On the A77 just south of Lendalfoot there is a picnic area with a free car park, and in it a bronze memorial carrying a Russian Orthodox cross and an anchor. It is an unexpected thing to find on the Ayrshire coast, and the story behind it is genuinely remarkable.
The Varyag
The Varyag was an Imperial Russian cruiser, and in February 1904, at the very start of the Russo-Japanese War, she was caught at anchor at Chemulpo — modern Incheon — by a far superior Japanese squadron. Rather than surrender, her captain took her out to fight. She was shot to pieces, and her crew scuttled her rather than let her be taken.
The action made the ship a legend in Russia. A song about her is still sung, and the crew were treated as national heroes. The Japanese later raised the wreck and used her themselves; she returned to Russian hands during the First World War, and by the 1920s she was worn out and sold for scrap.
The wreck at Lendalfoot
In 1925, under tow to Germany to be broken up, the Varyag went aground on the rocks off this shore and could not be recovered. She was eventually broken up where she lay. Divers have recovered fragments over the years, and parts of the wreck are still on the seabed offshore.
The memorial was raised in the 2000s, with Russian naval involvement, and it is a properly dignified thing — a cross, an anchor, and the sea she was lost in directly in front of it.
The setting
This is one of the best free viewpoints on the coast. Ailsa Craig is closer to the mainland here than anywhere else, sitting square on the horizon about eight miles out, and on a clear evening the light off the water is extraordinary.
The shore below is part of the internationally important Ballantrae Complex geology — pillow lavas and fragments of ancient ocean floor, with excellent rock pooling at low tide. See Kennedy's Pass for what you are looking at.
The car park is the usual starting point for the coastal path to Girvan, about seven miles over the old coach road, and Carleton Castle stands on the hill just behind.
