An Eye-Opening Walk to - A White Elephant - Irvine’s Millennium Dome

The sun has finally come out in Ayrshire! It is perfect caching weather.


Mr.Biff decided enough was enough today was going to be a full Biffo69 family day out. Our teenage girls are less and less interested these days in seeking out tupperware from mossy holes full of creepy crawlies. In truth Co would rather eat her own spleen than having a fun filled family caching outing as team Biffo. So foot down Mr.Biff came up with some clever blackmail plot to get them onside.


As the car seems to be haemoraging petrol just now we looked for some caches closer to home. 

A White Elephant - Irvine’s Millennium Dome by HC67 (GC1TR3Q)  has been on our 'to do' list for a long long time and today was the perfect day for it. 

So we set off, a rare trip out as the whole family, we picked up  Big Rab by Mousey1403 (GC1MEWY) along route. Most unusually Co found this one, leaving a very unhappy Baby Biff. The art work is called Chemikal Burns (their spelling not mine) and is an unusually happy depiction of oor national bard. I liked it.....

Dogs were having a ball running through the water and trying to catch seagulls (dream on Drummer!). Checking GPS we realize that this will be a big walk as it states we still have over an hour to walk Eeeeeekkkk.... don't tell the kids!

We were thoroughly enjoying our little jaunt....when....well I'd forgotten previously reading the logs a while back, suddenly they came instantly to mind. I recall years ago mention of a 'naturalist' beach near Troon or Irvine, but surely that was just a rumour... well it appears that it isn't! It's actively 'naturalizing' Ardeer beach.  

Still, you don't quite believe your eyes when you see in the distance what appear to be...no it can't be can it? Oh bugger...tell the kids to avert their eyes! Thing is, it's a beautiful day and there are A LOT of them (well lets face it, one really is too many). And not that I am stating a preference here but why are they all more SAGA than 18-30?  Actually more SAGGY than SAGA. We tell the kids, now you want to see the look on a teenagers face when you tell them that we have accidentally stumbled onto a nudist beach, first they ask what such a thing is, then they roll their eyes and say 'yeah yeah....' then the disbelief...the dawning realization that such people, local people, fearless people (this is a Scottish beach after all) actually exist.

"Oh great family day out!" quips Co sarcastically. 

"Why have they no clothes on?" asks Con again for the 10th time. 

The thing is, there is no answer! I can give my child no explanation why people are naked on the beach (which is covered in washed up winter trash, one of them has built a kind of shelter with oil drums, Buckfast bottles, driftwood and the like.... but we can still see him.... oh yes, we can still see him; it's like a 'blue' Scottish version of Castaway ..... and no he didn't look like Tom Hanks). 

We experience the next 20 minutes walk like one would when passing a car crash.........TRY HARD NOT TO LOOK!!!!!!!! The girls are not impressed, other parents take 'family days out' to safari parks, shopping trips, even museums would be preferable to this, at least nude statues don't 'jiggle'. 

Get the dogs on their leads, Drummer is very friendly, this is an occasion where we don't want him befriending strangers!

Once passed the 'nature reserve' I try to change the subject 'Oh lots of driftwood, I bet this is where people come to get the bleached wood for their garden'.......I'm not going to write Mr.Biff's reply. Though it made me laugh loud enough that I probably offended the wildlife. Now I am aware that I sound a bit twee and immature, everyone is entitled to live their life as they see fit. Maybe 'don't knock it till you try it' would be a fair enough comment, sure why not, but I'll wait till I'm on a deserted island in the Caribbean thanks all the same, not over the dune from the Nobel explosives site in North Ayrshire! 

Onwards we hiked and finally we came to A White Elephant - Irvine’s Millennium Dome  .
Funny, I'd seen the 'Big Idea' building a lot from the Magnum side of the harbour, but never visited it in the few short years that it was operational. We found the cache quickly enough, lots of jaggies but that comes with the territory so we sent Connie in! the building still has everything inside and appears that someone simply turned the key to lock it one day and that was that...what a waste! I really see why the cache owner named it Irvine's White Elephant. the girls loved the 'Tellytubby' building until I told them that the show ended when the Tellytubbies turned bad and were now living under the dome, coming out of the curved air vents to eat little geocachers.

All in all we had a super day out, an excellent hike along a little discovered beach. Perhaps this cache should come with a clear warning though. I hate to think what my children are going to tell the world about tonight on Facebook about our 'family day out'! Even worse than that, what will they tell their Granny?!!!!!