Wigtownshire Ramblers-Portpatrick to Port of Spittal Bay

It's Saturday the 23rd of May and todays walk is coastal south from the picturesque village of Portpatrick.
It's pouring rain as i leave Newton Stewart.Not to worry though,the forecast i saw last night was excellent for the Rhins.

Arriving at Portpatrick there's none of the expected sunshine.Instead it's overcast,windy and still some rime in the air.I only put my warm coat in the car as an afterthought.

Panorama of Portpatrick Front on CleVR.com

Judging by the car registrations,there's a lot of southern visitors...perhaps thinking they aught to have turned south.It's nine degrees celcius with us,but it's twenty two on the south coast.Oh dear !

There's sixteen of us as we begin the walk up the steep steps to the cliff tops...

...where we're accompanied by two canines,Lily (top),and Curly.

Dunskey Castle's our first point of interest.
I've mentioned the history of Dunskey previously so there's no need to here.It's quite dramatic the way it's perched on the clifftops though.

Heading through one of the caravan and camping sites at Portree,a kite flyer takes advantage of the strong winds.

This is quite an undulating walk,and here we have to drop down this wee glen to cross the Craigoch burn.There's a few slippery and muddy stretches of path to negotiate.Dunskey Castle's soon behind us.

It's a very colourful time of year for the wild flowers and plants,and as usual our amateur botanists are in full flow trying to identify different species.I know the central flower here is some form of wild orchid.

I assume this sign refers to this item i found.
A FORMER derelict radar building at Eagle View on the Portpatrick cliffs is destined to be renovated into a holiday home.
The 'Hush Hush', as it is known locally, has been given provisional approval for transformation from a "deteriorating eyesore" into a brand new house by a local couple.
Were heading inland for a short detour.There's some relief from the strong wind now.

I think i've said this before,but there's something about the livestock in Galloway that makes them look so much healthier than those from other regions.

We're well equipped with stiles and walkers gates along here.I'm still not losing enough weight,and occasionally find myself in a tight spot.No problem for the majority of our group though.

Our short detour gets us back towards the coast,and now a long slippy slope with an electric fence alongside takes us down to the Knockinaam Lodge road.(We wont come back up this way,a slip would make one automatically make a grab for something to hold onto,and that would be the electric fence-one walker was zapped on the climb down)

Port of Spittal Bay and lunch now.It's a case of finding a sheltered spot from the seaspray and wind.Some blue sky out to the west made us optimistic about the return leg being brighter.The sound of the surf is very loud here.
After a very pleasant and sociable lunch break were on the move again.
The car park of the Knockinaam Lodge Hotel is pretty full.It's a very popular place.Knockinaam Lodge

A steady scenic walk on tarmac...

...brings us to Port o' Spittal,a colourful proud peacock...


...Gypsy caravans...

...and a pair of Irish Tinkers (or Gypsy Cobs or Vanners-is there a difference?).

Back now towards the coast,and time for a Jelly Baby.

Morroch Bay below us.Take a look on their enticing website.Morroch Bay

As Dunskey Castle comes back into view,the threatened blue skies are failing to materialize.Despite the weather we're all in good spirits,and enjoying plenty of jocularity...

...such as testing the bridge over the Craigoch burn for weight limits,and referring to the muddy path down to it as a 'Midden'.

Back through the Castle Bay Caravan and Residential Park where sits an interesting looking trike motorbike .


Back down the steps to the village brings our walk to an end.To complete the day,I join fellow ramblers for tea and scones in a lovely and not expensive cafe.
Despite the sun not coming out,it's been a very enjoyable walk,and one i'll bear in mind for my visitors.

Cairngarroch Bay Revisited

Regular blog readers may remember me visiting Cairngarroch Bay last year.
Previous Visit
I thought i'd return for some more exploring.It's a very rocky and stony bay requiring careful negotiation of ones feet...

...but the whole natural beauty of the place is worth the effort.

I found the commemorative plaque that eluded me on my previous visit.

A shrine has been made with small pieces of wreckage (i assume) placed around the rock.


I found the following tract by the author Alan James O'Reilly on an Easy Company message board-hopefully he won't mind it's reproduction here. Band of Brothers
Dear All

I believe this belongs here - and especially to this site, for reasons which will become apparent. The book mentioned below is short but touches on a very moving aspect of the 506th's history.

In the World War 2 section of the 506th PIR Association web page, Private Jack F. Sheidler, 2nd Battalion HQ, 506th PIR, is listed as KIA on July 27th 1944.

Last Friday, at the conclusion of a family visit to friends in south west Scotland, I discovered, quite by chance, the tragic circumstances surrounding Private Sheidler's death.

