Fairlee Waterfall, Castle and The Pencil Monument

South West Scotland 2021: Part Fourteen

17 September 2021

Today when I woke up the view was pretty much non existent. A grim cloud sat over the area, drizzling heavily, leaving me with not much to see here, and leaving everything just a flat grey. I was parked up by the river and could see that the other campers were still here. None of them seemed to make any moves to leave early, so, without any set plans I just chilled for a few hours, taking my time, having breakfast, playing a game, and just having a casual think on what I fancied doing today. After the other vans eventually started drifting off to get on with their days, I jumped out and took a photo of Fred before finally getting on with mine. It was a very relaxing start.

I ended up settling on a waterfall at Fairlee. I had only found this one the other day, and although I didn’t really hold up much hope, it might be better than just sitting here in the camper all day, looking out at a non view of a misly river. I found parking easily, and the walk, although steep didn’t appear complicated – she says, hitting one spot that seemed to be a wrong turn for the falls. I retraced my steps and continued up the steep hill until I realised I had then overshot past my turn, and found myself much further away from the burn. I couldn’t hear any water at all from here. Mildly frustrated with myself, I backtracked again, stopping a couple of times to take pictures. Although I wasn’t particularly excited by them, it seemed the main waterfall wasn’t even there. Confused, I wondered whether the prolonged dry spell had depleted the falls to nothing. I went back to double check the spot where I thought I had taken the first wrong turn, and leaned out as far as I could, to try and see the river from here. As I strained to see over a muddy outcrop, I caught a glimpse of the fall. It wasn’t gone at all, it was just a little inaccessible from this spot.

I looked around, following the river with my eyes, and had an idea. I slipped down the steep muddy bit on my bum (thank goodness I was in waterproofs today, that saved my jeans some!), and managed to get down to the waters edge. From here I just walked boldly into the shallow river, and strode up the (pretty non existent) lower part of the falls and around a bit of a bend until the upper falls came into view. There might be an easier way, although several online comments mentioned that they had to do this as well. The falls were a good height, but not quite as photogenic as I might have liked, with fallen trees everywhere and the water flow, as has been the kicker on this trip, very minimal. I worked the scene as much as possible though, with a couple of the shots showing a little promise of being useable post edit. I suspect this one would look amazing in full spate, although the walk in and along the river would definitely be far more challenging. I didn’t see a bank that could be traversed particularly easily, so it remains to be seen if this might be as possible as one might like at that point ..

Once finished, I climbed back out and made my way further down stream. As I walked in this direction, I noticed someone had pitched a blue tent off to the side, tucked well into the wooded growth. I had a tentative look, and there was a possibly that someone had abandoned it, because there seemed to be no one about, but behind that, I spotted a worn footpath. Curious I followed the footpath, and found another smaller fall. I was sure this would look better with more water, but once again climbed down and walked into the river itself to explore the site. I looked at all angles for a composition I liked, but nothing really jumped out at me. I ended up going a little further downstream to capture the entire cascade, although even that proved tricky to capture well. When I saw the shot on screen however, I noticed all the early autumn leaves were really adding colour that I loved. This one felt much better for me, and it was a beautiful peaceful spot that I really enjoyed being in.

I continued back towards the van stopping only once more to have a quick look at the outside of Fairlee castle. This was a tower castle, buried in the woods overlooking a steep drop to the river that I had been following. There wasn’t any information on it, so I didn’t think it was a tourist site to visit, nor did I photograph it since it was surrounded by a metal fence stopping anyone getting close. It looked to be having a little work done to it, possibly to make safe, I wasn’t sure. As I stood in the rain looking over the castle I found myself chatting to a man called Billy who, as it turned out, was actually the current owner of this Castle. He was a fascinating man to talk to, correcting some of my assumptions and telling me a little of the history. He then went on to tell me all about the work that was going on and his plans to fix the castle to a liveable condition again. He hoped that in 2 years, he might be finished, and this wonderful place might be a home once again. So far it had taken him 7 years, just to get through all the planning, testing and rope jumping! The powers that be had finally granted him the permission to go ahead with his plans, and his excitement was clear in his chatter. It was a bold idea of his to give this old home a second chance, but I totally loved his dream. It was well and truly raining by now, so we bid our goodbyes (with him telling me to come and knock on his door in 2 years, and hopefully he would be able to offer me a cup of tea!) I wish I had stopped to take a photo of the castle today, because if I ever can get back, it would have been awesome to see the changes.

Once back in Fred I made a nice coffee and sat trying to work out where else I could go. The walk I had read online for the castle/waterfall led to other sights to see in Ayrshire, most not of interest to me in this grim weather. I didn’t fancy a second waterfall today either, so missed seeing Biglees falls that was nearby too, but there’s always next time right? Google maps flagged up a monument nearby that looked like a curiosity worth trying however. It felt a bit different so I found local parking, and plotted the route there. I was really excited to find that the parking I had spotted not only had a dedicated motorhome parking spot, but it was only a few minutes walk away from the location. As an added bonus it was right by another marina, and as my second gas bottle had just given up as well, it might be worth checking to see if these sold them too.

The Pencil is a monument in Largs, dedicated to the memory of a battle in 1236, where the Scots King Alexander III fought off Vikings that had landed here. It wasn’t a huge or momentous battle by many standards, but the locals wanted to commemorate the ‘Battle of Largs’ with something in 1912, and this was the affordable option they picked. The slender tower is a scaled down replica of a similar tower at Brechin built around 1050. This type of tower was originally used as a refuge, bell tower or treasury, with the only access being via a retractable ladder to the entrance half way up. I took a quick walk out to the monument in the rain, and then returned for my camera, having seen a nice moody shot (see header) The rain got very frustrating very quickly however, spoiling many of the shots I tried to get, so instead I gave up and went back for some tea. The wet weather eased as the dinner was cooked and eaten, and then as I settled for the evening, I noticed a band of light on the horizon. I quickly grabbed my camera, jumped out and bolted over the road to a good position to capture a few handheld shots. Unfortunately, though I really tried, I was unable to get a long exposure and I cursed myself for not bringing my tripod. I ran back to the van, collected it, returned and set up within 10 minutes, but I missed the best of the strong afterglow from the setting sun as it hit the underside of the cloud. I was still able to capture some long exposure shots before the last of the light dimmed completely though, and was over the moon with how these came out because these shots all looked absolutely amazing and dramatic.

What luck this was tonight, and so totally unexpected! After such a wet and disappointing day, this magical light really made up for everything. I went back to the van with a big old smile on my face.