter it doesn’t so much flow as leap down the valleys and narrow defiles of its course.
It brings mud, loads of mud. Walkers and striders and hikers and trail geeks are clothed in waterproofs, mudproofs, kneehigh gortex gaiters, rubber wellie boots, sealskin socks, anything in fact, to keep the muck off.
The mud tries to suck the very maw out of the manmade gear. It climbs and grabs. So sometimes, it’s two steps forward, one step back as the wet earth battles to wrest control. It can be a bit of a struggle:
The views on clearer days are worth all this mucky trouble, especially around the Auchencruive curve
Here, the river almost doubles back on itself as it heads for an old estate that once housed the powerful Oswald family- a lineage that not only made its loot from 18th commercial acumen but also, dreadfully, from the slave trade that supplied Caribbean plantations.
Now, the old Auchencruive lands that sit on the riverbank are home to a string of small businesses and research companies. Some of its buildings still stand proud, such as its Robert Adams-influenced 18thc mansion.
But mostly Auchencruive stands quiet, unsure of its future on the outskirts of the county’s harbour town of Ayr- itself home to a handsome arched bridge.
It’s an old sandstone crossing, called The Auld Brig in fact, though no one is really sure just how old it is. Some records say it was built in the 13th century. Others say the 14thc. Another source says specifically 1585.
Anyway, it’s old, so old that it’s for pedestrians only. The ancient stone bones of The Auld Brig couldn’t possibly support the stream of today’s heavyweight traffic. It’s only for the light touch of feet as it spans the River Ayr as its waters wind from the hills, past the Shankley monument, into the gorges, through the curve of the Auchencruive loop, into the harbour, to join the cold windy winter sea.
photos by Denis Duke and Geograph
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Tony Fitzpatrick
Ah…, a nice wee stroll down the river…. Time for a cuppa….!!
LC
Good pix
Bob from Seattle
Nice one here
Jerry Fish
….the joys of mud.
Lisa Vaughan
Fun in the mud
Julie Osborne
a refreshing change from the car-clogged streets of Brooklyn. I expect there’s a variety of mud encrusted wellies and boots at thr doorstep, a tribute to hours of hiking in Scotland.
Bob Prosser
Brings back so many (un)happy memories of sodden, sucking days with minimal visibility.
Willy Kerr
we’ve walked quite a bit of the River Ayr and it was great to read this and see the photos…thanks! 🙂
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