August 23, 2026
“Thank you very much for making my Dream of a bench in that location possible. Gus.”
A tribute form Jimmy Begg
It’s more like thanking Gus for making the Ayrshire Coastal Path possible, as he has been my loyal support and right-hand man since the very beginning twenty years ago, when in January 2007 as a new member of Ayr Rotary Club, he turned up as a volunteer in his Armani shirt, to cut back the jungle of brambles, hawthorn, and blackthorn completely blocking the old wrack road down to Bracken Bay.
Being an Ayrshire country-lad myself, I noted the skilled way he was handling a hayfork he had brought with him, and asked him if he had ever worked on a farm. ’Yes, he replied, my father had a farm in Piedimonte south of Naples”.
That was it. I knew then he would be a grafter – and as it turned out - a very close friend. And from then on, he has been a great asset, both in the building of the path from Glenapp to Skelmorlie, and in its long-term maintenance.
He was there in October 2007 when we cut the first sod and built the original Fisherton Gully Steps; and when the Ayrshire Coastal Path opened in June 2008, for several years he and I walked and drove its whole length annually to check all the signage and gates. He was there when we erected Farming information boards in 2011; built the Mill Burn Bridge on Dunure Mains in 2012; repaired massive storm damage at Turnberry, and built a stone dyke-gate at Dunure in 2014.
Generous, naturally modest and self-effacing, in 2013 he also inadvertently starred in a BBC Out of Doors programme when Mark Stephen slyly recorded him with his lowered camera, chatting and enthusing about the ACP and Rotary, as we walked between Dunure and Culzean!
Storm damage at Pow Burn, wild camping litter louts at Dunure in 2016; building the Smugglers Brae steps at Dunure in 2017; re-building the Fisherton Steps in 2018; and the new Balkenna Bridge in 2020 – Gus was always there to help.
And work party attendance usually doubles when Gus was rumoured to be on the squad – as Pathminder ‘gannets’ squabble to gorge on Marella’s delicious home baking!
As a Member of the ACP Board of Management since 2008, his business acumen and sound common-sense - and his many business links - have proved invaluable to the running of the Ayrshire Coastal Path over the years – and hopefully for years to come. The same applies to his committed membership of Ayr Rotary Club – which several years go resulted in him receiving the high honour of a Paul Harris Fellowship Award.
Now in 2026, eighteen months after his 80th Birthday when, in lieu of presents, some of his friends donated money to the ACP, Gus has translated this into a fine recycled plastic bench from Solway Recycling -which we picked up from Dumfries recently with the trailer when down collecting an order of plastic marker posts.
Gus, making your ‘dream bench’ a reality, has been a pleasure – with our mutual grateful thanks to the generosity of Angus Craig of Dunure Mains, and a fellow Board Member, in agreeing the chosen site. And it has now allowed me to get the car back into my garage!
Lang may yer bum-cheek sit on the Birthday Bench as you enjoy this wonderful view - which no doubt will be shared by countless many other derrieres, butts, and bahookies from all over the world.
Frae yer AuldFreen, Jimmy.
