Taking the Ayr

A gorgeous spring day and, with the car having passed its MOT and service, I decided to drive for an exploration instead of the train or bus. Ayr is easy enough to get to – half an hour down the dual carriageway and a free car park on the seafront.

There is some interesting architecture in Ayr: below are St John’s Tower (the remains of the town’s original parish church) and the town hall which looked quite spectacular. The town has scores of shops but that means that there are many empty which doesn’t help. Actually there were two shopping malls which were closed down so there is a bit of a feeling of decay at times.

From Ayr, there is a short drive south to Greenan Castle which has one of the most spectacular locations, although it was further from the coast when it was built in the fifteenth century. As you can see, the tide was in but I was able to get around to the other side to get some sunnier pictures. At some point this majestic ruin will collapse into the sea, no doubt, but try and see it while it’s here.

While in the area, I couldn’t pass up the chance to see a place I’d heard about for years – Electric Brae. If it’s unknown to you, it’s a stretch of road where objects appear to roll uphill. The explanation is from Wikipedia:

Although the road appears to be running uphill, a suitably free-running vehicle will slowly move off from a standstill. It was widely believed that vehicles were being propelled uphill by a mysterious magnetic force, but the road’s apparently uphill slope is an optical illusion. This runs the quarter of a mile from the bend overlooking Croy railway viaduct in the west (286 feet Above Ordnance Datum) to the wooded Craigencroy Glen (303 feet A.O.D.) to the east. Whilst there is this slope of 1 in 86 upwards from the bend to the Glen, the configuration of the land on either side of the road provides an optical illusion making it look as if the slope is going the other way. Therefore, a stationary car on the road with the brakes off will appear to move slowly uphill.

It’s not obvious from looking around. The picture above seems to be going uphill, especially as I had just driven down from the hill top right, and the road behind me clearly goes down. But the road above is actually going slightly downhill at that point so a ball will appear to go up. The video below shows it better.

As the comments below the video said, I should have poured a bottle of water out to see it going uphill. Oh well, next time.

So that was Ayr. A good day out in lovely warm sunshine. Now the spring is here and the daffodils are out, there will be more exploration to be made. There is so much to see.