Snipers, side-eyes and a blast of Billy Joel - 24 hours following the US President round Trump Turnberry

It was last June and I was battling a standard summer’s day walking the Ayrshire coast with gale force winds so strong water from the sea was blowing in my face.

Repeating the experience during a return trip to document Mr Trump’s visit to Scotland this week, however, was out of the question.

Back then, Trump Turnberry was just Donald’s. This time, the resort is the US President’s. And he’s currently staying in it.

It perhaps comes as no surprise there was a wall built for his visit; a 10ft metal barrier like a fortress blocking access to the luxury pile that is the Turnberry hotel, with some rooms costing £1,500 a night.

The surrounding grounds were littered with side-eye police officers and Secret Service agents. Snipers were on display, with clusters of them atop watchtowers and standing on mounds on the golf course with their guns on show. I thought snipers were normally hidden.

Looking in another direction, I saw men clad in normal clothes among lines of officers down to the beachfront, staring me down from a distance as I crept closer to where Mr Trump might appear when out playing golf. I kept glancing back to see if they were still looking. They were.

Thinking I could at least pitch my tent on the beach down from the golf course to document the Donald, the police followed me to tell me the sand was out of bounds and I had to walk about a mile down the road to a small campsite.

“You have to camp in an official campsite or you’ll get moved on,” they said.

The Saturday morning Mr Trump played golf, I was woken up at about 7am to a police helicopter flying overhead. The course was crawling with military and police officers by 8am, carrying out a sweep with sticks and sniffer dogs to remove whatever threat to the US President there could be lurking in the vegetation, including the world media, who were kept at a distance.

A slight antidote to the aggressive show of security was hearing some classics blaring from where the golf caddies were huddled, including Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl, shortly after Mr Trump teed off at about 10am. This light-hearted image of the president, however, was quickly smeared after a punter said the sounds were likely played to drown out any potential hate Trump chants which occurred the last time he attended the resort as president.

Security for Trump is stronger than ever following the attempted assassination at a campaign rally in the US last year.

And against the backdrop of a barren, windswept beach on a grey, overcast weekend, the parade of varying officials surrounding this one man’s visit looked excessive in a village of about 200 residents, particularly given the protest presence was minimal. A handful of demonstrators turned up on Friday night when Mr Trump was driven into Turnberry in his car dubbed “the Beast”.

While the MAGA supporters were also very low in numbers, represented perfectly by a lone fan drinking a can of coke standing next to an American flag on the road into Turnberry, I found the lack of noise about the president’s visit telling.

Sitting in the Balkenna Tea Room, about a mile from the golf course, locals spoke mainly about the road closures and ramped up police presence on the road than about Trump himself.

Some described the security presence as “overkill for a game of golf.”

While there was no obvious hype about “the man,” as most were referring to Mr Trump, there was also no obvious hostility. Instead, there was more a “business as usual” vibe in the local cafe over the weekend, which made me think there is a general acceptance of Mr Trump in the area.

Karen Mckinlay, who lives in Glasgow, said she was visiting the village for the day in the hope of catching a glimpse of Mr Trump.

“I feel Ayr is predominantly for Trump,” she told me.

“A lot of them here follow his views on life and how he runs his country.”

Asked why there was little to no turnout of supporters, she said: “There’s a Rangers game on today, so most of them will be there, including my husband.”

Another woman, who lives locally, spotted my camera and, eyes wide, asked if I had managed to snap a picture of “the Donald.”

She told me how much she liked the Turnberry hotel before quizzing me on my accent.

Local resident Alan Weir and member of Turnberry Golf Club spoke to me about how much he felt the Trump family had done for the area and for Scotland.

Almost spellbound when looking at the camera delivering a message to Trump, he said: “Make Turnberry great again. You already have.”

He said the hotel had brought a lot of people together and boosted the economy of the area.

This weekend, however, the security takeover and wiry wall around the resort is blocking people out.

And the golf? I found it quite dull, really, watching Mr Trump aged 79 pootling about on the golf course. Except one moment when it appeared the caddie was picking up the ball and moving it for the president. There’s a chance this was done for a photo opportunity, but one seasoned photographer next to me joked the president “does it all the time.”