We visited friends who took us for a very blustery walk along the beach at Irvine after a delicious snack at  GRO. The visibility was poor as usually there is a marvellous view across the sea to the mountains of Arran  although we did see The Stone Dragon on top of a sand dune overlooking the Firth of Clyde.  It was constructed from the remnants of a disused railway bridge and is popular with children for climbing on.  In the distant past the west coast of Scotland had been plundered by Viking invaders and the Dragon is said to be the Great Protector of Irvine and the Watcher on the Hill to protect the town from any future invasions.  While we were there five dogs invaded the dragon but they were very well behaved and sat perfectly on command from their dog walker before happily running down the hill.