Imaginary Island – journey through the south west

The final part of my journey through the art, heritage and landscapes of south west Scotland took me to a place which I had yearned to go for half a lifetime.  I have gazed countless times on the striking form of this rock, from the Ayrshire coast, from the Rhins of Galloway, from the Isle of Arran, from Kintyre…

…and still it captures my imagination.  From certain angles, in certain light conditions, I swear I have seen the top of a vast head, with distinct brow ridges revealed, breaking through the water, some giant figure striding across the ocean floor.  At other times, standing on the shore, cloud and mist prevents you seeing the island.   Wondering (a rock so seemingly vast, making it difficult to comprehend how it can disappear completely) : perhaps it slips beneath the sea !

When I could not see it, I would often find myself lost in reverie (perhaps in an unproductive meeting !), wondering what people in the ancient past had thought about this place.  Was it taboo for them to land on what may have been considered a sacred peak ?  Or did they travel across the waters once a year to light a huge beacon on the top ?  Did they cross seasonally, when time and tide allowed, to gather birds and eggs ?

Years ago, my imagination fired, I began to investigate the possibility of excavating on the island: what secrets would surely be revealed !  I read fascinated about the recovery of burials from Macanall’s cave (when being cleared of guano in the 19th century), the presence of a mysterious keep on the hillside, and the disturbance of an earlier ecclesiastical site during the building of the lighthouse and associated foghorns.

And then of course there are the stones from here which are much coveted across parts of the world (from the 19th century the vast majority of the worlds curling stones were made from rock quarried on the island and still made by Kays of Scotland).  As these stones traveled, so did people in the 19th and 20th centuries, a diaspora some of whom would have traveled from Scottish ports and left with this milestone growing smaller in the distance…

So finally I left my imagination on the shore, sailed the twelve kilometers across the sea, climbed the 338 m to the top, and gained a completely different perspective of Ailsa Craig.

The reality of the island, a bizarre blend of cultural dereliction and the teaming joyous energy of the birds, but always the deep pulse of the sea.

The top was burrowed and nested, a cycle of life and death, the thin soil mixed with large quantities of feather, bone (fish and bird) and plastics…!

Towards the waters edge, on one side is the pile of rock for making curling stones, on the other seals lounge on the gravel spit.

The keep has clung perilously, for four hundred years, close to the cliffside…

The stairs have partially collapsed, but careful navigation, reveals a ruinous upper floor…

At the shore side, in the shattered remains of workshops, abandoned bellows…

The carefully edged path, runs past the quarries, and leads to one of the foghorns…

Its door smashed and broken, paint faded, peeling…

Closer to the lighthouse is the abandoned gasworks which powered the foghorns.

The clean lines and white facade of the lighthouse, automated and unoccupied, however hides a deeper decay…

Lines run through a ruinscape…

Open doors and smashed windows, collapsed plaster, abandoned rooms…

In amongst the gloom, spears of light reveal glimpses of abandoned lives.

Voices of the past now drowned by the clamor of gulls…

And so we depart, past the huge sea cliff, the noisy chat of gannets and guillemots, still resonating in my ears…

…I stare back,

imagination and reality now entangled…

…reverie will return me to here…

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There is so much more which I saw on the short time I spent on Ailsa Craig: I wish I could take you all there and show you. 

The journey to Ailsa Craig was on the wonderful M.F.V. Glorious which sails from Girvan harbour.  I cant recommend enough the adventure of visiting Ailsa Craig and crossing (if the weather is kind) on M.F.V. Glorious, it is a great experience.  Ailsa Craig is also a sensitive location (Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Protection Area) for breeding seabirds (36,000 breeding pairs of gannets, remarkable to watch), so please follow any guidance.   Depending on which way the wind blows it is not always possible to land…but the journey and views of the sea cliff and birds are still amazing.

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