For a few years, around the late 1940s my family came to Glencairn farmhouse for the month of August.
My father liked to walk as much as possible, every day, my mother swam at Sandbraes, every day and my twin sister and I were always on the go with them. We liked the wet days when we could play on the farm with kittens and calves for company.
Most years we went on the round the island bus trip and once a week we visited Lamlash, or Brodick, or Lagg. We had no car.
One day my older brother Jim decided to take his twin sisters for a sail to Brodick, from the pier at Whiting Bay. He was seventeen and we were six.

It was a splendid day and after calling at Lamlash   Jim bought ice creams for us and left us listening to the band ,on the seats at the stern of the steamer, which may have been the Glen Sannox. He liked that boat better than any other.

Jim then went to buy the tickets from the purser. Back he came, looking upset and said, “girls a dreadful thing is happening.”I “is the boat sinking? “Eileen, the twin who worried most quavered and we both started to cry.
“No, no, but this sailing does not go to Brodick, it is going to Fairlie and we shall not be able to sail back until tomorrow. I have no key for our house but we shall go to grandmother’s for the night.”
We calmed down and enjoyed the adventure, with extra train trips .Our granny lived in Paisley.
It was a very hot, endless night, all of us in my grandmother’s brass 4ft6.bed, which had other of pearl embellishments and a lumpy old mattress.
Next day when the boat glided into Whiting Bay pier lots of holiday makers who had heard of our plight were down the pier to cheer us back. We must have been a sight, our hair, neatly plaited usually was very unruly as grandmother had not had time to tidy us. My brother was shy and did not enjoy the laughter.
There was no time to go back to the farmhouse. With other holiday folk and our picnics we piled into a fishing boat and went to Holy Isle for the afternoon.
Many adventurous older people swam far out and were badly stung by jellyfish.
Some evenings we took cushions to the hall to sit on while we enjoyed the play, or a film.
Every nightly dad went to the Royal Hotel ,or he,d cycle to the Whiting bay to have a whisky and company. My brothers liked fishing trips and the dances and cafes.


Anne Hodge. Spindrift.  WhitingBay.