Sunday, June 29, 2008

Barskimming Caves


















The stone stairs of Pedens Pulpit

A little while back Graham and I were above the river Ayr at Barskimming and I noticed caves cut into the sandstone cliffs on the far bank.
Today I decided to cycle along the river and go take a look, the riverside track would keep me out of the breeze and sheltered if the threatened showers came by and Auchincruive is a good starting point, quiet, good parking, and straight onto a rough track beside the river.
The River Ayr Way gives some good cycling, but has too many stiles, landslips, and now summer undergrowth is drooping across the track. Some parts have been cut back, some woodland tracks don't have much growth but other bits are getting very narrow.

East of Failford I went down the nice fishermans track by the river but made the mistake of pushing on beyond the end of it, ending up in head high bracken, I knew it was a sprachell but thought it was shorter. Maybe next time I'll remember!

The Barskimming caves are man made and have been cut into the sandstone gorge to allow a track to loop along beside the river. There are two tunnels about 50m long each with a window overlooking the river. They made an interesting turning loop before retracing the trail back. Cave map reference is landranger sheet 70 GR470252.

Took some SB video along the way and into the caves.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Whee
Interesting what you said about the river Ayr trail being a bit of a hurdle with styles and mud slides. we may give it a go this summer. We were in your favorite bike shop when we came over in May, great shop.
Just back from South Brittany, great time on lots of lanes and single tract. snaps on diyguy co uk. Your blogs are always interesting, and the maps you produce are detailed enough to follow in multimap. Any cycling holidays planed?

11:24 AM  
Blogger Whee said...

Hi Gordon

Just had a look through your holiday pictures, looks nice I'm green with envy!
I've a few ideas for short breaks if the weather looks settled for a spell. Western Isles and Corrieyairack pass, in the meantime I've settled on doing some relatively close to home stuff like Lock Eck and Arran when the weather offers an odd good day.

I'll be adding some more GPS info to my web site for road cycling routes. You can download them to view them on google earth or mapmyride.com.

Enjoy your cycling... and the blog

12:30 AM  

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