The Sleeping Warrior

This morning I took my youngest daughter back to her University accommodation in Ayr.

It's a place I always enjoy visiting, although on this occasion I only stayed long enough to help her carry some of the boxes and other bits and pieces upstairs to the flat.

Not long after we were married, my wife and I spent two very happy years in Ayr where I worked as Assistant Minister at Ayr: Castlehill Church. So it has always been a special sort of place- especially the view out across the Firth of Clyde to the Isle of Arran.

On my return journey today as I passed Prestwick Airport the view across to Arran was particularly dramatic with the island's snow-capped peaks scraping the clouds. I couldn't resist stopping the car to take a photograph.

I'm rather embarrassed to admit, however, that even though I have seen Arran from just about every angle (and it looks fantastic from the Kintyre peninsula too) I have never actually set foot on this particular island, where our current First Minister, Jack McConnell grew up on a sheep farm.

This is something that I really must do something about- not Jack McConnell's upbringing... but my failure to visit Arran. One of these days...

By the way, for those who don't know "The Sleeping Warrior" refers to the outline of the mountain ridge that forms the spine of the island and is supposed to look like... well, a sleeping warrior...

Talking of which, it is time I went to bed...