The end of the day on the 2nd of October found us waiting for the ferry to Lochranza on Arran, which was shrouded in heavy fog. Looking out over the water we saw the ferry emerge from the fog, which we later found out, had plagued Arran for several days and caused delayed and cancelled ferry runs.
While the ferry approached Claonig, Melinda took the opportunity to strum a few songs on the guitar in the sun. Lovely view, wonderful sunshine, a great time to relax and play a bit.
The ferry ride over was sunny and pleasant, until about halfway across. Then we entered the fog. At times it was so thick that the back of the ferry was partially obscured when we looked out from the front. That's thick fog! It was so dense that the fairy captain slowed the boat, and we crept along cautiously.
As we neared Lochranza, one of the ferrymen climbed on the top of the auto ramp to look for shore. It's kind of hard to believe, here in the age of satellite navigation, that they rely on one guy looking for the pier through the fog, but it's true! The fog doesn't look so bad in this picture because you can see the distant mountains of Arran. Keep in mind that the ferry captain doesn't so much care about the distant mountains - the rocky shore hidden in the fog is his concern!
Eventually he sighted the pier, but it was well to the left of the ferry. The captain steered the ferry hard to port, and we inched along the shoreline until we were properly aligned to land. The ferryman who climbed on the ramp later told us that the fog was so bad the day before that it caused them to miss the pier at Claonig by over a mile! Apparently the sat-nav system is not so great?
Right in Lochranza is a castle, so we had a look. Construction of the castle was originally started in the 1300s, and had been modified and added onto several times over the centuries. Careful inspection revealed blocked-over windows, old entry gates, and even major architectural renovations that were made to enhance the security of the castle. Remodelling one's abode is not a new concept!
We found this sailing boat high and dry along the drive to the castle. Melinda was reminded of her older sister and family who bear the name Miller.... :-)
We decided to stay at the hostel at Lochranza that night so we could do laundry. We also expected to meet up with Derek, our neighbor from the Jura music festival, and have a few tunes with him. Turns out he had departed just a couple hours before ... So we'll have to find Derek again and have a wee session some other time. Maybe on Jura next year?
The next morning we packed off and headed down the road to the......
Of course!
We stopped in for a short tour and a dram, and we're delighted to sample their 14-year old malt. This one we can both very highly recommend for its smoothness and rich flavor. We enjoyed it well enough that it's on our short-list of bottles to acquire once we settle in Glasgow at the end of the bike tour.
The Arran distillery is quite new, having opened in 1995, and is making waves in the whisky industry for their very high quality malts. The Arran malts, we were told, have a huge following in Japan, and that speaks to the high quality of their product because the Japanese are quite discriminating.
Robert Burns, the bard and poet, is so revered here that they celebrate him with a fine malt beverage.
After our wee distillery tour we headed down the west coast of Arran. Another nice day, and dry, and we pedaled along peacefully to Machrie with stops for lunch, and a stop at 'The Old Byre', a wool and craft shop, to try on hand-knitted Arran sweaters. It was a tough decision, but we walked out of the wool shop empty handed. (And spent the next three days trying to decide if we were going back to 'The Old Byre' at Machrie to pick up boB's sweater. Alas, sigh, we never did.)
Our next stop, just south of Machrie, was the Machrie Moor.
Machrie Moor is the location of a major archeological area featuring six large stone circles. They're located in close proximity to each other, and were first used as astrological observatories before being used religious and burial sites for prehistoric people from 3500 - 1500 years BC. The stone circles can be found a short (2km) walk from the car park, through fields of sheep and cows.
The excavation of this stone circle revealed that it had previously been a wood-henge, and at some point was upgraded to stone.
Located nearby is an impressive arrangement of tall standing stones, some of the tallest standing stones on the Hebrides (and taller than the stones Calanais on North Lewis).
The above pictures give a good indication of the size of the stones. They're huge! One can only imagine the effort that went into transporting the stones from far away, preparing the foundations, then hoisting them into place. They've been standing for around five thousand years, so clearly the people who put them here were very skilled and intended the stones to remain in place long beyond their own lifetimes.
In the background is the rugged mountains of north-central Arran. In addition to choosing religiously significant land, it seems Prehistoric people liked scenic places to build their stone circles, too. The moor also is home to ancient hut circles, and archeologists have discovered remains of timber circles that predate the stone circles by over a thousand years.
By now it was tending toward evening, so we hit the road to find home for the night. Within a mile we found the Tigh Righ Beag forest, and thought "why not?" The forest is a plantation and is scarily dark and dense, but there's a trail that runs all the way around it. The sign board also hinted tantalizingly at caves along the shore... Hmm...
Above is a view of whence we came, over Machrie Moor, as we rode around the forest.
