Arran 2018 - Day Five

Monday was the day we all had to catch ferries back to the mainland, but we weren't quite finished with walking yet - we still had time for a morning walk to King's Cave and back along the coast to Blackwaterfoot - minus the two Johns. JMD had grandparent duties and had to drive all the way down to the Home Counties, so he had to catch the early morning ferry, whilst JMcW opted for a round of golf at nearby Shiskine - a 12 hole course.

The remaining nine of us caught the 9:15 am bus up to the start of the King's Cave walk - up through the forest and then down to the beach, where we were met by this sight in the first cave:

The second cave, bizarrely, had (unlocked) iron gates on which some joker had left this:

There were tunnels between the caves:

Our geological nerds were waxing lyrical on some of the rock formations:

Ahead of budget, we arrived at the far end of Shiskine golf course where the coastal walk turned in to a beach walk:

We met up with John McW who had just finished his round and decided to head across the island to Brodick Castle for coffee and scones before our ferry to Ardrossan.

The stats for our morning walk were:

Another excellent trip - well organised by Ken, who had to cope with a raft of late changes. There had been talk of various destinations for next year. Ken will do further research and revert back to us.

Arran 2018 - Day Four

Sunday morning and time for a boat trip over to the Holy Isle - all bar John D, as dogs - and alcohol - are not permitted as it is the home of a Buddhist retreat. We drove over to Lamlash to check on the ferry times:

Departure time - "12-ish"!

Ferry sounds a bit grand - this was what was waiting for us:

It transpired that it was another vessel that took us over there, although the one above is the one that brought us back.

Our time on Holy Island was limited as the last ferry back was at 3 pm. Ken had hoped to go over the top and complete the circular walk back along the coastal trail, but it was soon apparent that there was insufficient time to complete this walk, particularly given that all the guide books warned of dangerous, precipitous paths down from the hilltop. In the end, it was a choice of a straightforward walk up the hill and back down again the same way or simply do the coastal trail out and back. It ended up an even split with 5 doing the climb and 5 the coast.

First of all, we had to have our introductory talk in front of the big house:

The coastal walk had plenty of points of interest - caves, rock art, Soay sheep, Eriskay ponies, Saanen goats, a buddhist retreat and lighthouses (2). Stewart fell at the first hurdle - literally:

The rest of us were a bit more careful as we checked out one of the caves:

Some of the other sights:

Rock art

Saanen goat

We think the so-called "tents" referred to above were these buildings, which looked very like upmarket holiday homes:

The 2nd lighthouse on the walk - the square one.

 We had distant views of shadowy Ailsa Craig:

We trooped back to the cafe/shop for tea and biccies, awaiting the return of the hill-climbers - and the ferry, of course. Ironically, the summit of Goatfell had been visible intermittently today:

The climbers at the top of Mullach Beag - minus photographer John

All together now, it was time to absorb some of the spirituality on sale in the cafe/shop:

It seemed a bit cooler on the return ferry:

Guess who actually bought a gift in the shop?

 The stats for the day's coastal walk:

Back at our hotel, some gathered to watch the Everton match before dinner. It was our last evening so it was traditional to share a dram after dinner - minus Messrs McWhinnie and Williamson, who wandered off to bed:

Arran 2018 - Day Three

Saturday was the big day when we were to tackle the biggest hill/mountain in Arran - Goatfell, which a little annoyingly, falls just short of being a Munro.

Our leader had carefully checked the forecast and concluded that the likelihood was that, although the summit was currently in low cloud, this would be a better day to do it than Sunday, when the forecast visibility was even worse. We would hope that it might clear as we walked up - a vain hope as it transpired.

There was yet another logistical problem with Stewart apparently taking a wrong turning and having to be redirected by phone back to the correct starting point of our walk, which, handily, was right next to Arran Brewery:

The first part of the walk was fairly straight forward on good, even track and we soon arrived at a small bridge, which afforded the first opportunity for a full team photo:

It was at this point, however, that Gordon had to turn back, suffering badly from a blister acquired on the previous day's walk.

The low cloud level was stubbornly resisting any sign of lifting, but it was safe enough for walking so the rest of us ploughed onwards and upwards, with the trail gradually morphing in to steps:

The last bit of the walk was very steep indeed and it was a hell of a struggle for a few of us to make it to the top. We knew when we got there that there would be no view to behold, but it was another box ticked and we gathered for our usual drams and team photo:

Ken sent this photo of what the view should have been like:

The walk back down was almost as tricky - particularly for Andy, who was struggling with a knee ligament injury. Fortunately, when we did eventually all arrive back at the start, there was a welcoming pint of Arran ale to be consumed - although some opted for the coffee/scone routine.

Here's the day's walking stats:

Our evening's entertainment was planned for Brodick, catching the bus over and taxis back. We failed to find any accommodating real ale establishment for pre-dinner drinks at the first two attempts but eventually settled down at the Ormidale Hotel.

Dinner had been booked at the nearby Auchrannie Resort. Very nice it was too - once we had got the hang of their strange semi-tapas style menu:

There was a half hour gap between taxis taking us home. The first one was fairly quiet, but apparently the second one was the disco bus with the passengers singing all the way back!

