The Arran Mountain Festival moved to May this year and experienced weather from snow on the Friday to hot sunshine on the Monday. I posted a blog about my day out on the Gaelic in the Mountains walk. You can find it at www.arranmountainfestival.blogspot.co.uk

Things Happen in Threes

In one of my earlier blogs I’m ashamed to say I complained about not getting out much. Feeling like being in a cake shop and not allowed to eat. Luckily for me my complaints were read by Joe who lives close to the Irish coast, which can be seen from Arran on clear days. Last year he came over the sea in his Redbay rib Ricochet with daughter Hannah, and this year he came to whisk us away for an exhilarating ride in beautiful, sparkling sunshine.

Just like buses- you wait for one for ages then three come at once- I was especially lucky  and had a third day out in the same week. This time it was a city trip and it involved catching the first ferry then the train to Glasgow (my fares for the day including ferry and train return came to only £16). I travelled with Wilma Stark who is a play-writer living in Lochranza. If you notice a ruined cottage near the Youth Hostel she has written a moving play about its history. It’s called the Barking House and it’s being performed in Edinburgh in September. The purpose of the day was to go to the Play, Pie and Pint at the Oram Mor at lunchtime where we saw a powerful tale of man’s inhumanity to man. The plays are new writing and can last no more than an hour.

Returning to Lochranza, bathed in golden sunsets every evening lately, is like returning to a different world. No traffic sounds, just sheep sitting on the road, deer grazing round the village and the eagles circling above Torr Nead.

Places to go Hunting For…..

It’s not much more than a century since Lochranza was reached only by sea, despite, at that time, supporting a much higher population than now through fishing and crofting. Today, the beautiful scene of Lochranza’s castle ruin encircled by the loch, with the white cottages of the village scattered along the shores, is a familiar one in calendars of Scotland. Nonetheless, this area is still full of little-known, relatively unvisited but truly remarkable places of historic and geological interest. To find them, you need an OS map as there are few signposts. The walks are not long but the terrain can be rough.

Here are five of my favourites (some previously referred to in this blog):

Giant Millipede Tracks near Laggan Cottage   GR 972512

These dimpled tracks imprinted on boulders splashed by the sea were left behind by Arthropleura  320 million years ago-  it was the largest land-based invertebrate ever known.

Fairy Dell   GR 948523

This lies beyond the well-known fairy Dell and its little white cottage. It is a long hidden chasm formed by a collapsed cliff- an actual Rivendell, enchantingly pretty and with a sense of enchantments. Rock bridges and trees arch overhead. Be careful! There are steep drops!

Lochranza’s Prehistoric Celtic Hill Fort  GR 927503

It’s only when you stand on it that you realise what a well-chosen defensive position and vantage point it is.  The long wall is a reminder of a time of warring tribes.

The Allt nan Calman in Glen Catacol   GR 916455

As you walk up to Loch Tanna you pass this giant waterslide and pretty plunge pool. To me, it’s the highlight of the walk.

Coastal Path at Imachar  GR 863405

South of Pirnmill and Whitefarland are raised beaches and inaccessible cliffs of ancient woodland. Where the road cuts inland is a delightfully pretty stretch of the Coastal Way with little waterfalls, rock pools and caves. In summer it’s splashed with bright-coloured wild flowers. Look out for the distinctive dry stane dykes in this area.

If you find walking in rough terrain difficult but would like to find magical microcosms like the ones I’ve mentioned, I recommend a visit to Brodick Castle for its woodland trails, especially the Cnocan Burn and the Merkland Burn. The land is managed here by the National Trust and the Forestry Commission.

 

The Isle of Gigha

Last Saturday Nigel and I stood on the hefty bulk of Meall nan Damh in Glen Catacol and, between sharp showers, looked beyond the slender waist of Kintyre to the little island of Gigha off Kintyre’s west coast. We have happy memories of kayaking around Gigha three summers ago and thought it would be interesting to see if it is possible to have a day trip there from Lochranza.

