Christmas Eve and on our wayback from Dumbarton we decided to stop and look at the River Ayr. We had noticed the pack ice on the way up a few days earlier and wanted to tack some shots. We packed in the small parking area between Dobbies and the road bridge and walked down the short track to the river. It was awesome, we had never seen anything like it and thought it only happened in other countries.
A77 road bridge
These plates of ice may look small but were up to 50cm thick and a couple of metres wide in places
Trees under pressure, when we visited a few days later these trees had gone!
Footprints in the snow on the ice
Only a small section of the river can be seen flowing
Giant Hogweed!(Heracleum mantegazzianum)
Stamp them out!
We must destroy them,
They infiltrate each city with their thick dark warning odour.
They are invincible,
They seem immune to all our herbicidal battering. (Genesis-Return of the Giant Hogweed)
These stunning specimens are growing alongside the River Ayr, although spectacular they area foreign invader that prevents native plant species from growing. Under the Wildlife & Countryside Act it is an offence to ‘plant or otherwise cause Giant Hogweed to grow’ in the wild.
They are also a health hazzard and can badly blister the skin.
On 28th December we returned to see the river again, not such good light but the ice had packed even more and its level risen.
There was a lot more pressure on the road bridge
It was attracting a lot more notice and the traffic on the A77 had come to a virtual standstill
We spock to several people and they all said that they had never seen anything like it before.
I dont think so!
This is where there had been trees on a island but these had been destroyed by the ice
We had stood the other side of this wall a few days earlier, now the ice was pushing up against it!
Trees under pressure.On 10th January I asked Kirsty to go back to see if the ice had cleared, the following pictures are hers.....