Private Sheilder was one of the victims of a C-47A crash that occurred on July 27th 1944 at Cairngarroch Bay, Portpatrick, Stranraer, Wigtonshire, Dumfries and Galloway. It was the biggest air disaster in that area until the Lockerbie atrocity 44 years later.

A detailed account of the 1944 crash is found in "The Rhinns' Forgotten Air Disaster, One Man's Search for the Facts" by Sandy Rankin, ISBN 0 9535776-9-4, Stranraer and District Local History Trust, Tall Trees, London Road, Stranraer DG9 8BZ.

The C47 belonged to the 441st Troop Carrier Group, 9th Air Carrier Command. It was one of two that took off from RAF Merryfield in Somerset at about 1 pm on July 27th 1944 en route to Prestwick near Ayr, ferrying wounded from the Normandy campaign for the first leg of their journey back to the USA. Each aircraft carried a crew of 9, including medical personnel and 13 casualties.

Approaching the coast of Dumfries and Galloway at an altitude of about 200 feet, attempting to keep below the cloud base, the C-47s suddenly encountered thick sea fog. One of the aircraft avoided the cliffs above Cairngarroch Bay by the narrowest of margins - its undercarriage (only partially retracted for a C-47) actually gouged a furrow along the grassy clifftop. The other aircraft - on which Pvt. Sheidler was travelling - crashed into the cliff face at the northern end of the bay.

The Portpatrick lifeboat was the first rescue party on the scene, arriving at about 7 pm local time with an RAF doctor. They found that all but one of the 22 passengers and crew on board the C-47 had been killed. The sole survivor was the Crew Chief, S/Sgt Merl W. Skinner. He had sustained terrible injuries in the crash and died at about 8:15 pm that evening.

Sandy Rankin, the author of the account, had always had an interest in the incident, having grown up in nearby Portpatrick. His grandfather Alexander Rankin and uncle James Rankin had been members of the lifeboat crew dispatched to the crash site. Alexander Rankin had evidently stayed beside the stricken S/Sgt. Skinner until he died. Unable to move or even scarce touch him, the life boat crew soaked a circle of ground around Skinner with petrol and set fire to it in order to give him some warmth. The RAF doctor did manage to adminster morphine to ease the airman's passing.

Sandy spent many years tracing the background of the victims of the crash. It was not easy but among the most comprehensive summaries he obtained was that of Private Sheidler, who is now buried in Cambridge, England. Jack Sheidler was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Sheidler from Elkhart, Indiana. Jack had been wounded on June 7th 1944. He was 21 years of age at the time. Sandy Rankin has this word of commendation for the 506th PIR, p 35:

"Just prior to the landing of seaborne forces, the high ground overlooking the beaches was siezed and held by men of the 506th Regiment.

"From D-Day until 10th July, when the unit was relieved to return to England, the 506th was to fight in the toughest battles of the Normandy campaign. Many of the men were not to return and many more spent months in hospitals".

Sandy includes a very poignant letter from Pvt. Sheidler's parents to the parents of another victim of the crash, 29 year old 2nd Lieutenant Mary Edith Jackley, a nursing sister serving with the 813th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron. The photograph of her which is included in the book shows her to have been strikingly good looking. The other details given about her reveal that she was a highly professional young woman of outstanding character.

Mr and Mrs Sheidler's letter to 2nd Lieutenant Jackley's parents reads in part as follows:

"This has been an awful shock to us all. So let's try to take comfort in the Lord. They tell us he does everything for the best. Even this, [though] he tears our hearts out.

"God bless and comfort you in your sorrow."

Sandy Rankin was instrumental in having a memorial plaque placed on the cliff face near the crash site. It was dedicated on July 27th, 1999. 2nd Lieutenant Jackley's sister attended the service on the shore of the bay, during which Pipe Major James Brown played the lament "The Flowers o' the Forest". He had been working near Cairngarroch Bay on July 27th 1944 and had heard the crash.

The bond between the local people around Portpatrick and families of the crash victims - one of whom was a Scotsman, LAC Samuel Gilmour, RAF, of Kilwinning, Ayrshire - remains very strong. It is a genuine example of the 'special relationship' between the United States and Great Britain.

Sandy Rankin has another reason for his pre-occupation with the Rhinns' disaster. (The Rhinns is the name given to the general area.) The Lockerbie atrocity of December 22nd 1988, where 259 passngers and crew of Pan Am Flight 103 died, was mentioned above. Then a serving officer with the Strathclyde Police, Rankin drove a police van into Lockerbie, where he recalls "I could see the smoking remains of Sherwood Crescent, which took the brunt of the crash and where eleven local people died".

