I’m just back from a week’s break on the Scottish island of Arran.
We stayed a couple of miles outside of the island’s main town, Brodick, at the top of a steep track.
Walk-wise, I managed a couple of walks on the island.
The first was a short, early morning, walk from the cottage along the coastal road and back.
I was rewarded with a cracking view across the bay as the sun made it’s appearance.
Later in the week, I decided on a something a little longer.
As before, I dropped down to the coast road and followed it to Brodick Castle and then into Brodick itself walking along a strip of beach adjacent to one of Arran’s seven golf courses.
On the outskirts of Brodick, I branched off, slowly climbing away from the coast.
The weather had taken a turn for the worse with the rain doing it’s best to soak me through.
A path (well it was on the map but not so obvious on the ground) continued up to join a forest track which was then followed to re-join the main Brodick – Lamlash road.
A track which ran alongside the road was followed towards Lamlash Bay by which time the rain had abated and I was slowly drying out. Unfortunately, my wet trousers had rubbed my upper thighs which created a bit of painful chaffing (ouch!)
I did manage to pick up a couple of geocaches along this stretch.
From Lamlash, I followed the road as far as it went before it turned into a track, along the coast, back towards Brodick.
I could have followed this track, along the coast back to Brodick, but chose to head uphill to the trig point at one hundred and sixty four metres.
The path then headed mainly downhill (well it would from a trig point) to Brodick.
Back in town, I followed the Fisherman’s Trail, keeping to the coast before retracing my steps back to the cottage.
In a tad over four hours, I managed a distance of fifteen and a half miles and some 1,654 feet of ascent.
A good morning’s work and after a shower and the application of some Vaseline, I had the rest of the day to spend with the family.