Scotland Diary: Galloway and Fairlie
The B&B I’d booked had been above a pub, pretty much the only pub in the area to be honest, and we were apparently very lucky to have gotten it. With it being a Saturday, the area was completely fully booked for accommodation. I had only managed to book this because there had been a cancellation just before.
Call it fate?
I call it bloody necessary.
After a shower, some food and embarrassingly, a little bit of Love Island on catch-up, we got ready for a comfortable sleep.
Except for me, it wasn’t.
I am an extremely light sleeper and it takes me hours to settle into bed properly. Unfortunately, I have to wear earplugs and for anyone that also wears them, I’m sure you understand the annoyance. Especially at 3 am when they’ve burrowed in so deep that they cause pain, so you take them out, only for the outside noise to barge its way back in.
There seemed to be a dog downstairs pining for its owner that kept me awake with its howling, then my back started to hurt and absolutely no offence to Rachel, but I’m definitely one of those that need their own space!
We woke up the next day in the B&B feeling refreshed and revitalised. Ahem. Ready for a brand new day of attempting the wild all over again.
Well, the semi-wild.
We had originally wanted to stay in, or around, Ayr, but after the previous trouble with wild camping, it seemed like a much more sensible decision to just book a campsite. Unfortunately, all campsites near Ayr were full or not accepting tents until eventually, I found a campsite at Kelburn Castle in Fairlie, quite a ways up from Ayr.
We stopped Susan the Suzuki quite a few times to enjoy the views before we arrived at the Castle.
Kelburn Castle decorated in Brazilian graffiti
Kelburn Castle and Estate is… different. It’s a family-orientated place with lots to do for young children. I wouldn’t say it has much on offer for adults. It’s pretty much a little fantasyland for kids to run around and drive their parents mad. There are some pretty gardens, little waterfalls etc. but for the most part, it’s just a big kid’s park. The castle itself is purely for decoration, it’s covered in Brazilian graffiti and you can’t even go inside.
The campsite is on separate grounds to the right of the main entrance. It’s pretty self-explanatory where you can and can’t pitch and there’s a toilet and shower block, although it’s quite a trek from the site.
When we rocked up, we decided on a spot at the back on the left next to an old caravan that we thought was just for show. I was eager to have an early, restful night's sleep so we pitched up (rather quickly if you ask me), had a little walk down the road to find the nearest shops and started cooking dinner.
What we had completely managed to forget was the fact it was the Euros 2020 football final. England VS Italy. And pretty much every tent surrounding us was either listening to it on the radio or watching it via satellite. Only one tent wanted England to win, the rest, as you can imagine, were rooting for Italy.
Now and again we’d hear a scream or a yell of celebration which made Rachel have major FOMO (fear of missing out). She whipped out her phone just in time for the last half hour leading into the penalties and together, alongside the rest of the campsite, we watched the end result. Even I got involved and I can’t bear the sport!
After the disappointing result for England, the campsite erupted into cheers and laughter. Someone couldn’t help but inform the whole site that they had betted on Italy to win and had won themselves a 2 grand holiday. Oh, and do you remember that old caravan I mentioned? The one right next to us? Yep, they were staying in that. So from that point on into the wee early hours of the morning, we had to put up with their terrible drunken singing and out-of-rhythm clapping.
I woke up the next day even more tired than the day before but we had to get out and about. So after a bit of breakfast, we went and explored the castle grounds in all its glory.
Shortly afterwards, we got back in the car and took Susan out for a day trip to Largs, Skelmorlie and Wemyss Bay.
The delights of Wemyss Bay
Largs reminded me very much of back home, especially with the coastal rides down by the seafront. We had a nice walk along the coast where I narrowly missed being shit on by a seagull. Provided a good laugh, let me tell you.
As the sun was shining so brilliantly, we decided to have lunch in Wemyss Bay. We picked a beautiful rocky spot down by the ocean and watched as a man played with his dog in the water. Wemyss Bay was far quieter than Largs which felt much more up our street, but after a few hours of lounging on the rocks, it was time to return to our tent.
Dinner, washing up, showers and listening to the kids jump on the now unoccupied caravan was literally how we spent our evening. Throw in a couple of downloaded episodes of Below Deck and Love Island of course…
This was to be our last night at Kelburn Castle, tomorrow we were headed to Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park.
Read the next entry ‘Scotland Diary: Loch Lomond and The Trossachs| Day One’
Read the previous entry ‘Scotland Diary: Galloway Forest’
