To the Bard and Back

It was a lovely day for a change, so when I got home from work I decided to go out on my bike.

I live near Eglinton Park so I headed there first to have a look for a couple of caches in the park that I've not yet found. The first was Jasper's Ice House but when I got there there were muggles in the vicinity so I moved on and left it for another day. Next was G'day Sports ...AKA Farewell Pete and Lainey which is located at the recently renovated Tournament Bridge. Had a good look around but from previous comments left on the website I suspect this is under the bridge. I wasn't about to go swimming today so again I moved on. I'll have better look some other time.


Next, I went out of Eglinton park and followed the cycle path along the River Garnock and over to Bogside. From there another rough path follows the river along the edge of the Garnock Floods wildlife reserve to a railway viaduct on the line between Kilwinning and Irvine. Here I found Bogside after some time hunting for the wrong thing due to a misleading clue. The trick here is to trust the GPS, that is of course assuming you can get a decent signal with the overhead powerlines for the trains nearby. The wildlife reserve here lived up to it's name as I spotted several frogs and even what was either a newt or small lizard (see photo!)

Just along the road from here is another cache with the odd name My absolutely not bogging tresure trove! but unfortunately it's currently disabled as the cache has apparently gone missing.

As this is part of the new town trail a cycle path leads up from here, past the coup and over to Irvine. On the way it passes Bogside Golf Club and just outside is Bumblers Hunt. This one was very easy to find but is at the road side. Care is required as people tend to drive up and down this road as if it was a race track. There are a couple of caches to the West of here behind the Golf course, but it was getting late by now so I decided to finish with another easy one.

The Bard's Boax, is to be found at the Burns Monument on Irvine Moor. The clue for this one explains exactly where the cache is hidden so after quick seat, a drink of water and a fumble the cache was in hand! This is a popular place for muggles and their duggles so take care when fumbling!

3 out of 5