Morning at Eglinton Park

Out bright and early this morning and over to Eglinton Country Park to bag some caches.

First up was Irvine New Town Trail #3 which is located on Irvine Road at the Kilwinning end of the Park. This was a new cache which hadn't yet been found by anyone else. After abandoning the car I headed around to the cache location which was pretty obvious. I ended up having to hang around for 10 minutes pretending to be on the phone as there were muggles at the nearby bus stops. One wee biddy seemed especially interested in what I was up to so I gave her a wee wave as her bus pulled away (thankfully taking her with it!). The cache was exactly where I'd expected and I was soon heading for Irvine New Town Trail #6.

Irvine New Town Trail #6 another new cache is located at the suspension bridge and I had no problem locating that and then using the clue finding the hiding place. I just couldn't find the cache. 30 minutes later I admitted defeat and moved on to Irvine New Town Trail #5.

Irvine New Town Trail #5 was the third new cache I was looking for and is located near the remains of Eglinton Castle. Using the coords I got to the general location, stopped to have a look around and walked straight to the cache. Usually it's the last tree I look in that has the cache, this time it was the first!

Next I decided to pick off a few of the other caches around here which I had not yet found. The first was Irvine New Town Trail #2 which is a short walk from the castle near an old piece of abandoned machinery which I'm told was to be used to rip up runways during the war. Why it's here I have no idea! Anyway, I got to the location had a look around in the obvious places, but no cache. Checked the clue and had a look in some other places, but no cache. Then I check my coordinates again and discovered where I was going wrong.

Jaspers Ice House followed and was a really great wee place. This is an old stone igloo in the woods which would have been used as a sort of fridge freezer for the castle in days gone past. It's quite an interesting thing to see in it's own right but a bit muddy so go in the summer.

The next cache was Elignton Loch. This cache was recently published and is at the location of an old cache which was here but was archived for one reason or another. Nothing much to say about this one as it was so easy but it could get busy with muggles and duggles during the day. I was early enough that it was nice an quiet!

Finally I had a look at G'day Sports ...AKA Farewell Pete and Lainey which seems to be located under the Tornament Bridge. This would be tricky and wet to get to on a dry summers day but on a damp November day with the river in full flow it would have been stupid and dangerous to even try.

4 out of 5