A lifetime of Islands: Island 3

Arran is a well visited Scottish island and visitors are well catered for in terms of accommodation and facilities.

Calmac run 2 car ferries to Arran:

Ardrossan-Brodick
Claonaig-Lochranza.

The Ardrossan-Brodick route operates all year round but the Claonaig-Lochranza only runs in the summer. In the winter (beginning of November to the end of March) there is one sailing a day from Tarbert (Loch Fyne) to Lochranza.

Arran is often described as Scotland in miniature, due to the variety of terrains on the island. I enjoyed a day trip there with my family in 1976 and came back for a few days in 2005. My memories of the 1976 day trip are a bit hazy. I remember going on a coach trip round the whole island, which conveniently has a road all the way round the coast.

In 2012 I visited Arran for 2 days in early September in order to visit Holy Island and to cut down on the miles I would have had to drive from Kintyre to Ayrshire by road. I stayed at Lochranza Youth Hostel, which was refurbished a couple of years ago.

In 2022 I stayed for a week in Lamlash. Sadly it rained most of the time.

Relief map of Arran on the seafront at Brodick

Brodick Castle is worth a visit. Part of the castle dates from the 13th Century but building on most of the current castle started in 1558. It was designed in the Scottish baronial style.

Arran has 7 golf courses, which seems a bit excessive for a small island but if Islay can have 7 distilleries, then why shouldn't Arran have the same number of golf courses?

Brodick Castle

Brodick Castle Gardens

Lovely summerhouse at Brodick Castle with a view over the bay

Mirror sculpture at Brodick Castle

Stag sculpture at Brodick Castle

Fairy House at Brodick Castle

Slightly scary sculpture at Brodick Castle

Brodick Castle

Goat Fell from Brodick

For the energetic there is Goat Fell, to climb: it is the highest point on the island at 874 metres.

There is a wooded valley near Lochranza which is supposed to be an entrance to fairyland. I didn't see any fairies but I did find a little seat, which someone had made for them to sit on and admire the view!

The Youth Hostel at Lochranza

Lochranza Castle

The castle is a fine tower house, a 16th-century reconstruction of a late 12th-century hall house.

Lochranza Castle

The deer at Lochranza are quite bold and both in the evening and morning were grazing right by the road. I saw a red squirrel dancing in the road near Corrie. Further down the road towards Brodick there was a dead one in the road, which had presumably danced once too often in front of the cars!

There are 3 stone circles on Arran and at least 4 Neolithic cairns. Most of them require walks of varying lengths from the road and I didn't have time in my packed schedule in 2012 for this. I did however look at the not wildly impressive standing stone at Kildonan, as you can park within a few metres of it.

Standing Stone at Kildonan

In 2022 we had more time and so visited the various cairns and stone circles on Machrie Moor:

Machrie Moor

Ruined Farm on Machrie Moor

View from the Ruined Farm on Machrie Moor

Machrie Moor Stone Circle

Machrie Moor

Machrie Moor Stone Circle

Machrie Moor

Machrie Moor Stone Circle

Lochranza Distillery

There are now 2 whisky distilleries on Arran. Lochranza Distillery was founded in 1995. A sister distillery was built at Lagg on the south coast of the island 2018-19. Both offer tours of their distilleries and have visitor centres and cafes.

Lochranza Distillery

Inside Lochranza Distillery

Lagg Distillery

There are a couple of dairies on Arran producing cheese and the excellent bakers Wooley's, who produce my favourite oatcakes. They have a bakery shop in Brodick and a smaller one at Lamlash, which did very reasonably priced hot drinks and filled rolls, not forgetting cakes.

In search of a geocache I took a walk up Glen Sannox in 2005 to the old barytes mine, which was abandoned in 1938. By the time of my next visit in 2012 geocaches were much thicker on the ground, so being a lazy person with limited time I just looked for the ones close to the roads.