TOC 90th Anniversary Ayrshire Gathering 5th Oct 2024

October 5th was a beautiful, fresh Saturday morning when the Ayrshire Talbot Gathering began the drive towards the Southwest Scotland 300 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Talbot Owner’s Club. 

We met at Stair about 8 miles east of Ayr around 9am and got three of the cars warmed up and packed up.  These were the rare 1937 110 Speed Saloon driven by myself and Jayne Middleton, a 1933 Vanden Plas  tourer which has been spending some time up in Ayrshire, driven by Peter and Griz Gordon, and a 1934 65 Saloon driven by Matthew and Marie Mair.

We were joined shortly by Fraser and Jeannot Ramsden, members of the TOC, who had voyaged up that morning from Newton Stewart in their 1936 75 Saloon. 

The convoy continued down the coast road to meet up with Grant Allan and Rory Mohan at a mutual friend’s farm just above Maidens, near Turnberry along the coast. 

Grant Allan is a member of the TOC and drove his ‘34 Alpine 90, while Rory, who is a specialist in many marques, both two wheeled and four, brought his red 1976 Corvette Stingray 4-speed, a strong statement amongst the classics and a welcome addition to the trip. 

David and Anne Kennedy showed us wonderful hospitality of coffee and biscuits as we viewed his very reasonable and practical car collection. He was kind enough to give us a full explanation of his latest project, an oil fueled stationary engine which was originally used at an Ayrshire quarry to power machinery. Now the single piston, hard concrete mounted engine is being positioned to run a generator for the farm, fueled by used oil from the tractors and machinery on site. Interestingly, the engine is started using a compressed air tank, and the piston is quite large, with a bore of nine inches in diameter, with an automatic oiling system driven from a cam on the engine.

From there at around 11 am the now complete group of five Talbots and one American motor headed down the stunning A75 coastal road towards Stranraer and Port Patrick. The weather held, a bit fresh and breezy and a wonderful drive.

Jeannot and Jack the dog parking at Port Patrick caused quite a stir!

Arriving in Port Patrick, we all quickly piled into the Harbour House for a lovely lunch, all eleven of us.  The service and food were excellent. Grant’s wife Karen joined us in her practical car and followed us through the entire trip

After lunch, around two o’clock we took the coastal roads back up and around through to Port William, along the coast in Wigtownshire with a fine stop there, where one of the businesses keep live caught lobsters and another makes furniture from whisky barrels. It’s a gorgeous coastline, there’s a charming licensed cafe there, and a famous bronze statue of a fisherman looking out to sea…

A poem by William Henry Davies featured alongside the statue “What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare”

Next stop was Isle of Whithorn, where we took the opportunity to park on the pier and stop for refreshment at the Steam Packet Inn where they serve locally brewed cask ales, tea and cakes.

This is where Fraser and Jeannot  parted ways as they had a rally in Italy to attend. 

From Isle of Whithorn we drove the road through Wigtown up to a very scenic caravan park for a walk to the beach.

Then to Gatehouse of Fleet where our hotel was awaiting, an 18th century grand house with lovely décor, a golf course, indoor swimming pool and snooker tables. A celebratory group dinner was enjoyed with gusto!

Grant Allan insisted he was going to drive the entire route with the top down, and he did.

Matthew and Marie Mair piloted the 1934 65/105. This is an interesting car in that it has a long history of touring throughout England and Scotland as a former chauffeur’s car and then a family auto travelling through Scotland. The car has been upfitted, previously a 65 but now a 105 engine and completely rewired; she runs like a top. The interior and exterior are nearly all original, the car being known as “Josephine”.

The next morning was a bit rainy and took us out the back of Gatehouse of Fleet along the side of Loch Ken and up through Cairsfairn for a coffee stop.

Very beautiful country through cattle grates and sheep pastures.  We were so busy driving in the rain that we didn’t get to stop for any photos along that part, but we did have some wonderful homemade scones and brownies.  

Then through the A76 past Loch Doon through Damellington, back to Stair just after noon.  Not sure we did the entire 300 miles but perhaps next time!

Andrew Horn