Paddle Steamer Waverley sailing round Ailsa Craig

I’ve lived in Ayrshire all my life and one place I’ve always wanted to see closer up is the island Ailsa Craig, and also be able to hike to the top at some point in my ageing life.

This little muffin shaped uninhabited island and bird sanctuary sits perfectly in the outer Firth of Clyde to the south of Isle of Arran . I look across to Ailsa Craig often and I can even see the island walking down a street close to where I live.

I was going to arrange a trip with MFV Glorious that sails from Girvan in Ayrshire as you can also land on the island with time to explore, then Alan mentioned the Paddle Steamer Waverley. I looked this up first and low and behold she would be visiting Ayr Harbour on Sunday 6 August 2023, sailing around Ailsa Craig. And she still had spaces left. Yay!

I wouldn’t be able to land on the island, but to be honest I’ve not been feeling as fit at the moment and still breathless with steep inclines. Sailing with Waverley would be perfect and I would get to see the stunning views along the Ayrshire coastline and around Ailsa Craig. We’ve never sailed on her before, so I was excited to try something new.

I also created a video of my sailing which is linked at the end. You must watch, I’m sure you’ll love it! I paid for a subscription so I could find epic music to compliment the footage.

Paddle Steamer Waverley

Waverley began her sail from the Glasgow Science Centre, stopped off at Largs to pick up more passengers, and then to Ayr Harbour. As we watched Waverley sail closer, the pilot guided her into what’s known as a wet dock, a different part of harbour.

She was then reversed round a tight bend, sailed backwards up the harbour, then lined up facing forward along the quayside for us to board. What a manoeuvre, well done to the pilot!

The photo below is her sailing backwards after successfully reversing. I’m now feeling slightly embarrassed that I struggle sometimes to reverse park a tiny car, lol!

We boarded with almost 500 other passengers today. It was going to be busy on board and I was feeling anxious about trying to politely pass people to take photos and video so I could capture our first time sailing with her.

It’s great she was busy though, as income from passenger fares and buying food, drink or gifts on board keeps her sailing. It doesn’t generate enough income for annual winter maintenance or fund renewal projects, so any donation is always greatly appreciated.

She is the world’s last seagoing paddle steamer!

When we were on board it was announced that we should all stand away from quayside to stop Waverley leaning and damaging the paddle box against the quay. Once we were away from the quay we could walk around anywhere.

Sounding her steam whistle, off we went. You can see the steam coming out of the funnel, matching the white fluffy clouds on this glorious day. I was too busy taking a photo, I didn’t capture it on video though.

I lifted my short arms up as high as I could to try and avoid people in the photo, but I still managed to catch a lady’s hair in the wind 😂. It’s usually my hair, so this makes a change!

A boat was following us and gaining close contact so that the pilot could leave Waverley and board her again when we returned to Ayr Harbour. It was another amazing manoeuvre transferring staff to another boat.

I walked around as much as I could and found areas where I could record and take photos.

Brass plaque saying:

This vessel replaces the Clyde Steamer ‘Waverley’ which was built in 1899, served as a mine sweeper during 1914-18 War, and was sunk by enemy action at Dunkirk 1940.

Paddle Steamer Waverley

This new Waverley was the last paddle steamer to be built for Clyde services and launched on 2 October 1946. It’s so lovely to see her still sailing after all this time. She’s the same age as my mum give or take a few months!

Stepping over pairs of feet and excusing myself, I made my way to the bow on the side of the Ayrshire coastline. Alan disappeared quite early on, but once I was at the bow I was keen to stay there.

I was worried that people sitting down behind me wouldn’t see anything, but everyone moved around the ship with standing spaces at the bow eventually becoming available. I got chatting to a lovely girl called Julie, who also has her own blog called The Rambling Sloth. That was us chatting straight away. It’s always nice to meet a fellow blogger 😀.

Julie boarded at the Glasgow Science Centre and saw dolphins on the River Clyde! I’ll add a link to her blog post at the end of this, along with other useful information.

Greenan Castle and Heads of Ayr

I couldn’t see the ruins of the 16th century tower house Greenan Castle by eye. It was so far away, but luckily my disappearing husband took this close up photo from wherever he was standing.

The castle always looks like it’s going to topple over into the sea one day! It’s a lovely walk along the Ayrshire Coastal Path to the castle and beyond.

Next it was the Heads of Ayr and its dramatic cliffs near Craig Tara Holiday Park. Alan and I have walked along this part of the coast from Greenan Castle to Bracken Bay. I was in awe of the cliffs along the Ayrshire coast and I enjoyed seeing them from this angle.

Dunure Castle

Next it was the ruins of Dunure Castle, also perched on a cliff edge in the pretty village of Dunure. There has been a castle here since the 13th century but what we see today dates later to around 15th/16th century. It was once the main fortress of the Kennedy family, the Earls of Cassilis.

