Friday April 3rd
Activity:
Brodick Castle and grounds. A good half day on each. Dodged the spots in
the castle, pm after an extensive walk in the grounds, am with Callie. Had a
bite at the castle’s café for lunch. Their Brodies Earl Grey Tea was delicious.
Weather:
Dodgy. Fine at first, but had to keep dodging the rain at times. Luckily
it rained whilst we were in the castle. Phew.
Refreshments:
Lunch in the castle. Evening meal a large home-made chicken casserole
with veggies.
Incidents:
Whilst spot dodging we found a sheltered spot under some pines which was
very dry and we were naughty in the open air again. We seem to have done this a
lot on this holiday. [No description will be given.]
Evening meal:
See Above.
Note: I expected there to be a lot more people about with it being the
start of the Easter Holidays for most people. Brodick was busier but everywhere
else seemed devoid of people.
Saturday April 4th
In an attempt to avoid Bank Holiday Crowds today we went to Lochranza
and then did something a little bit mad, we caught the round the island bus to
Catacol. We could have walked the route round he coast line but thought a swift
bus ride would avoid have to keep Callie under close control for the couple of
miles round to the place of the Apostles.
Disembarking near Fairhaven we strolled along Glen Catacol heading
inland, although a shortish way along the valley, our route took a 90 degree
detour left up to the rocky outcrops of Madadh Lounie. I have no idea how you
pronounce those words in Gaelic but they seem to look like mad rocks in two
different ways, LOL. There was madness even before we got there as we had
to negotiate a ladder stile over the fence. Callie is not so good at these and
needs a bit of a leg up. I was going to climb down the other side to help
her descent but the mad dog just leapt off before I could get there. Her front
legs went from under her and she bashed her chin into the ground. I rushed over
the stile but it seems that she was fine. She did the dog thing of just
bouncing. I opened her mouth to examine it, in case she had bitten her tongue –
she hadn’t. I did get several slobbery licks as a reward.
Mad Loony rocks are on a spur between two rivers and afford a good view
across the waters of the Kilbrannan sound to the Kintyre Peninsular. We are
planning to drive along there next week sometime.
Our walk was up to Meall Mor with the plan to have a big bite at the
distillery afterwards. This was a much more uneventful stroll than we expected
although the two burns we had to cross to get to the grassy knoll which forms
the summit of MM was much wetter than anticipated. I suppose it is all that
rain the island has had over the last few days [weeks, months, years?]
Owing to the fact we had a meal planned at the distillery, we had a
meagre set of rations at the summit. I suppose the simplicity of the walk
itself meant we didn’t actually need a lot of reviving at the top, although a
cup of hot sweet tea from our flask is always welcome.
We had seen a few walkers ahead of us in Glen Catacol but none of
them went our way at the bifurcation(it probably looked a bit too steep) so we
had the fell top to ourselves. For once we didn’t indulge in al fresco
fornication – mainly because we felt so exposed up there.
We toddled off eastwards and joined the Gleann Easan Biorach this leads
you directly to the distillery, you do not pass go and do not collect £200. We
passed the distillery as we’d parked up at the end of the bay overlooking the
castle and views north. We drove back to the distillery car-park and had a late
lunch there. We both had the 10oz venison burger which was absolutely mad, in
keeping with the loony experiences of the day. (Oh, it was very tasty, quite
mad, but delicious.)
I bought a couple of bottles of the Lochranza blended whisky (which I
love) and a bottle of the Burns Single malt. Well, you can’t go to a distillery
and not buy whisky, can you?
Brodick, when we drove through seemed much busier than it had been on
the rainy Good Friday, which sort of bodes ominous for Easter Sunday and BH
Monday. I think we’ll stay close to Whiting Bay to avoid the tourists.
Naturally when we got back we had our usual shared shower and the extra
benefits that usually brings but I won’t go into details.
Sunday April 5th Easter Sunday.
We had a couple of Easter eggs each this morning. I don’t mean we ate
them, we just gave them to each other. We will ration them out over the coming
week.
We drove ourselves out to Sannox after breakfast and parked up at the
picnic area. Our plan was to stroll along the coastal path to Laggan and then
up to the top called Fionn Bhealach. We have walked this before so we knew
roughly what to expect.
There is a great path from the picnic area which starts out like a real
unmetalled road and then becomes a seriously well-defined route along the coast
line. It becomes a bit rocky at first but, unlike the foot of the Doon, here
there is a really well made path which avoids the pitfalls (and possible
pratfalls) that walking through largish rocks can bring.
We explored the raised caves a bit further along, which have the
appearance (at first) of stone tents. Laura thought they would make a good
place for a swift bonk, but I said that I would expect everyone and their Dad
to come and explore them as they look so inviting, we could end up giving out a
free sex-show if we got started. We did have a stop for a long snog and fumble
though.
Past the cottage at Laggan we headed up the hill following a set of zig
zags which made the effort so much easier than the climb out of Glen Catacol yesterday,
that climb was up the sides of a U shaped valley!
The rocky ridge on the edge of Fionn Bhealach is called Creag Ghlas Laggan,
which is a bit confusing. I will have to look up what those gaelic words mean.
At a cairn we had to head off southwards on an almost pathless expanse of
moorland (if we’d kept walking we’d have hit Lochranza).
We had our lunch at the trig point which loomed up eventually and took
in the view. To the north over Argyle and Bute they looked like something from
a calendar, south we had the island, the firth and the Ayrshire coast. East was
a steep drop down to the path we’d followed earlier (with what looked like a
coach party walking along it). West was the brilliant ridge of fell tops that
ring Glen Sannox. There was the profile silhouette that seems to have so many
different names, we know it as the sleeping giant.
A sleeping midget began to rear its ugly head as we started to try and
find our way down the ridge to the car park, a tingling twinge below by tummy
button which usually means I am about to get a visit from Uncle Tom.
Even ugly than prospective menstruation was the boggy mess that the
ridge down to the picnic area becomes. We ended up aiming for a point and
squelching through the muddy bits – there were a lot of muddy bits. There is a
path, of sorts, which appears and disappears with startling alacrity. We lost
it completely and just headed for the burn, which involved an undignified
crossing of a fence an hoicking a muddy dog over too. Not Fun!
We eventually found the path back to the picnic area. Phew.
Subsequently we learned that the easiest route is to drop down to the
road and follow that down to the picnic area turn off. Callie went into the burn of her own accord
and so only wet the boot of car rather than muddy it up as she sometimes does.
Back at the van we dried off the dog, shared a shower and cooked our
fasta pasta for tea. Our desert for the night was a chocolate easter egg.
Yummy.
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