Gailes Marshes

After a failed attempt to find the cache hidden at the Fullerton Arches (aka the Bailey Bridge) in Irvine I headed down to the Gailes Marshes. There are two caches located there and I was one a mission to find them.

First up was Explore Gailes Marsh – Golfer’s Meadow and I parked next to a level crossing which leads to Western Gailes Golf Course clubhouse. The Gailes railway station used to be located here until 1967 but today there is little trace of it. The crossing made the headlines in 2007 when a Ford Transit van was hit by a commuter train killing the driver.

To get to the cache from here, involved crossing the golf course. Luckily there was no one around today so there  was no-one to annoy. I soon reached the cache location and when the GPS told me I was there I looked around and spotted the hiding place right way.

The second cache Explore Gailes Marsh – Not Expensive, it’s Deer is located at the other end of the marshes. My first attempt to get to it was thwarted by mud (well it is a marsh after all) so I took an alternative route and was soon back on track. Picking my way around muddy lagoons and frozen puddles I reached the place my GPS was showning and again after a quick look around I found the cache without difficulty.

At the turn off which leads down to the marshes, there is an old derelict farm house. It looks like this was once quite a prosperous farm and there are a large range of other farm buildings around it. Today it's totally empty and quite spooky.

Just across from the farmhouse I met some new friends. The marshes are currently home to some beautiful horses and when I went over to take some photos they all came over to say hello. I'm not the best with horses, in fact I'm usually terrified of them, but today I actually managed to give one of them a pat on the nose.