Here are the facts for you so that you can make your own mind up.

The first ferry from Lochranza to Claonaig departs at 8.15 am and the last one returns from Claonaig at 7pm in the evening. On a clear day, the crossing of the Kilbrannan Sound is a delight and takes half an hour. From Claonaig it is about 20 miles to Tayinloan by road from where you catch the Gigha Ferry. The first sailing is at 8am and the last back to Tayinloan at 5.30 pm. This crossing takes 20 minutes.

Gigha is 8 miles long and best explored by foot or bike. As a foot passenger on the ferries, the fares are very modest; taking a car is much more expensive. However, I never begrudge money spent on the ferries – they are the life blood of the Highlands and Islands: keeping communities alive, people in employment and holidays in one of the most beautiful countries in the world possible. The ferries are my favourite way to travel.

Gigha has many charms which include secluded beaches, close- up views to Islay and Jura, the lush Achamore gardens, a welcoming hotel, and a delightful art gallery. It is one of several Scottish islands that are owned and run by a Community trust. If you wish to live there, a decision whether to accept you or not is made by the community based on majority vote. The island certainly has an atmosphere of enthusiastically embracing the future, rather than, like many picturesque parts of Britain, simply preserving villages and landscapes as picture postcard scenes.

April on Arran: To Whet Your Appetite

That’s whet not wet. Actually, much of April so far has been gloriously sunny and everyone has been treated to beautiful clear views with bright blue skies and a blue and green sea. There have also been surprising wildlife sightings: Mr and Mrs Hall looked into a golden eagle’s eyes as it flew up from below the ridge where they were sitting, and a whale swam past the butcher’s.

April’s a good time for walking- before the bracken and heather have started to grow. At last I have found the Real Fairy Dell (see photo), decked with primroses, violets, tangled creepers and overhanging mosses. Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t exist! It’s also lambing time for the hill sheep and earlier I watched a ewe giving birth on a 60 degree slope. Her floppy newborn lamb tipple-tailed downhill then lay helplessly upside down for a while. I daren’t interfere in case his mother rejected him. She began to alternately lick and kick him and I left her to it. When I returned from my walk he was sitting, head up and blinking in the sunshine.

My friend Joyce gave me a Battlefield Band CD for my birthday. It includes a song called “The Arran Convict” which has a refrain of “I wish I was back on the Lochranza ferry…. breathing the spray and the sweet island air”. It’s lovely to be here in April and not having to wish. (It also includes the line “I remember Lochranza…..when the rain from Kintyre was a sheet without end”, but we won’t think about that whilst the sun’s shining!)

We’ve even had sunset suppers outdoors. Our favourite Arran foods for these occasions include:

Sausages from the Arran Butcher

Smoked salmon pate from Creeler’s with Wooley’s oatcakes

Honey mustard from Arran Fine Foods

Island cheeses

Arran whisky from the Distillery

Arran Blonde beer from the Brewery

Suddenly the days seem so much longer and last night we kayaked round Pladda island supervised by seals. As the evening drew on, the waves got choppier; early signs of an Atlantic front heading this way, the first we have seen in some weeks.

The Tale of a Gold Watch

In early October 2010 a party of golfers from the mainland came to play at Lochranza Golf Course. Unfortunately, one of the gentlemen realised he had lost his valuable gold watch on the course. Whilst being valuable, it was also invaluable because it had been given to him by his late mother.

The gentleman’s mother fostered many Glasgow children and from 1938 on brought them regularly to Arran on holiday. She would make them wear the same colour t-shirts on holiday so that she could spot them easily.

In the 16 months that passed until February 29^th this year, the golf course experienced extreme frosts, thick snow and flooding. During both winters the ditches were thoroughly cleaned out and Nigel and I got to know every inch of the course. We saw no sign of the watch.

On February 29^th I walked down the golf course to clear up windblown twigs (the course is closed in winter). It was a lovely spring like day. As I headed towards the Newton Road Bridge I became aware of something gleaming brightly at the top of a ditch out of the corner of my eye. When I went to investigate I recognised the Rotary watch from the gentleman’s description immediately. It had a little frond of dust attached to it but otherwise looked shiny and clean.

