Out and About on Arran

For History then Brodick Castle is the place to go, but the countryside ranger post behind the castle was pretty good. For hillwalkers then a hike up to Goatfell, the islands highest point is possible on a well worn track from behind the castle, the whole northern mountain range makes for some good scrambling. Tourism is big business and there’s golf courses, a distillery and a brewery all within easy reach

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Best Way To Get Around:

The main route to Arran is via the ferry which sails out of Ardrossan and takes about an hour, a rather gloomy looking town on the mainland which is reasonably well connected by road and rail from Glasgow, another ferry goes over the shorter route to Lochranza in the north during the summer months, but its mainland connection is difficult to get to. On the island itself there are bus services which go around the main road but it follows the coast so going by bike is feasible. The majority of sights are within walking distance of the main town of Brodick (where the ferry docks)

Up at Lochranza on the north end of the island, this campsite is tucked away from the village so is reasonably quiet in terms of road traffic – not that it’s a big problem on Arran anyway. Its split into three areas dependant on whether you have a Caravan, a tent or a motor home. The wash area for campers is decent enough with plenty hot water and there are showers. For a fee there’s also a washing machine (tokens from the office) and a dryer (50p coin).

The site is not fenced in properly so its not unusual to have various animals appear in the campsite – including deer and sheep so be prepared for the occasional surprise if you get up in the middle of the night, so remember not to leave any food out.

Costs are £3.50 per person plus an additional fee dependant on your accommodation – small tents cost an additional £2.50 whilst caravans are around £5.

The owners also look after the nearby golf course and are happy to take newcomers – fees for a round on the 9 hole course is £9 for adults and the 18 holes is about £15 although they give discounts for groups booking in advance (groups mean more than four people).

The islands main tourist attraction is run by the National Trust For Scotland and is easily visible over the bay from the ferry port – look for the large tower showing above the trees.

The Castle is a fairly run of the mill stately home style event – built in the 13th century its home to the Dukes Of Hamilton but has had more famous people in residence – including Cromwell who did some building work.

Some of the more interesting items are however outside – namely a summerhouse / gazebo, a graveyard and an ice house – the graveyard was completely lost until about ten years ago when the ranger service discovered it when clearing vegetation, although it contains some of the family members of past residents of the castle noone even suspected its existence. The Ice House is also a curious addition – this isnt much more than a constructed hole in the ground and was an early attempt at refrigeration – basically they stuffed it full of snow and ice during the winter and hoped that it would last well into the summer months – as if Scotland wasn’t cold enough!

The Ranger Centre looks after wildlife in the Castle grounds and on the mountain area behind. Arran is small enough that they have good displays on pretty much most things that you’ll find whilst wandering about.

The castle gardeners are proud over their ability to grow rhododendron bushes and have won awards for them but the rangers seem to spend a silly amount of time cutting them back to keep trails open – it was Rhododendrons that hid the graveyard, in places the plants have grown so large that they have simply cut tunnels through them.

Entry to Castle is about £7 for adults which seems a bit steep for a museum but its interesting enough.

The islands highest peak is within the bounds of most reasonably fit people, as you come into Arran by Ferry the path up the mountain is clearly visible as its very badly eroded, the ranger service from the castle have been trying to revive the area so keep an eye out for signs showing closed off routes but there is always a decent route available. Once at the summit theres a cairn with a viewpoint plate which details what you can see (on a good day). You can return the same way you came up but for those with a bit of mountain knowledge and a map then I recommend that you drop down into Glen Rosa and return that way – on the side of Goatfell you’ll probably come over one of the many aircraft wrecks as the mountain is the only high point for many miles its been hit quite a few times by low flying planes – especially in the forties. Glen Rosa is a wide valley with a good path at its base, chances are that you’ll meet a few groups here as the geology is meant to be quite special so students come here to study them on field trips

The ranger service at the castle have a list of animals found on and around the island which includes your usual birds and mammals including seals and eagles but strangely there are also sharks offshore – particularly basking sharks which come in on the gulf stream (a warm current of water which comes over the Atlantic). Ok so its not quite Jaws but that’s pretty special as far as Scotlands concerned.

When I first visited Arran many years ago there was no sign of its own distillery and all alcohol supplies were brought to the island by ferry. So recently,on hearing that a distillery was open to visitors aroused some suspicion and we set out to find out what was going on.

Going back in history Scotland has a long standing tradition of private but nevertheless illegal whisky stills, but these have been shut down by the taxman even although rumours of some are still in existence in the highlands, yet to be found out! Here on Arran though it’s a completely new distillery that has been built at the north end of the Island at Lochranza village and was opened only about five years ago.

The distillery is a fairly small affair but this is balanced with a much larger tourist centre added on the site – clearly they expect tourists to generate a good piece of their income. At first glance I wasn’t impressed, it looked like a run of the mill tourist trap which you could find at many distilleries in Scotland now, the image wasn’t bolstered by the building which turned out to be a fake crofters inn built specially for the centre although once we entered first impressions didn’t hold true. Despite being surrounded by stunning scenery they have built a huge three story waterfall inside the building, which forms the centrepiece of the tour and have a pretty good restaurant in there as well – certainly a bit more than the usual coffee shop.

As is usual on distillery tours you get to try a taste of the whisky at the end of the tour – its called Arran Malt – meaning that its wholly made on the island without interference from other distilleries which is a good thing for quality but not so good for quantity, it takes a long time to produce a bottle of whisky so with only five years under their belt it’ll be a long time yet until we see it on the shelves in the shops back home, They are also producing a cream liqueur which is not so rough for those non-whisky drinkers.

No trip to Scotland is complete without taking a dram of whisky but the country has also a long heritage of brewing beer as well.

Situated on the north side of Brodick Bay this is a new brewery with a visitors centre for the tourists, you don’t actually get into the brewery itself but instead you see the process through glass windows and of course you get to taste the beer produced. It’s a micro brewery which means that it is a small affair so pretty much everything is easily seen without the need to clamber about between the pipes.

The centre is not so high tech as its competitor, the distillery at Lochranza, but is interesting enough all the same and has the advantage of being within walking distance of Brodick Town.

The Brewery produces three main beers – Arran Ale, Arran Dark and Arran Blonde – the latter is the strongest of the beers at 5% and is described as having a Floral Hop and new mown grass aroma with a citric fruit and well balanced figure – I don’t have a clue what all that gibberish means or if they think it will help sell the beer, but I reckon it tasted alright and I could certainly sink a few glasses of the stuff so gets my nod of approval.

Tel 01770 302353