He concludes his excellent booklet with the familiar lines from Laurence Binyon's poem, read out at the end of the memorial dedication service by the late Peter Starling, then President of the Wigtonshire Antiquarian Society "without [whose] will and organising ability there would have been no memorial service":

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old,
"Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
"At the going down of the sun and in the morning
"We will remember them"

Alan O'R

Close by is Red Cave

Cairngarroch Bay in the South Rhins

A look at Cairngarroch Bay and Red Cave on the South Rhins in South West Scotland.
Back in WW2,Cairngarroch Bay was the scene of a very poignant and tragic air crash.
Two American Dakota planes carrying wounded D-Day survivors flew into thick fog as they approached the Rhins coast on their way to Prestwick and then the United States.
But the men in one of them never returned home, nor did the crew and one RAF man from Ayr who had hitched a lift home with his bicycle - 22 in total. For it flew too low and crashed into cliffs at Cairngarroch Bay near Portpatrick.
Now out of print,Sandy Rankins book 'The Rhinns' Forgotten Air Disaster' tells the harrowing story.
The floor of Red Cave is totally covered with flotsam and jetsam,hence the dodgy camera work.
Occasionally above the sound of the waves can be heard a noisy Oystercatcher.

Wigtownshire Ramblers-Garlick Hill

It's Saturday the 16th of May,and the weather forecast isn't a very good one.For that reason,i'll use one or two pictures i took on Tuesday's recce.I'll leave it to blog readers to decide where i've used photographic license.

Twenty three ramblers gather for todays circular walk up Garlick Hill.We're starting from Auchinleck Bridge.

One of our most regular canine friends,Curly,is joining us today.

We're along forest roads to begin with.First half a kilometre west,then north along Queens hill for a couple of kilometres.I'm not sure what our walk leader was describing here,but it must have been big!.
Now leaving the forest road we begin a zig-zag westwards and upward.

There's a nice view of Auchinleck below us.

The going's steady enough...
...this was previously forest,and there's lots of old wood to contend with.

Gaining height and reaching the slopes of Benera,the wind strengthens.We've been out in worse weather than this,but it always amazes me how upbeat the group are.

Behind us,the Cree meanders it's way out into Wigtown Bay.

Reaching this drystane dyke,we're heading north again.

To the north and east is a patchwork of forestry colour,with the peak of Curlywee prominent.

Bog and tussocks underfoot,but there's still lots of colour down there.

Now almost at the summit,with Risk farm in the foreground,an even more open view of the Cree valley.


Now at the summit it's a fairly quick photo call,we'll have lunch somewhere more sheltered.
Garlick hill may not be one of the highest or most popular of the Galloway hills,but for all round views it takes a lot of beating.
The sun was too hazy for good pictures on the recce-today we have the problem of cloud.
On Tuesdays recce we could see north west to Ailsa Craig and the Mull of Kintyre,south to the Isle of Man,and all points west.

Just below the summit and out of the wind is where we take lunch.We even had the sun break the clouds for thirty seconds or so.Heather makes a lovely bed.

Lunch over too soon,we're heading south down a precarious forest ride.We're heading for the forest road in the middle of this picture which will take us back to Auchinleck.

Now on terrafirma,and with Garlick just a wee brae behind them,the group take another breather.

It's forest road all the way back now,but there's still lots to see.You won't see rocks like these in many cities.

The Black burn tumbles it's way down to join up with the Glenshalloch burn.

Into the forest we take another short break to allow the group to close up.

We're still heading south as Glenshalloch and Risk farms come into view.
Here at Glenshalloch we take the left fork eastwards again.

Now here below Glenshalloch hill is our last point of interest,Murdochs cave.
Our walk leader has worked out fairly precisely where the cave should be.
I seem to think i've mentioned Murdoch's cave in a previous blog,but i'm not sure under what label.
I've looked for the cave before,but without success.It seems others have failed as well.Murdochs Cave

But we have found something manmade,and it's possibly the entrance.
In the top picture,obscured by the undergrowth is a wall of six or eight alternate upright stone slabs.Perhaps a knowledgeable reader can shed some light on it.

With cave exploration coming to nothing,it's just a short walk back to the cars.
Even with the inclement weather most walkers declare the walk a good one.
I know i enjoyed it.

Sasquatch

In my post from last Saturday entitled 'Wild Wood' was an odd looking moss covered top stone in a drystone wall.The Galloway Gazette were asking for any odd pictures,so i sent it to them.

I love their very witty header.