Going for a walk in Scotland

There is nothing more refreshing than a walk down a beautiful beach with clean white sand and unspoilt views. The west coast coast of Scotland offers some of the finest sandy beaches in the whole of the United Kingdom. A favourite of mine is Irvine Beach, which stretches south from Irvine Harbour to the beautiful town of Troon. It's a good couple of miles walking offering magnificent views over the sea to the Isle of Arron.

One of the reasons this beach is so clean is due to small groups of volunteers who regularly meet to clean litter and rubbish off the sand and surrounding dunes. I took part in a recent clean and loved every minute of it. The group was made up of people from many surrounding areas - but they all shared some common passions - a love of nature, a love off the seaside and a determination to keep the area clean and safe for others to enjoy.

There were some suprising items removed from the beach during our clean, including: plastic straws, wine bottles, beer cans, childrens plastic sandals, crisp packets... and a ridiculous quantity of abandoned socks! The bulk of this waste was largely due to an increase in visitors with the recent good weather, but with extra presense of council supplied bins clearly available, it saddened me to see such disregard for this beautiful place. Why can't people just put their rubbish in the bins provided? Or even take their rubbish home?

The wider issue of course, is the amount of items we use daily that are non-recylcable. Almost ALL of the litter we picked was plastic based - most of which would have ended up in our seas, polluting sea life and ultimately affecting the food chain that we rely on to survive.

There are plenty of recyclable alternatives available these days to take with you on a trip:

• Reusuable drinks bottles
• Paper bags instead of plastic ones
• Even better... use a ruck sack instead
• Bring food in re-useable containers

I'll be going back to help the clean up teams as much as I can and I will be actively involved in groups nearer to my home. It only takes an hour or so once or twice month to make a huge difference to the cleanliness of our countryside... and you can bring the kids!

If you would like to get involved, visit these links 🙂

• Irvine Beach clean up crew
• Marine Conservation Society (MCSUK)
• I have also written another article regarding beach cleaning (which you can find here).