We’ve visited Dunure many times and I also stopped by one day when Outlander was being filmed here. It was such a great day exploring the area on my own, and I even got to see Dunure Harbour transformed to portray an 18th century Ayr Harbour. Unfortunately the filming day was rescheduled so I missed this.

Culzean Castle

The spectacular cliff top 18th century Culzean Castle glowed in the sunshine after we passed it. You can hardly see it in this photo though.

I have a closer up video clip though and cut out this photo. It’s not the best quality, but it lets you see this amazing castle from the sea. I wish we were actually that close!

Culzean Castle was designed by Robert Adam and was the home of the Kennedy family for hundreds of years. I also read that the family owned Greenan Castle at one point in history.

It sounds like the Kennedy family moved from castle to castle over the years, stretching along the Ayrshire coastline with each castle getting larger and grander!

Turnberry

Next we passed Turnberry Lighthouse and the Trump Turnberry Hotel. I’ve never visited here but have passed through the village of Turnberry on the way to Girvan.

Below the lighthouse are the remains of yet another castle, Turnberry Castle. It is thought that Robert I, King of Scots was born here.

Wow, we have a lot of castles perched along the Ayrshire coastline and many others too. There’s a lot of history and stories of Ayrshire. I haven’t gone into much detail as it can be information overload, but Google search is a wonderful online library. It helps me all the time 😀.

Inside Waverley

Once we passed Turnberry I thought I’d better search for Alan. I also needed the phone charger as I was running low on battery for the most important part of the sail, Ailsa Craig! I would lose my outdoor standing space, but I also wanted to see the engine room and the rest of Waverley.

The engine room is amazing to watch as you will see in my video at the end. I had a giggle at where the exit sign was pointing to. Of course it meant that direction, but my mind said the porthole was the exit 😂

I was mesmerized as I watched the water swirl around all the portholes, reminding me of a portal to another world, similar to Stargate. This is a closer up clip that I didn’t use in my video.

You can also hear the rhythm of the engine room sounding like beating a drum.

I eventually found Alan downstairs. He struggled to move past people in the crowds as he was carrying all his camera gear, so he stayed below for a while, looking through the open windows.

I walked down another set of stairs to the lower deck to have a look inside the small cosy Talisman Bar. I never got to see everything on the ship though as I was outside most of the time.

I was having a Titanic moment with the staircase leading to the Observation Lounge and deck. It maybe wasn’t as grand, but it had similarities in my overactive imagination.

After I took this photo I noticed a wee smiling face popped up. It’s nice to see the lady smile, we should all do it more often.

Girvan

We were approaching Girvan, so I plugged my phone into the charger and made my way back to the bow, hoping for a space again. Luckily I managed to squeeze in and stood beside Julie again. Yay!

A Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Girvan Harbour Fundraising Gala was taking place and I watched the lifeboat speed up and down the water, twisting and turning for us. Everyone on land and on board were having fun in the sun.

Look how beautiful the sea is! The sunshine brings out the best in our scenery and mood.

Ailsa Craig

Now for the exciting part! Sorry I took so long to get here. Off we went, with Ailsa Craig getting closer and closer.

I was standing beside another lovely girl called Sarah who moved to Ayr from England a few years ago. She loves living in Ayrshire which is always great to hear. We were all getting excited the closer we got. Sarah, Julie, and I stood together enjoying every moment.

Ailsa Craig is the remains of a volcanic plug and a bird sanctuary. The island was also supposedly used as a prison in the 18th and 19th centuries.

I was taking photos pointing at the sun so there’s a lot of sun rays. I could see the remains of what I thought were tracks for mining in the past, but the Canmore website lists this as the Ailsa Craig Walkway.

Ailsa Craig granite is the source for Kays Scotland in Mauchline who have been making curling stones since 1851. Olympic standard ones at that! The granite has an unusual composition and crystalline texture which makes it hard and resistant to impact. Shop Local at its very best! Or maybe Source Local?

I love this next photo. All I could see was the guardian of Ailsa Craig, a giant Robot protecting the island and its wildlife 😂

It reminded of a brilliant thought provoking science fiction drama series called ‘Tales from the Loop’. It’s streaming on Amazon Prime and I’ve watched it twice already. It’s slow pace, beautiful cinematography and the music gives me goosebumps.

In reality though, I found out this is the old Ailsa Craig North Foghorn. It was constructed between 1883 and 1886, was gas-powered and one of two built to support Thomas and David Stevenson’s oil burning lighthouse at that time.

It’s a huge concrete structure with ladders going up to a door. I’m now thinking the walkway was built to reach this. I wonder how this foghorn sounded back in the days, they can sound quite scary!

I didn’t know that the name Ailsa Craig is the English version of Scots Gaelic, Aillse Creag, meaning “Fairy Rock”. I love this meaning!

The island also has the nickname of Paddy’s Milestone as it’s almost the halfway point of the sea journey from Belfast to Glasgow, an emigration route for Irish labourers going to Scotland looking for work. And sharing all their Irish jokes with us I bet 😂.