After a couple kilometers of easy mountain bike trail, we found a decent place for the tent. In fact, it was the ONLY decent place we found, so we claimed it. As usual, the scenery was beyond compare.
(Here's boB applying midge repellent. Yep. More midges. Sigh.) In the background is Kintyre, where we were the day before! We enjoyed the lovely view over the Kilbrannon sound.
While we were setting up camp we were visited by a wee birdy. Quite bold, this guy! He came within inches of us, and was obviously looking for handouts. A camp robber, but on a very small scale. We didn't oblige, and he eventually got fed up and left.
Then we went for a wee hike with our instruments to find the caves.
This is the entry to the first cave we found. It was seriously dark and creepy! We screwed up our courage, tuned up our instruments, and headed inside to see how long we could play before we freaked ourselves out.
boB looks less than thrilled here, wondering if something large and furry is about to eat his head.
And here Melinda strums a few chords. Notice how much closer to the entry she is? Smart!
We never did find the back of that cave. It was deep! And dark! And we were creeping ourselves out by the minute, so we high-tailed it out of there and headed a little further down the shore ...
And found another cave!
This time boB claimed the space nearer the entry, in case rapid de-entry was required.
Finally we took a wee dram of liquid courage and calmed down, and hung out for a bit playing tunes. It was good fun, and nice to play for a while. The acoustics were pretty good, too! The shoreline held many caves, some very large and deep, and others fairly shallow.
A little further down the shore we found the prize:
A cave that's now called King's Cave, but was formerly known as Fingal's Cave! Naturally, we played Fingal's Cave (the tune) inside (the cave), and now we've played inside of TWO of Fingal's caves! Next year, when we come back, we're going to tour Scotland looking for more caves that share that name.
This Fingal's Cave is home to a number of ancient runes and Pictish symbols carved into the walls. The Mysterous Britain website has this to say about the cave: "Along the Western shore of Arran, are a series of natural caves in the sandstone rock. One of the caves is said to have been the refuge in which Robert the Bruce had his famed encounter with a spider.
According to legend Bruce was dejected, and on the verge of giving up trying to gain independence for Scotland from the English. While hiding out in a cave he observed a spider on one of the cave walls. The spider span a web only to have it collapse from the slippery stone.
Again and again the spider built its home, never giving up no matter how many times it failed, and eventually the web held. Bruce was said to have been inspired to try and try again against his foes and finally led the Scots to victory at Bannockburn."
Wow! A cave with history!
The next morning we headed south a little further, to Blackwaterfoot, in search of coffee.
In Blackwaterfoot, yet another cool bridge.
Then we headed north and east, along the east side of Machrie Moor, toward Brodick. Here's a wee selfie in a fish-eye mirror.
This is a view of Goat Fell, the highest point on Arran. The terrain on the north side of the island is very rugged, created first by tectonic plates crashing and then carved by glaciers. The south side, in contrast, is more rolling, lower in elevation, and is better suited to agriculture. Arran is thus known as a miniature Scotland- as it reflects the mainland in this way. At the Lochranza hostel we had met a group of British teen geologists from the Isle of Wight who came to study here. We came to understand why- Arran is home to some incredible geology!
The road to Brodick, cutting roughly east-west across the middle of the island, is called the String Road, and it was surveyed by Thomas Telford. Telford, you might recall from earlier posts, was the architect who designed many of the roads and bridges that connected the remoter parts of Scotland in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Smart chap!
Here's a view from Brodick, looking northwest to the Goat Fell.
Once we arrived in Brodick we stopped at the heritage museum and learned about the local history through the clearances, the world wars, and more recent events that have shaped Arran. Arran was very active as a base during World War Two, and those events have had a lasting impact on the culture since many people from the mainland fled to the islands to escape the dangers of the German raids.
There was a wonderful yet sobering display about the use of the Gaelic language, which is now only a feint memory on the island (compared to many of the more northerly islands where it is still alive and well). Gaelic was the vibrant and living language of the island's majority up into the 1800's. With the movement of cultural reform, its use was highly discouraged by land owners and church officials. Arran, being quite close to the mainland, was very influenced by this movement and Gaelic was replaced by English.
It was late in the day when we arrived at the 800-year old Brodick Castle, and we took a wee garden tour.
Originally there was a fort on the site in about the year 500, and rulers of the islands built increasingly formidable castles on the site. The castle was destroyed a number of times, usually by invading English armies, and each time it was rebuilt. The rebuilt portions often castle can be seen in the different colors and textures of the stone. The castle was owned by the Hamiltons for several centuries, and ownership was passed to the Scotland National Trust.
