Four miles south of Girvan the coastal plain runs out and the hills come down to the sea. Kennedy's Pass is where the road was driven through — originally a narrow shelf cut for the coach road, later widened and blasted for the A77 — and it is the point where the Carrick coast turns properly wild.
It is worth stopping for two quite different reasons: the view, and what is under your feet.
The view
From the lay-bys the whole firth opens up: Ailsa Craig sitting square offshore, Arran to the north, and the Mull of Kintyre beyond on a clear day. In a westerly gale the sea breaks over the rocks below and this becomes the best storm-watching on the coast — from the car, sensibly parked.
The geology
This shore is internationally significant, and you do not need any training to enjoy it. The rocks belong to the Ballantrae Complex: pillow lavas that formed as molten rock chilled underwater, serpentinites, black shales and fragments of ocean floor and mantle, all thrust up onto the edge of Scotland when an ocean called Iapetus closed around 480 million years ago.
In plain terms, you can stand on the shore here and put your hand on rock that was once the floor of a vanished sea, and on rock that came from beneath it. The pillow lavas are the easiest thing to spot: rounded, bulbous masses stacked like sandbags. The beach pebbles are extraordinary, the rock pools are excellent at low tide, and the whole thing is free.
Walking
The old coach road over Pinbain climbs above the modern A77 and gives an hour's walk with the sea below you the whole way — the original route, before the pass was blasted wider. It forms part of the Ayrshire Coastal Path, and the full Lendalfoot to Girvan stage of about seven miles runs through here. Take the bus down and walk back.
Safety and parking
Use the proper lay-bys. The A77 is fast, narrow and busy with ferry lorries, there is no pavement, and parking on the verge here is genuinely dangerous. Take care crossing.
The cliffs above the road shed rock in heavy rain and hard frost, and the pass has closed for rockfall clearance before — check for closures in winter. On the shore, watch the tide, and note that the rocks are slippery when wet.
A mile south is Lendalfoot with the Varyag memorial and its free car park, which is the easier base for exploring the shore on foot.
