Posts Tagged ‘Walk Scotland’

Windfarms threaten tourism in South West Scotland

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

Cosses Country House, a luxury bed and breakfast Wolsey Lodge situated in the beautiful hidden valley on Crailoch Burn, a tributary of the River Stinchar; is having its successful business threatened by the growing number of wind farms on the surrounding hills.
Many of our guests come to walk in the area. The walks from the house are stunningly beautiful, especially to the top of Beneraird an outstanding hill of 1,435 feet, on which stands a considerable Cairn (stone fortification). The path to it is part of the old road from Ballantrae to New Luce, and the view from the summit is remarkable with vistas extending from the Isle of Man to Arran; Ballantrae lies to the Northwest, Lagafater and its gleaming lochs nestle in the depths of the south, and all around is a vast panorama of mountains, valleys and moorland with the Merrick and Mountains of Fleet to the east. This is all to be destroyed if any more wind farms are allowed to be developed in South West Scotland.

Kilgallioch (8)(Arecleoch Phase 2) is just below Beneraird
all objectors to the Kilgallioch should lodge their complaints with Peter Barker, Senior Planner, D&G Council in addition to sending their objections to Debbie Flaherty, Planning Directorate

How will we attract tourists if every view incorporates wind turbines causing noise pollution, shadow flicker , property devaluation, – all of which effects the rural economy.
The legacy of windfarms will be far worse.
In theory every windfarm developer has to undertake to remove the turbines after 25 years but what guarantee is there that this will happen? Companies change hands all the time. This was raised in our local paper last week by someone referring to the situation in Hawaii
and across California where miles of rusting useless turbines are abandoned. That of course is what we see and does not take into account all that concrete underground.
Why when the planners are so stringent on allowing planning permission for building, would they allow our beautiful countryside to be littered with wind turbines?
Look at the way Denmark has been devastated with the installation of 5,100 wind towers – one for every thousand citizens. 300-foot-high steel and concrete towers can be seen from almost every field, farm, hill and seashore and only provide 10% of Denmark’s energy.
Britain’s wind farms have become ‘No Spin Zones’ when cold weather hits. When they were most needed in the recent cold weather from November to January with temperatures of minus 20 celsius, wind power failed miserably. On December 20th Britain’s average temperature fell to minus 5.6 celsius. At 6.30 that evening, the nation’s wind farms, which claim a generating capacity of 5.2GW of electricity, were actually generating a piffling 40MW, the eqivalent of 20 turbines working at full capacity!
Studies show that ‘cycling’ coal plants to accommodate wind generation makes the plants operation inefficient, which drives up emissions. Because the wind is not dependable, electric utilities must keep conventional power plants running so that the lights do not go out when the wind does not blow. Coal and Gas fired generators are designed to run continuously, if they don’t fuel consumption and emissions go up – just like driving a car. An automobile travelling at a constant speed of –say 55mph–will have better efficiency and emit less pollution per mile travelled, than one stuck in stop and go traffic!
There is a huge disparity between installed capacity and actual output into the system – often less than 20%.
Even more obscene are the government subsidies that go into wind power and the greed for these drives the desecration of our beautiful landscape. The reality is that, as Britain flaunts its environmental
credentials by speckling its coastlines and unspoiled moors and mountains with thousands of wind turbines, it is contributing to a vast man-made lake of poison in northern China. This is the deadly and sinister side of the massively profitable rare-earths industry that the
‘green’ companies profiting from the demand for wind turbines would prefer you knew nothing about.

