North Shore, Ardrossan

[Penny Tray]

I was along the North Shore in Ardrossan today - sniffing the salt air, smelling the seaweed and remembering swimming around and diving off Big Jumbo.

[Penny Tray]

This 'structure', for the want of a better description, has protruded from the sand behind Loup Cottage for 55 years or so that I can speak of personally and probably many years before this.

Does anyone know for sure what it was originally, presumably a small shipwreck?

And am I correct in thinking that at one time alongside it there was an almost wholly submerged wagon/trolley with a long pulling handle, the sort of thing you would once see in railway stations for moving luggage around. It was as if someone had taken it there, maybe loaded it with wood or cargo from the wreck, failing to realise that it would sink in the wet sand and when it did they had just abandoned it there. Or maybe my brain is just a casualty of time. Anyone remember such a wagon/trolley and if so any idea what happened to it?

[morag]

Homesick, the colours...I can almost smell the fresh salt air..

[Penny Tray]

Sorry Morag, I know how you feel and I live only 30 miles away from the Threetowns, inland mind you. The smells were tremendous today. I walked from the Toll Store at the foot of the Dalry Road Brae, Ardrossan, to the Seamill Hydro and back. As I got close to Big Jumbo I was almost running, just to touch the rock again.

With regard to the structure behind Loup Cottage, whilst searching for an answer to my own question I came across the following link. Could this be the ancient fish trap? Alternatively, there is a photo on FLICKR where the photographer refers to the same shot as mine as the "Old Target Boat"?

http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/searc ... S&id=41137" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[morag]

Don't be sorry, P.T., if you could bottle the essence of that you'd be a wealthy man!

[wellparkno9]

Hi PT,I remember my mother telling me that the structure your talking about was an old ship that was used for target practice during the first war.I suppose it was a wee bit farther out in the bay when they were shooting at it.Sam.

[Hughie]

Great memories of the north shore flood back, Penny. Looking forward to seeing this topic surfaces regularly. I can still smell the seaweed and see the farmers with their tractors gathering the wrack (seaweed). Oh how sweet Ayrshire tatties tasted back then, all because of that seaweed.

Here in Australia I grew tatties comparable (well almost) with Ayrshires as they were. All because I knew about adding seaweed. Our two sons couldn't believe how good they tasted. I didn't even use certified seed potatoes back then. All I did was pick unscrubbed tatties from the Supermarket and stuck them under the kitchen sink to sprout - quartered them and planted them in the method I was taught in the fields at West Kilbride and Ardrossan all those years ago by the local farmers. Magic happens with the aid of water and a wee bit of fertiliser.

[Penny Tray]

Hughie, one of the things that astonished me yesterday was that not a single field between Ardrossan and Seamill contained potatoes. This would have been unthinkable in our day. There were no signs either that farmers or anyone else removed seaweed from the shoreline. There was a time when many of the men in Rowanside Terrace and elsewhere spread it on their back gardens where they grew their own potatoes and other vegetables. And one household I recall gathered red coloured seaweed for a family member to bathe in at home as a recommended relief for arthritis.

This is another photo that I took yesterday. It wasn't my intention to post it but it turned out quite modern arty. It's simply good old North Shore seaweed.

[unicornheart]

i was also along north shore this morning and the seaweed was very strong i remember i used to collect it for my garden, i would say just a few years ago. and i used to work the tattie fields along north shore? and other farms when i was young (memories?)

[Penny Tray]

Unicornheart,

I stopped and filled my lungs at both these spots, particularly the second. And I wish folk wouldn't paint on the rocks:

[Robert Cook]

When we lived at 8 Rowanside Terrace my brothers and I used to take the home made "Bogie" and go down the North shore to collect seaweed for the garden. It was quite a long trip specially as it was uphill on the way back but
the bogie got lighter as we went home as the water ran out of the seaweed. We would make three or four trips in a day.

Robert

[Milda]

I think I have finally lost it,I found myself trying to breathe in the smell from that seaweed.