Arran File One:
Monday April 14th.
Activity: Walk to King’s Caves from Blackwaterfoot, via the Doon. Return by boulder field at the foot of the Doon and Blackwaterfoot beach. Parked at the sea front car park by the golf course. This route was chosen as an alternative to the usual one from the car park on the road to Machrie Moor. I thought it may be shorter and more interesting (the return walk to the car park is awful, through a conifer plantation with no views!) It turned out I was wrong but the route was prettier and the boulder field would have been brilliant without a dog who kept panicking.
Weather: Cloudy but dry. Chilly in the wind.
Refreshments: Self packed lunch. Cup of tea and a cake in Felicity’s at the Golf Club.
Incidents: Pebble stacking at King’s Cave; to join the hundreds of them already there. Callie had trouble in places on the boulder field. Brilliant restaurant / café at the golf course – recommended strongly. Wonderful views across Kilbrannan Sound and the Kintyre Peninsular. (Plus it is a BYO – unusual for the UK!)
Evening meal: Shepherd’s Pie and veggies. Cooked at the van. Prepped before departure.
Tuesday April 15th.
Activity: Goat Fell from Corrie. (Parked up at Sannox, caught bus to start of walk). Up past the water treatment plant and eventually onto the east ridge. Summit in about 3 hours from the bus stop. Walked along the north ridge to North Goat fell, along Stacach; north east to Mullach Buidhe then Cioch na h-Oighe. Descent back to Sannox.
Weather: Clear and sunny. Cold. Marvellous views from the summit in a 360 degree panorama of the Clyde and even Northern Ireland and the Highland Mountains probably near Loch Lomond? Stunning.
Refreshments: Self packed lunch, fruit, chocolate bars, pomegranate squash drink. Meal at Sannox Bay Hotel. (Dog friendly!) Water bottles refilled from a burn on the traverse of the ridge!
Incidents: Masses of water over the waterfall. Steeper and shorter than the route from Brodick. The summit is an amazing place. Trig point view finder. People in trainers coming up the tourist route! Watched the Brodeick Ferry arrive and depart like a child’s toy. The route along Stacach was fun. The ridge from Mullach to Cioch is really narrow and I was glad it wasn’t windy – we’d have been blown away! The descent from Cioch is definitely not dog friendly. Callie in a panic several times (so was her owner). I don’t think she’d have made it up this way! Possibly the best ridge walk I have ever done! It looks like there are others up here too but I doubt if Callie would cope with them. We must have spent about two hours on the summits and the ridges before our rocky descent to Sannox.
Evening Meal: Sannox Bay Hotel. It allows dogs in the bar! Callie was asleep before our meals arrived and slept all the time. We both had the Fisherman’s Pie. Delicious.
Extra Incident: Some prat took exception to discovering a dog in the bar! She was fast asleep and hadn’t moved at all since she’d arrived. I told the man I was surprised they allowed idiots in the bar. He wasn’t happy! He got very red faced and shouty (even more so when he realised Laura was recording his stupid tirade on her mobile phone).
Wednesday April 16th.
Activity: Machrie Moor Stone Circles. Parked on road to Blackwaterfoot. There and back walk. Level. It seems further than you think, probably less than three miles for the whole trip . Very damp underfoot and boggy in places. Communed with our neolith ancestors and pretended to be druids!
Weather: Rather cloudy with a possibility of dampness later. Driving rain for a while at the stones. Sheltered behind one huge stone, cuddling each other until it stopped. Rained again on the journey back to the car. Rather wet legs by the time car reached (didn’t bother to put leggings in day sack!) Trust us to delay coming until it decided to rain! Meteorologists we aren’t!
Refreshments: Day sack had flask of tea, a couple of pieces of fruit and some chocolate. We emptied it at the circles.
Incidents: A bit of a plod to the circles but awesome when you get there. So many to wander around and hug! Had to avoid the rain at one point but the largest stone, in the group of three, made a really good shelter as the rain was coming in horizontally! Had lovely cuddle and snog while we waited for it to stop. Watched by a curious raven perched on one of the stones for a while! Quite deserted, probably the rain had a part to play in this. It is the sort of place that would probably feel a bit “spooky” at night.
Evening meal: Another concoction of our own devising at the van.
Thursday 17th April.
Activity: Brodick Castle and grounds (just to give Callie a stretch) later Lochranza Distillery. Visited both places to dodge the grotty weather. Discovered Auchrannie Spa as another weather dodging spot for later in the week. Have been to both places before. Love the Castle and its sumptuous drawing room. I think I should have been born into the Hamilton Family and then I could have lived here all my life! We have done the whiskey tour and tasting before too, but I am still trying to educate the Loved One into the joys of Whisky. She’s still not up for single malts yet, preferring the more immediately tasteful blends. Also, popped into Arran Aromatics to stock up on their Eydis range of perfumes etc. It is a gorgeous fragrance! I have run out, so am buying double the quantity.
Weather: Total Grot bag for most of the day. In the evening it cleared and we went to Kildonan and saw masses of basking seals.
Refreshments: Snack at Brodick Castle tea room. Whisky and more whisky at Arran distillery.
Incidents: Spot dodging mainly. Then being patronised by one of the people on the Whisky tour until I was able to tell which of the samples was the Burns Malt. That shut the git up! Chilled at home after the evening meal until the bad weather took a severe bashing and brightened up, so we scooted down to Kildonan and were rewarded for our pains by so many seals we lost count.
Evening meal: Indian takeaway from Lamlash. Me: Jalfrezi; Laura: Rogan Josh.
Extra Incident: I forgot to mention before we went off to Brodick Castle I completely rearranged the kitchen cupboards! Dad had put stuff in the most unusual and impractical places, so I made the system much more logical.
For example, in the cutlery drawer he had arranged the gobbling rods in the order spoon, knife, fork, I mean how cock-eyed is that? Everyone knows it should be knife, fork, spoon! He'd also put the food in the cupboards right next to the cooker and the saucepans miles across the room. The cleaning stiff wasn't even under the sink.
I mean, Men! What can you do? Obviously he hasn't even noticed that's how it is at his house in Cumbria - I know because I am the one who set up the kitchen for him.
He hadn't even separated out the different tinned items into their food types. They were all jumbled up together.
** Maybe he left it all like that as he knew I would sort it all out?** That was a sudden light bulb in the brain moment there!
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