Season: autumn
Fairlie has a long sandy beach, with some shingle and rocks on the foreshore. At the southern end is a private pier and out to sea are views to Great and Little Cumbrae Islands, as well as to the Isle of Arran. This is a favoured yachting venue and there is a slipway for dinghies. Fairlie is a quiet town nowadays, although it has a pub and a gift shop, plus a petrol station. This was not always the case. A collection of colourful Glaswegian entrepreneurs started with John Fife in the late 18th Century, whose descendants built the famous Fife racing yachts. Next to come along was the disreputable banker, Peter Peterson, who ran off with the money. The arrival of the railway in 1880 raised Fairlie’s profile as an up-market commuter satellite for Glasgow. Pensioners and commuters now hold sway.
What this beach means to Billy and Christine.
Christine tells us more.
The scene at Fairlie.