Arran 2018 - Day two

Ken reports again:

"Friday

Weather forecast for Friday – not great, grey, overcast, squally showers.  We hoped for some breaks in the weather and gathered at Lochranza by the estuary.  There were a few glimpses of sunshine as we set off up the well-worn track to Laggan, over the other side of the hill.  As we reached the crest, the rain started and didn’t really relent until we were nearly finished the walk.  As the bells chimed for noon, Jeb pulled out a full bottle of whisky from his rucksack and we toasted his recent 60^th birthday with a generous dram and water (au naturel).  We yomped down to the bothy at Laggan where a couple of other chaps were sheltering – suffice to say this particular des. res. requires some work and does not offer the type of lunch stop to which we became accustomed in our last trip (to the Yorkshire Dales).  Replete, we set off along the coast in search of a renowned geological site – the famous Huttons Unconformity.  As had been forewarned, the coastal path was somewhat gnarly, and we reached the flatter area after much groaning and grumbling.  Quote John D…”this is much more likely to break my leg than the skiing which I have recently given up!”.  On a scale of 0-10 for shit weather, the walk leader estimated a good 7.  Anyway, we reached Huttons site and finally located the unconformity …. frankly it had been a little bit oversold and could do with a workover to improve the customer experience.  Strictly for afficionados.  The walk was duly completed in a mere drizzle and we retired to the Lochranza distillery café for a warming coffee and cake.  We picked up a hitchhiker on the way back to Blackwaterfoot (turned out to be Ian St out for a stroll following his later arrival).  Drinks and dinner were served at the Blackwaterfoot Lodge hotel where we enjoyed good food, good drink (until the beer ran out) and warming coal fire. An excellent way to finish the day."

Does this make it any clearer?

I was a latecomer, not arriving on Arran until 2pm and I was greeted by a huge downpour as I drove off the ferry. My thoughts went out to the team - surely they're not walking in this? I certainly wasn't going to venture out in this weather - I would just drive over to Blackwaterfoot, check in to the hotel and head straight for the warmth of the pool and sauna. Well, blow me, by the time I had driven to the other side of the island, the rain had stopped, so I decided to head out for a walk after all - along the road north to Machrie, from where, as Ken reported above, I was given a lift back to our hotel in good time for the dinner that evening:

Arran 2018 - Day one

September, 2018 was the 9th year of our walking holidays. 13 participants to date, 11 of whom were on this trip (Nigel and Jack the others). Our leader, Ken, has been on all of them of course (albeit missing a couple of days of the WHW in 2010) and Ian Sh has been on 8 of them, with John McW and myself (Ian St) on 7.

Ken reports on the first day:

"Thursday

Transporting 12 people to Arran ought not to be too much of a challenge but the team made great efforts to generate complexity and confusion. Ian St was first up with a double-booking of holidays for the Thursday (not many people have so many holidays that they are in danger of overlapping).  Nigel was next up with inflamed achilles and a full cancellation on the evening before departure, necessitating the late stand-in as driver by Ken.  And finally Jeb completed his final working day before the trip at 1am in the morning only to discover he had a flat tyre which resulted in Colin making a late stand-in as driver (he realised he was driving at approximately the same time as he was due to be picked up).  So, most of us eventually set off towards Arran via the scheduled stop at Crinan for lunch and a short walk.  Unfortunately, Dave, navigating Ken’s car, had not computed the information about a Crinan stopover and directed us carefully (and accurately) to Claonaig where the ferry leaves for Lochranza.  His fellow passengers finally realised we were 40 minutes past the Crinan turn-off as Arran loomed into our view (that can’t be right, Crinan faces west).  Hey ho, 40 minutes back up the road and a late (but rather good lunch) at the Crinan hotel seafood bar.  Just time for a short walk along the canal – very pretty – to admire the engineering and sea views in the drizzle. We made the 16.20 ferry and after an uneventful crossing we pitched up at our hotels in Blackwaterfoot.  Dinner was at the recently refurbished Kinloch and was very well-received by all.  Plan for the next day…. a walk round the cock of Arran."

There are literally hundreds of photos of the weekend, so I've had to be selective about which ones appear in the blog - with apologies to all if yours don't feature as much as some others. Here's a few from Thursday:

Bennachie

Best laid plans etc. The weather behaved - much better than forecast earlier in the week - but you would have thought that 3 of us would have managed to plan and co-ordinate sufficiently well for our assault on Bennachie. Not so - first of all, I forgot the printed route plans and maps and had to dash back home again after picking John up, thus adding to our lateness in meeting up with Stewart - supposedly at 10:30 am.

As for Stewart, just one week in to his retirement, it seemed the old grey cells had stopped working already. The emails said meet at the Back of Bennachie Car Park, but he went to the main car park - i.e. the front of Bennachie - and with some road closures around there, he couldn't get round to where John and I were heading in reasonable time.

Allied to which, we didn't have each other's mobile phone numbers - point to remember when in Arran next week. We did eventually manage to communicate vie email and Messenger and it was agreed that John and I would go ahead with the planned walk up Oxen Craig and Mither Tap and Stewart would head up Mither Tap from the other side and hopefully meet up with us on top, albeit with us all setting off half an hour later than originally planned.

Anyway, here's some of the photos I took - on the top of Oxen Craig first of all:

John looking over at Mither Tap - our next target

Oxen Craig is actually higher than Mither Tap

 Stewart was fed up waiting for us at the top of Mither Tap and it was by sheer chance that I spotted him making his way down as John and I clambered up an off-piste route to the top, but we managed to get the team photo eventually:

We had a chat and some lunch and then bade our farewells, with John and I heading for another small peak on our way back to the car:

We tried to get a selfie from this peak looking back at Mither Tap, but kept blocking it out:

John eventually tried a selfie with his phone:

I then tried the same thing with my camera - just as John was checking out his own photo:

Finally, our stats:

This was our 10th recorded walk of 2018 - and the first one under 10 kms, although it was rated 3rd in climbing stats, with all the hard work at the beginning.