Literary road trip

 

The literary reference is to Kirsty Wark’s The House on the Loch – Loch Doon. I enjoyed that book more than any other during lockdown and I was curious to visit some of the places in the story. First off we drove to Girvan which is a longer way south than I had realised, sunny but a cool breeze. The tide was way out and that combined with the wind did not incline me to swim which had been at the back of mind, ever since I failed to take advantage of the beaches strewn along the east side of Loch Lomond. The old boating pond was intriguing, it is currently out of commission but is a huge moat like thing that looks as if it would be great fun. They use those pedal boats now; I found a reference to 1976 and a photo where it likes the boats were powered and appeared to be going a quite a clip. The area that is now a children’s playpark used to be a paddling pool even bigger, the photo suggests, than the boating pond. All more interesting than the view of Ailsa Craig with its unique type of granite that is used to make curling stones – of which there are some examples in Pollok Park.

We drove in bright sunshine and blue skies to Loch Doon. Spectacular and osprey country. A few camper vans and tents dotted about and around Doon Castle which had been reconstructed on land after the loch was flooded caused by the installation of a hydro electric scheme (which featured in the book).

The extra blips are the boating pond, looking rather sad  and dull, and fishing boats in Girvan harbour, one of which ‘Solas’ is registered in Tarbert Loch Fynne.