Isle of Arran

This was a trip that was postponed from Christmas 2020 (and then again from Easter 2021) because of the pandemic.  Fortuitously the new date coincided with our 37^th wedding anniversary which gave us the opportunity to relive the memories of our honeymoon spent on the island in the summer of 1984 – of which more later. 

Of course, nothing in this household goes completely to plan (one of the downsides of planning everything meticulously!) and getting to Arran became a bit tricky.  We noticed on the Calmac (the ferry operator) app that the Ullapool-Stornoway ferry had broken down with engine trouble, so the company had taken one of the two ferries from the Ardrossen-Brodick route to replace it.  Since only one ferry out of the two was operating, we had a 50/50 chance that our booking would be honoured … and guess what – it wasn’t.  Calmac didn’t contact us – we had to contact them, which was disappointing, and there was nothing they could do except to suggest that we went on the “turn up and go” ferry from Claonaig to Lamlash.  Actually, not the end of the world – it should have been an extra couple of hours detour to go via Loch Lomond, round the tip of Loch Fyne and then down the western side of the Firth of Clyde to Claonaig.  The scenery would be lovely, we thought, and a couple of hours extra isn’t much … but we chose to travel on the first Saturday of half term, and it was a nice day, so the whole of Scotland appeared to be on the road to Loch Lomond. Scotland’s roads are not built for tourist traffic (even though a significant proportion of the country’s income is from tourism) so we got stuck in an hour and a half of traffic jam. The ferry was great, though – once we got there.

 

This is the ferry terminal.  It used to have a toilet, but that's been removed.  Basically, you just turn up and join the queue, which is marked up in lanes.  That's us at the back on lane 1 and so we were fairly confident we'd get on.  In the event, lane 2 was filled up too and they still had plenty of space.  It was a very smooth operation.  We had just missed one, so waited for the next - about 40 minutes

 

 

Here's the ferry docking.  It looks tiny here but it's actually stable and absolutely fine.   COVID restrictions forbade us from getting out of the car (although plenty of passengers did) which suited us.  Tara just stayed asleep for the 30 minute crossing (£16.50 all-in).

You can see the Isle of Arran in the background - it's really not far away.

Once across, we had a 30 minute or so drive round the top of the island to get to Lamlash which was where we were staying.  As we read the signposts and passed through places like Sannox and Brodick, the memories from 37 years ago came back.  It was nice!

 

 

 

We found "Whiterock Cottage Hideaway" through AirBnB and it's really well named.  The views are stunning and we had the run of the three fields and extensive woodland that makes up the property. Here is the view from the bedroom window!

 

We were hosted by two absolutely lovely people, both significant artists. Tim Pomeroy is a sculptor – stone mostly – and his wife, Josephine Broekhuizen is a painter. Their work was all around. With the fields and woodland, Tara was in heaven with the smells available to her and had a wonderful time, as did we.  That night we cheated by cooking a pre-prepared chicken dinner and relaxed in these wonderful surroundings.

On  Monday we went to the sizable Co-op in Brodick for shopping.  Brodick has changed in the years since we last visited - there is now a huge pitch and putt thingy on the seafront and the whole place has become much more tourist-orientated than before.  Not a surprise, of course, and the place looks so much more affluent as a result.  They've built a grand new ferry terminal here, although we could still see the remains of the old link road (now a very much sitting area) that we backed along because the ferry in 1984 had been damaged and the loading ramp at one end out of action.  Memories!

Tuesday saw us sightseeing.  We wanted to find where we camped for our honeymoon - right at the southern tip of the island, near Kildonan. We passed through Whiting Bay - its name doesn't come from the fish but is a corruption of "Viking Bay". It is quite a grand place, really, telling of its affluence in the past when a steamer service called here from the mainland  That stopped in about 1960 and the place declined but the big houses remain.  We paused here to buy a freezer block - necessary because of the unseasonal heat!  The weather realy has crashed from one extreme of unseasonably cold to the other extreme of unseasonably hot.  It was currently the latter.

We found the field we'd stayed on - exactly as it had been then!  That's it behind us in the picture.

We stayed at the left of the field, alongside that mound that marks the left edge of the field, shown in the picture below. 

Pladda Island and Ailsa Craig are still there - we looked at those from our tent.  But now there are holiday homes built along the shoreline.

 

 

 

The Breadalbane Hotel, where we ate regularly during our stay, has now largely gone, only the main house remains which is derelict.  We were told it is to be demolished and the land used for house building.

Once we'd completed our nostalgia fix, we continued to Blackwaterfoot where we had some lunch and visited the artisan baker and butcher, buying food for our evening meal.  This is pretty well unchanged since we were here all those years ago, although it is much busier with the inevitable camper vans taking up a large proportion of the car park.  This photo of the harbour amused us.

This it Blackwaterfoot Harbour in its entirety.  The sign on the wall reads "Persons using this harbour so do at their own risk", which is fair enough although there can't really be that many of them.

We returned to Lamlash over one of the roads that crosses the island, stopping at Brodick for shopping.

On Wednesday, We called into Lamlash for lunch and then Lo had a Zoom meeting to "attend".  Following that, we had a tour of Tim's studio - you'll recall we mentioned that he's an active sculptor.  Here are some of his works.

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday we returned to Brodick, ostensibly to shop for lunch and dinner, but also enjoyed watching Ardrossan ferry arrive, unload, reload and sail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found a tear jerking plaque along the foreshore. In case you can't read the inscription, it says:

Arran Brodick Barr, Perth Western Australia, 1989 to 2006.

My son's journey through life ended abruptly on Friday 3rd March 2006.

On many occasions, Arran expressed a strong desire to visit the place after which he was named, and I promised him that I would some day make such a visit possible.  This is the only way I could keep my promise to my son.

I hope all who read this will understand.

Simon J. A. Barr

We certainly understood!


We enjoyed tea, coffee and scones at Copperwheat Coffee House on the pier. and later in the day, Lo. had a Zoom meeting. 

We took a run back down to Kildonan to see a bench designed and built by Tim in 2008.  That's Pladda Island in the background.  

The inscription is from Kahlil Gibran and reads 

"Does the song of the sea end on the shore or in the hearts of those who listen?"

Then it was time to leave this lovely island - but not for the last time we very much hope!  This time our Calmac booking was honoured because they'd mended the Ullapool ferry so ours was back in service.  The experience was terrific and there are some excellent facilities for dogs in a special area of the inside saloon. Tara really didn’t like the stairs up and down to the car deck since they were too steep and slippery metal.  Going up was fine, but coming back down was difficult for her.  Thankfully it wasn't too far and that orange jacket she's wearing really came into its own.  It's sold as a buoyancy aid - greyhounds sink in water because they don't have enough body fat to keep them afloat - but those two handles on the top together with the substantial straps and padding round her chest made it possible to safely carry her down.  She wasn't that struck on the water rushing past, but loved the smells coming from the carpet in the saloon … we didn’t enquire what they were!
 
Travelling back home from Ardrossan was easy and realtively traffic-free; it only took four hours (including stops and dogwalks) rather than the 7 it took to get to Claonaig on the outbound journey.