Was it a happy chance that I was passing just as the sun was shining on the watch face? I felt as if the watch made me see it- I wasn’t looking that way. I wonder about the story it could tell of where it’s been? Washed into the ditch in a flood? Hidden in a crack that has since opened up? Captured by a crow and kept in its nest? Returned to its rightful owner, and having been checked by a jeweller, amazingly, all it needed was a new battery.

.

Views of Arran

Choices

Nigel and I have often discussed which way is best for tours round the island. If you travel clockwise, that is, you turn left out of the ferry terminal towards Lamlash and the South End, an advantage is that you will be driving/ cycling* on the left all the way round and you will have an uninterrupted sea view. Given that otters and seals can often be spotted from the island’s perimeter road this is a good decision. The best stretches to glimpse marine creatures are from Dougarie to Lochranza on the west coast (I’ve seen basking sharks several times along here) and Sannox to Brodick on the east coast. Remember not to stop too suddenly when you see a seal- there may be someone behind you!

Both ways it’s 55 miles round Arran and best to allow a good few hours to do it. Travelling anti-clockwise is going widdershins but you have to encircle the island nine times before the fairies whisk you away. I recommend journeying widdershins up the east coast from Whiting Bay on a clear day to see Arran’s can-I-believe-what-I’m-seeing mountainscapes at their glorious best. Wonderful clockwise panoramas are the sweep of Machrie Bay with Beinn Bharrain behind and, close to home, the view into Lochranza as you travel from Catacol with the loch, the castle and the soaring Sleeping Warrior mountain range.

Whichever way you travel, remember that the east coast enjoys the rising sun and the west coast the setting sun, but also that, on a shady east coast in the evening, you can admire a golden Ayrshire coast, and from the west coast in the morning you can pick out every detail on Kintyre. The midsummer setting sun shines directly onto the Campsite.

The String and the Ross are the two cross-the-island roads. The String is a good road; the Ross more of a track. On both roads, for views, head west to east, Atlantic to Firth of Clyde, for lovely views of Holy Island and Ayrshire.

For more stunning views, it’s worth detouring to Kildonan to look out to Pladda and Ailsa Craig. Pause at Glen Sannox to gaze into this most dramatic of mountain glens and drive/ cycle pretty slowly between Pirnmill and Catacol because you’ll find you’re having a roller-coaster ride and it’s best to take your eyes OFF the scenery.

* The island bus service tours round the island in both directions.

No view for Sherie and the Old Man of Tarsuinn

Who's Watching Who?

It’s been a windy winter. On several nights the wind has roared so loudly through the mountains that we couldn’t hear the television even at highest volume. But now the sun has returned to Lochranza village after two months of shade. I used to wonder why houses were built on the sunless side of the glen and suspected it must be for the deeper water when, in past times, the fishing boats came in. Now I realise it’s also the windless side; the oldest houses were built in well-protected positions. On the Campsite, in winter, the low sun pops in and out between the three surrounding hills. Any day now it will be clearing the summits.

In winter in Lochranza you go to parties in wellies. Lochranza has a strong community with lots of winter parties to warm up the short, dark days. Word of mouth travels much quicker than text messages here. In fact, when the gales of January 3^rd nearly blew the Stags Pavilion down, the whole village arrived to help in no time. (The Stags, by the way, has been rebuilt and is even better than before.)

Lochranza has no light pollution so on clear nights the stars appear to be very close and look like bright glowing lamps. Driving up the Boguillie Road at night you have to weave in and out of the black face sheep who like to sleep on the road. Stags too loom up in your headlights.

Our caravan base on the Campsite has an earth bank close behind, beyond which is a field and the dominating presence of Torr Nead. Sometimes we draw back the curtains to find the face of a red deer gazing in from the bank. Perhaps it is Deer-vid Attenborough busy observing the habits of the human being.