My mum was born in Ireland and my uncles were the best at telling jokes. Especially Uncle Andy, he was a great story teller with his Irish accent and had a hearty laugh.

It was farewell to the Robot and round to the other side of the island where it was rockier. Wow!

Ailsa Craig is around 1114 feet above the Firth of Clyde, the same height as the Holy Isle. Maybe I would be able to hike to the top as I managed the Holy Isle in Lamlash Bay, Isle of Arran. This gave me hope. I would love to say I’ve stood on top of Goat Fell, the Holy Isle and Ailsa Craig.

Look how naturally beautiful it is close up.

The columnar rock formations that we don’t see from the Ayrshire coast were stunning, and also the abundance of birds!

The tour guide said it was recently estimated that Ailsa Craig is home to over 35,000 pairs of gannets, making it one of the largest Gannet colonies in the world. Wow!

Gannets are large seabirds with a wing span up to two metres and typically live to around 17 years but have been known to live up to 37 years.

The dramatic way in which they feed is amazing to watch. They look for pray in the water from distances of up to 70 metres and then plunge at speeds of up to 60 miles an hour straight into the water. Splash!

We didn’t see them fishing today, but we have on the Isle of Arran at Blackwaterfoot.

Other seabirds live here too including, Guillemot, Razorbill, Kittiwake and more. Puffins have also returned after being gone for a long time. I’d love to see a Puffin close up.

The Ailsa Craig Trips website linked at the end has more detailed information about the birds of Ailsa Craig.

It was time to turn the next corner passing the old Ailsa Craig South Foghorn. This one was shorter in height, a mini version of the North Foghorn Robot.

The ruins of Ailsa Craig castle was shining in the sunlight and surrounded by beautiful purple heather. It was built by Clan Hamilton in the late 1500s and is three storeys high.

If we were to hike to the top of the island we would pass the castle. I’d love to see it close up. It looks like a steep hike though! I think I’d need more than a few hours here to complete the hike and I’d also love to walk round the coastline, if possible, to see the Robot Foghorns.

The Ailsa Craig lighthouse turned on its first light in 1886.

The building of the lighthouse was supervised by Thomas and David Stevenson, lighthouse engineers who followed in the footsteps of their father Robert Stevenson. The Stevenson family were well known as lighthouse builders for Scotland.

Thomas was also the father of Robert Louis Stevenson, a Scottish novelist who wrote Treasure Island and other famous stories and poems.

Alan found an amazing map of Ailsa Craig on Canmore and it pinpoints places of interest with some information about each one. What struck me were that shipwrecks are pinned on the map! Not only around Ailsa Craig but across the whole of Scotland.

One that caught my attention was a 20th century motor fishing vessel (Valiant) that sunk on 1 October 1975. Two boys aged 14 and 11 stole the boat from Ayr Harbour and the cause of the wreck was “inability of person in charge of boat” …

I’ve linked the map at the end, but it takes you to a map of the United Kingdom and you need to find Ailsa Craig in south west Scotland, near the south of Isle of Arran.

And that was our wonderful tour around Ailsa Craig finished. We were asked to help balance the ship again or we’d never get home. It was full steam ahead back to Ayr.

The Isle of Arran and Holy Isle were looking spectacular from this angle. I could see the peak of Goat Fell and the peak of the Holy Isle. I love that I have stood on both.

I found Alan and we went to the Dining Saloon to check how busy it was for food. It was very busy so we waited for half an hour then stood in a smaller queue for fish and chips. We found a table with a beautiful sea view of Arran.

Back on deck, Ailsa Craig was now far away in the distance and the Pilot Boat was following us again to prepare for docking at Ayr Harbour.

I watched the pilot reverse her into the harbour, steady as she goes.

When we docked I waited around until she was emptier so I could take some more photos.

Paddle Steamer Waverley sails all around the United Kingdom, so if you’re interested please check out the Waverley website below for more information. I am sure you will love her, the only thing I can’t guarantee is the weather.

I can’t believe how lucky we were this day as we’d previously had a lot of Scottish summer rain.

Paddle Steamer Waverley video

I created a video of my most epic adventure with Paddle Steamer Waverley and sailing round Ailsa Craig 💙

Useful links to more information

• Waverley Excursions
• Ailsa Craig Trips from Girvan, Ayrshire
• Canmore: Ailsa Craig North Foghorn (I love the old photo of the North Foghorn!)
• Canmore: Ailsa Craig Map and points of interest (Ailsa Craig is in south west Scotland, near the south of Isle of Arran)
• Northern Lighthouse Board: Ailsa Craig Lighthouse
• Kays Scotland
• Wikipedia: Ailsa Craig
• The Rambling Sloth: Day 1216 a trip on the PS Waverley
• What lies beneath Culzean Castle

I hope you enjoyed the cruise! Thanks for sailing with me 🌊🚢

Love, Dawn-Marie x