 |
 |
|||||||
|
||||||||
| |||||||||||||
|
Help Support |
Isle of Arran
The largest of the islands in the Firth of Clyde is the Isle of Arran, which sits on the western side of the Firth and is separated from the Kintyre peninsula by the Kilbrannan Sound. Arran is reached from the mainland by one of two ferries: the first runs from Ardrossan in North Ayrshire to Brodick on the eastern side of the island; the second, which only runs during the summer months, sails from Claonaig on the Kintyre peninsula to Lochranza at the northern end of the island. With its mountainous area to the north and lower lying land to the south, Arran is often described as Scotland in Miniature; this is caused by the Highland Boundary Fault running across the centre of island, as it does across the mainland. The 18th century geologist James Hutton was a frequent visitor to the island; it was during a visit in 1787 that he found his first example of *, near Newton Point to the north of Lochranza. Once on the island, the main road allows the visitor to travel round the entire island, following close to the coast. There are also a couple of roads that cut across the island: the String Road, which runs from Brodick in the east to Blackwaterfoot in the west; and the Ross Road that runs from Lamlash to Lagg. As mentioned above, the main road follows close to the coast of Arran and this is probably the road that most visitors to the island would follow, either heading north from Brodick to the castle or south towards Lamlash, the largest settlement on Arran, and the Holy Island. Taking the latter route and continuing south from Lamlash, the road passes through Whiting Bay; this is the third largest settlement on the island. According to legend, in 1307 Robert the Bruce returned to the Scottish mainland from Kingscross Point, which sits between Lamlash and Whiting Bays, to launch his campaign to regain Scotland from English control. Continuing south from Whiting Bay, the road soon reaches the southern end of the island and a minor road cuts off the main road in to Kildonan; this is said to be the burial place of Saint Donan who, along with his followers, was killed on Eigg in the early 7th century. To the south of Kildonan is the small island of Pladda; the lighthouse on the island was built in 1790 by Thomas Smith, the first engineer for the recently formed Northern Lighthouse Trust. Returning to the main road, which now runs round the southwest corner of Arran, the views are dominated by the southern end of the Kintyre peninsula with Ireland visible on a clear day in the distance; the small island of Sanda, which sits off the south coast of Kintyre, is referred to as Spoon Island as, when seen from Arran, it resembles an upturned spoon. The main road on Arran now heads up the west coast of the island, passing through Blackwaterfoot; to the north of this village is the King’s Cave, one of the many locations associated with Robert the Bruce’s legendary encounter with a spider. Continuing north, the road passes through Catacol, where a row of cottages are known as the Twelve Apostles. From Catacol the road heads north to Lochranza, the location of Arran’s only distillery, and then southwest towards Sannox and finally south back to Brodick where the clockwise tour of the island started. The profile of the northern mountains of Arran is referred to as the Sleeping Warrior. There are various interpretations as to which mountains make up this figure and from which direction it is best seen, but the most obvious appears to be the view from the Ayrshire coast, the Cowal peninsula or the Isle of Bute of the mountains in the north; however, we’ll leave it to others to decide how they see the legendary warrior. [* In geology, an unconformity is a break in the continuity of rock strata in contact, separating younger from older rocks and usually resulting from erosion of the surface of the older bed before the younger bed was laid down.] |
|
| ||||||||||||
