Three Towns

It was the morning of Christmas Eve and there was lots to get ready for the big day tomorrow so I decided to take the kids out to let SuperMum get on with it in peace. Just as I was heading out the door however, SuperKid (our youngest) decided she didn't want to come so in the end it was just SuperGirlie and me.

Last week SuperMum and I had started the Country Road series of caches. These are hidden along a short stretch of country road behind Stevenston. We'd managed to find three out of the seven in the series but we'd had to stop half way through go go and collect the kids from their Grandparents. Today we headed back to complete the series.

The first of these was Country Road - No 5, however when we got to the location there was a woman out for a run (in the wind and rain). She appeared to be running up and down the hill and after waiting in the car for a short while we decided to move on and come back later. The next two caches, Country Road - No 6 and Country Road - No 7 were really simple to find and SuperGirlie even found the second of them on her own.

I.H.M. Bonnie Lesley Monument was our next cache and by now it was raining and the wind was getting up. The clue for this one was very clear and when we go to the GZ it was quite obvious where the cache would be hidden. A quick look and we had found it. This monument was moved to this location in 1929 but was originally to found near Kerlaw Mains Farm. It is dedicated to Lesley Bailey, a woman much admired by Robert Burns and the subject of a number of his love poems but was originally built as a memorial to Lesley's mother May Reid. It's current location overlooks Mayville House where "Bonnie Lesley" was born.

Despite the admiration of Burns (who described her as the "Immortal Goddess" and wrote that the Almighty God had made the most beautiful, perfect woman and broke the mould so that no other could be made, even the devil could not tempt her - obviously he never met SuperMum!) Lesley married Robert Cumming and moved away to live in Edinburgh. She is buried with her sister Grace in the small graveyard of St Johns the Evangelist Church on Princes Street in Edinburgh. Today, the motto of Stevenston is "To spread her conquests farther", a line from the poem "Bonnie Lesley".

Next was a quick park and grab on the way into Saltcoats and was another solo effort by SuperGirlie. There's not a lot I can say about R. U. Coming or Going (Saltcoats) 2nd Edition without telling you where it is but it's really easy to find but a bit exposed so be careful.

After a quick stop to get a drink and a snack we made our way to Ardrossan Castle. The remains of the castle can be found on Castle hill which has an amazing view of the whole coastline although today the weather wasn't on our side. When we got to the top it was blowing a gale and we could hardly stand up straight. Using the clues we found the cache Home to Ardrossan 2 ? quite quickly then went for a careful look around the castle. This cache is a decent sized tub so good for swaps and it was here we found the Scot Ness TB. The castle is very interesting, however the structure is unstable and there are signs everywhere advising you to keep out. We decided that if has been here since about 1140 AD it probably wasn't going to fall down today (despite the winds).

The castle apparently has an association with William Wallace and there is an underground dungeon type opening known as Wallaces Larder where he threw the remains of an entire English Garrison that his army had slaughtered. More relevant today however is that the name Ardrossan is derived from the hill upon which the castle is built with "ard" meaning high and "rossan" being a rocky promontory.

Cold, windswept and probably not very interesting, we headed back to the Country Road series to collect that last cache Country Road - No 5. Once again this was an easy find, however the container had been nibbled by a mouse or something similar. We signed the log and gave the cache a bit of TLC by waterproofing it in a spare zip lock bag from our caching kit. Sadly this nice wee country road has been the target of some "dumb dumpers" and on both sides of the road are piles of rubbish including a full dismantled wardrobe.

Deciding to grab one last cache before heading home we stopped at Across the Sea to Arran. Technically Arran isn't across the sea (it's across the Firth of Clyde), but today it didn't matter as we couldn't even see the sea from here never-mind Arran. For this one SuperGirlie stayed in the car and I scrambled my way into the bushes. The cache wasn't where I'd originally suspected but was quite obvious to spot. You'll see what I mean if you go looking for it!

7 out of 7 found and we headed for home. I've been caching every day this week, I think I'll take tomorrow off....well it is Christmas Day after all... Merry Christmas!