Little Cumbrae sunset.

We met at Portencross at 730pm...

...and formulated a quick plan to paddle round Little Cumbrae Island.

 We set the controls...

 ...for the heart of...

 ...the sun.

 As we crossed to Gull Point it slowly sank in the west, turning from orange to red.

On our return, our way was lit by the glow of Hunterston nuclear power station. Fortunately Harvey was with us and as he works there, we assumed it was quite safe.

Ailsa sunset.

It is always sad to leave Ailsa Craig and its teeming bird colonies. Mostly we don't look back...

 ...mainly because the return involves crossing a busy shipping channel. We stopped to let MV Johanna Desiree pass in front of us. She was bound from Ayr to Santander at 10.8 knots. Behind us, the P&O Express from Larne to Troon passed at a faster 30.6 knots!

 As the rock slowly receded...

 ...the sun sank towards the horizon...

...and we enjoyed another wonderful sunset  from the skerries of the Lendalfoot shore.

A quick shag on Ailsa Craig.

It was now time to paddle round Ailsa Craig. We had arranged to meet Alan and Linda from the Castle Craig Kayak Club. We set off anticlockwise, past the walkway round to the north foghorn and quarry.

We emerged from the darkness under the cliffs of Eagle's Seat...

...followed by this grey seal. "Look at the eyebrows on that!"

Jim was delighted with how the borrowed Taran performed, responding to edging, even when fully loaded with camping gear for a week.

It was only  12 days since my last visit but since then the fulmars, kittiwakes, guillemots, black guillemots and razorbills had joined the gannets. The puffins had not yet arrived (I only saw one on the water) though on land regiments of plastic puffins waited to encourage feathered visitors.

We took some time to drift along under the gannet colonies to Stranny Point.

This quick shag flew in low under the guillemots and nearly collided with Jim!

 We marvelled at the structure and colour of the cliffs.

Then we had to prepare for the long crossing back to Ayrshire.

White like a swan...

From the foghorn we made our way back to the lighthouse.

It is now fully automatic and solar powered.

Unlike some lighthouses, it still has a proper lens system. This rotate continuously, even during day time, for increased reliability.

The lighthouse itself is immaculately maintained with gleaming whitewash...

...but sadly, the former keeper's cottages have fallen into disrepair after the NLB sold them to someone who wanted to develop them into holiday cottages but abandoned the project. Vandals have broken into the buildings.

The lighthouse keeper's books and notebooks are still lying where they left them. This hand written note has survived being used to light a fire:

"Be like a swan - calm and serene on the top - and paddling crazy down below!"

A great bellowing on Ailsa Craig.

We heard the bellowing long before we came to the south foghorn on Ailsa Craig.

It obviously wasn't coming from the foghorn as it has been silent since 1966. We passed a row of nine massive but rusting compressed air tanks that provided the "oomph" for the horn. They were supplied by a 2.5" inch pipe that ran 700m from the compressor in the gasworks round to the south of the island.

The air horn emerged from the top of a massive Victorian concrete tower. This and a similar horn at the north end of the island were completed in 1886. The gas engine for the air compressor was replaced by a diesel engine in 1911 and this ran until the horns were decommissioned in 1966. As a boy in Ayr, I remember hearing the foghorns at a distance of 38km! On our visit, the bellowing noise seemed to be coming from below the foghorn.

We spotted the source of the noise. It was grey seal bulls, in the sea and on the rocks below.

Inside the tower there is a remarkable arrangement of pipes, air tanks and the horn itself.

The foghorn is on one of the flight paths from the nearby gannet colony. As the gannets launched off the cliff behind, it looked like they were emerging from the horn itself!

The gannets were busy gathering nesting material for their nests which are...

...situated hundreds of feet up on rocky ledges on the cliffs of the south and west faces of the Craig.

The missing anvil of Ailsa Craig.

After the gasworks we came to the quarry man's house. I stayed here for nearly a week in the summer of 1973.

We continued south to the old forge buildings. They were relatively intact in 1973 but have been demolished to reclaim their granite blocks.

Somewhere I have an old transparency of the huge anvil but despite its size, there was no sign of it now.

The old bellows from the forge were still there.

Not much grows on the talus of granite boulders that lie at the foot of this side of Ailsa Craig.

Along the shore, above high water a series of hollows have been excavated. They were made by fishermen who would drag their boats above high water and cover the depressions with their spars and sails. The area is known as the fishermen's camp.

We now set off, away from the lighthouse, towards the south fog horn.

Gasworks and kailyards on Ailsa Craig.

From Ailsa Craig pier we made our way up the old railway to the tacksman's house.

In the19th century the tacksman and assistants who lived here harvested the seabirds for flesh, eggs and feathers and caught rabbits that thrived because they had no natural predators. They also fished the seas that were teeming with fish.

Behind the cottage a large  area is walled off. Inside is the gasworks with pits for gasometers. The gas produced was used to power an engine that compressed air for the island's two foghorns. However, the wall predated the gasworks. It was built to surround cottages, which were part of a planned fishing station. At the time goats roamed the island and the wall was to keep them out of the cottages kailyard (cabbage patch). Unfortunately the Glasgow man behind the fishing station scheme died before it was completed and the cottages were demolished to make way for the gasworks.

At the top of the slope from the beach we came to the winding station for the railway.

Inside a two cylinder diesel engine still looks remarkably intact. The original engine would have been powered by steam.

The gasometers have long gone and their pits have been filled with rubbish.

Coltsfoot was flowering in the gaps in the wall.

After the winding station the railway splits in two. The left branch goes to the lighthouse and the right goes into the gasworks. The points lever was still in place but the points have seized up.

The gasworks was one of the biggest buildings on the island. You can see the kailyard wall surrounding the works at some distance. On the hill behind, you can just see the castle on the horizon. I wonder what the monks from Crossraguel Abbey (who lived in the castle in the 14th century) would have made of the gasworks!