From Wikipedia:
"The older part of the castle is said to be haunted by a "Grey Lady" who starved to death in the dungeons of the castle because she had the plague. A man has been reportedly seen sitting in the library and a White Deer is reputedly seen in the grounds of the castle whenever a chief of the Hamiltons is close to death."
The castle grounds feature beautiful huge gardens full of exotic plants and expertly manicured lawns. The castle is home to the first island country garden in Scotland, and is very well maintained.
(Melinda here....This may be the best beer I've ever had (except perhaps for Bridger Brewing's coffee stout). It was so rich and thick that you could almost chew it!)
After a camp-cooked supper we went to a bar called 'Fiddler's' to catch The Arran Ceilidh Band, then ended the night camping in the park along the beach. Brodick is easily reached by a single ferry from the west coast of the mainland, and it was quite obvious to us that this part of the island was more touristy and popular than other places we'd recently stayed. It was a bit noisier, a bit busier, and the vibe was different than other islands we'd been on. In fact, it was quite different from the other side of the same island! We could see the lights of the mainland across the Firth of Clyde, and began to wonder if we would be able to adjust to living in the city once the tour was over.
The next day we simply hung about Brodick, relaxing, eating, doing some shopping, and enjoying the sites. In the afternoon, we went back to the same bar for the Sunday session. Once we arrived we were informed that it was a special event: the annual Arran concertina festival was on that weekend, and we would be joined by TWENTY-THREE concertinas for the session. Yep. Twenty-three! They sort of trickled in, and before we knew it the place was totally packed!
Of course there were a few other instruments: three guitars, three fiddles, a whistler, and a drummer. We had a blast!
The whistler comes well armed!
We were asked to lead a couple of sets, and thankfully lots of folks knew the tunes and played along. What fun to hear so many people together, hanging out, and having a grand time of the craic.
Interesting toilet seat ... But what do you expect from a bar called 'Fiddler's'?
Our objective that night was to be back in Lochranza to camp, so we left session and high-tailed it northward on the A841 up a seriously long climb (and down the other side). It was cloudy, but dry, and we made good time. This part of Arran is rugged and beautiful, and the colors of the foliage made it clear that autumn is here: the grass has taken on a dark red hue, and a few deciduous trees are starting to turn.
We passed the Arran distillery, the hostel, and the castle. It's unusual for us to return to a place on our cycle tour, but coming back through Lochranza and knowing the sites was comforting. We camped along the waterfront in Lochranza, near the ferry pier so that we wouldn't have to go far the next morning.
Here's a beautiful sunset over Kintyre. We've been lucky for the last couple of weeks, and have had really good weather ever since we since arrived on Jura for the music festival.
Settling in for the night, with the ferry visible in the background. The site had a flat area just large enough for the tent, and the waves were gently slapping the rocks below. In contrast to Brodick, just eight miles away, Lochranza felt remote and isolated.
We were serenaded all night by the stags bugling their mating calls. It was eerie hearing them from all around the bay, and it got a bit hairy when we heard one stomping right past the tent in the middle of the night. He must have been huge! And when he bugled from a few yards away we nearly jumped through the roof of the tent!
And the next morning we awoke to a sweet sunrise, bundled our gear away, and headed back to Claonig on Kintyre on the first ferry of the day. This time there was no fog, and the ride was fast and easy.
We didn't know it at the time, but this night on Arran was our last time camping in the tent on our Scottish cycle tour adventure. We couldn't have asked for a better place to camp.
1 October: South End, Kintyre to Lochranza, Arran along B842 and Ferry from Claonaig, Kintyre to Lochranza, Arran. Major fog. Visited Saddell Abbey. Picnic in forest in sunshine. Stayed at hostel in Lochranza with unfulfilled hopes of meeting up with our friend Derek, from the Jura festival. Total 38 difficult hilly miles.
2 October: Tour of Arran distillery in Lochranza. Brief stop at Lochranza castle, which was locked. Visited 'The old Byre' and fantasized about thick Arran wool sweaters. Visited Machrie Moor (stone circles and cairn), and king's (Fingal's) cave. Camped above cave area at edge of Tigh Righ Beag forest with lovely views out to Kilbrannon sound.
Total 18.5 miles.
3 October; Tigh Righ Beag forest- Brodick. Stopped for coffee at hotel in Blackwaterfoot. Took Thomas Telford's 'string road' (B880) over the center of island to Brodick. Passed through Torbeg and Shiskine (Arran's only inland village). Visited the heritage museum, Brodick Castle gardens, and the Arran brewery. Went to see 'The Arran Ceilidh Band' at the 'Fiddler's'. Total 20 miles.
4 October: Brodick to Lochranza via A841. Attended afternoon session at the 'Fiddler's' with 23 concertinas! Total 18.8 miles.
I am in awe!
ReplyDeleteMiss you aunt Anne!
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