Not a Wind Farm in sight

This is the legacy we should leave our grandchildren- not one littered with wind turbines

A Happy New Year from Cosses Country House

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
View from Crab apple avenue

View from Cosses drive


Happy New Year from Cosses Country House – your favourite Scottish Holiday Destination!
We have been busy in 2010 creating the Cosses Trail and Arboretum.
We have landscaped the pond, built a bird hide, built bridges and planted over 50 Acer trees and 12 Crab Apple Trees. This has created a wonderful trail – just about all that Bonzo dog can manage these days. Montydog loves the long walks such as the Ayrshire Coastal path, Carrick and Galloway walks and the western Southern Upland Way. Robin is enjoying playing golf .as all the coastal, links courses are open with lots of discounted play over the winter. We are officially part of Scotland’s first biosphere with real darkness witnessing metior showers, eclipses and wonderful star gazing.
We still have lots of winter vegetables, creating lots of winter dishes and now we are busy selecting seeds for all the special vegetables for our home grown produce for 2011.
We are open from February with the Winter White Festival for snowdrop walks, continuing through the spring with all the daffodils. We will have a Scotland Garden Scheme open day on 15th May with a bluebell walk.
Burnside

View over Cosses Valley

The Ayrshire Coastal Path from Cosses Country House

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Saturday was yet another glorious Autumn Day in South West Scotland and as we did not have any guests staying we set off to walk the first section of the Ayrshire Coastal path from Glenapp to Ballantrae
The Autumn colours were beautiful

Looking back to Glenapp

Climbing out of Glenapp


The path rises to give wonderful views of Loch Ryan and out to the Irish Sea, passing through forest, moorland, farmland and coastal bays and cliffs
Secluded harbour

The secluded Bay of Currarie Port


Nestled between the cliffs this was a great smugglers landing place


This is a great place for a picnic and Monty Dog to have a swim and cool off! From here you can watch wild goats and buzzards hunting pray, gliding on the wind around the cliffs. We also watched a fishing boat checking his lobster pots.
Quite a climb follows to the cliff tops, miles from any road

The sea crashes onto the rocks below


Grazing cattle and sheep, sky larks and gulls, hardly a sole to be seen (we met one walker heading south).

Walking along the cliff tops, Ballantrae just comes into view


As we get closer to Ballantrae, Knockdolian, dominates the skyline. This hill is known as the ‘False Craig’ , as from the sea its shape is the same as Ailsa Craig and sailors have been known to use it for navigation by mistake!

Knockdolian dominates the skyline above Ballantrae


As we approach Ballantrae, beautiful views of the River Stinchar and the Estuary appear
Estuary of the River Stinchar

The River Stinchar forms a beautiful Estuary where it flows into the Irish Sea


Lifts to and from locations on the Ayrshire Coastal path can be organised from Cosses Country House

Luxury, Summer Holiday Offers in Southern Scotland

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

After some much needed rain everything is green and growing again! I made blackcurrant jam this morning and picked broad beans, french beans, spring onions and various salad leaves to mix with smoked Ayrshire Bacon, parmasan shavings, anchovies, free range eggs and olives for a delicious lunch.

As we still have some availability in July and August we have put together some special hot summer deals to tempt you to this beautiful unspoilt part of Scotland

If you are a ‘passionate foodie’ you will love it!

*Come and stay for a minimum of 4 nights (with dinner on a minimum of 3 nights) and receive 20% discount off the B&B price (Sunday to Thursday)

*Enjoy a weekend break away from it all and receive a free bottle of wine, with dinner. ( 2 nights)

*Walking Packages – from gentle walks to a bit more strenuous, to a real challenge (including free packed lunch and drop offs ) The walking in this enchanting area of natural beauty has amazing views with seascapes
, Southern Upland Way, Ayr River Way, Carrick and Galloway hills.

*Romantic Luxury Break with free bottle of Delamotte Brut, Champagne, (Established in the prestigious village of Le Mesnil. Champagne Delamotte is Chardonnays most refined in style and pedigree.One of the oldest Champagne houses, 250 years old this year.)
and Pamper Packages arranged at Pebble Spa. – minimum 2 nights

5*****Golfing breaks on delightful courses, for couples or small parties, in South West Scotland. Golfing itineraries arranged and a 3 night package will include 2 rounds of golf at Dunsky / Stranraer/ Brunston / or Girvan.

3 nights dinner B&B and 2 rounds of golf in the Ailsa or Iona Suite £295 per person / Garden room £265per person

Please quote ‘Summer Specials’ to claim any of these offers – subject to availability.
We are a Wolsey Lodge, that very special place to stay away from it all!