19 August 2021 Outing to the Scottish Maritime Museum

 Our first outing since September 2019 was to the Maritime Museum in Irvine and we had 38 happy people on our tour bus.

After a short coffee stop we arrived at the Museum at 12.30 pm. One of our regular guests who lives in Glasgow was waiting for us there. We were met by the Manager, Chris, who gave us a brief history and suggested we go look around in groups of about 12 as were their first group visit. The Museum was really interesting showing many maritime relics and machinery. There were also other parts to the Museum: - the Harbour Stories Screening and Into the Maelstrom Exhibition. There was also a Puffer outside the Museum showing the history and photographs of the Puffer – that was really interesting.

At 4 o’clock we left for High Tea in Irvine which was very enjoyable (even though the fish and chips didn’t have the expected peas!) and everyone mixed well.

For Ronnie as a Marine Engineer it was magic as it brought back loads of memories.

Thanks to Isabel and Ronnie for arranging the trip and the good weather while we were there

Strollers Walk 255 - Colinton, Bonaly and Torphin Circle

Ten intrepid Strollers met at Colinton village to walk up the road to Bonaly, Torduff and Clubbidean reservoirs then back over the old Torphin Golf course. I say ten but one of the Strollers missed their bus and had to chase along to catch up at the Bonaly lower car park where we met one of the other Strollers who had decided to cut out some of the hill by parking there.

It was a lovely day for strolling past the field of Alpacas on the way to Torduff and on to Clubbidean. We sat on the wall there and enjoyed lunch in the sunshine, watching the fishermen out in boats and the fish jumping out of the water. The little house at the edge of Clubbidean now does takeaways from Friday to Sunday for anyone who wants to do that walk on their own.

From there we headed back over Torphin golf course which gave us tremendous views back over Torduff and the city. We then continued on to the highest point of Torphin passing the remnants of the golf course. There were markers behind where greens were so you knew where to hit the ball and steps that you could go up to see if it was clear to play. From the top we could see all the way out to West Lothian over Currie and Balerno and down East Lothian all the way to the Bass Rock and North Berwick Law.

Torphin used to host a ladies’ golf competition in memory of a great American lady golfer, Babe Zaharias, who won the British Ladies Amateur at Gullane in 1947, as well as being an Olympic Gold medallist. Her husband presented the trophy to be played for by Scottish Ladies in 1956 after she died at the age of 45.

From here we headed back down over the course past the old club house which is now part of Tiphereth Camphill, a charity for adults with learning difficulties and back to Colinton Village.

The next walk will be a lot flatter! 

Our thanks to Drew for arranging the walk on a lovely day.