Our tour of the south of the island began by heading south out of Brodick. The first halt was at a viewpoint looking back towards the mountains.

From left to right they are: Beinn Nuis, Beinn Tarsuinn, Beinn A’ Chliabhain, A Chir, Glenshant Hill, Cir Mhor, Casteal Abhail, Goat Fell, Mullach Buidhe, Meall Breac, Am Binnein. Whiting Bay has a long beach, views of the southern end of Holy Island and the Arran Art Gallery. Just at the south end of the beach is Glenashdale. Glenashdale Falls are reached via a track that runs through waterside deciduous woodland with bluebells and wild garlic which reminded me of the similar woods on the south face of the Ochil hills that I used to spend time in as a child. There are several properties towards the bottom of the path. The last of these looked as if it might be occupied by a hoarder given the amount of stuff piled up outside the building. This truck had obviously not moved for many years.

The higher slopes are coniferous forest and late in the day you might see red squirrels.
Having reached the waterfall,

there are options for the return. We chose to descend via the Giants Graves. The route is on a forest road until you reach the graves. They are two of more than 20 Neolithic chambered cairns on Arran. They were excavated in the 1960s and some of the stones have been removed. This often happened at cairns when stones were needed for building as it was easier than getting them from the quarries when they were operating.

The wealth of archeology in Arran reminds me that when our son was young, we had had several trips in succession to the Western Isles, Cornwall and West Cork, all of which have neolithic sites. The next trip was to Brittany where Carnac is a major site. This triggered a cry of ‘Not more old stones!’ from our son. On this trip we continued to follow the minor road along the coast to Kildonan which has a sandy beach with views to Pladda and the Ailsa Craig. There is a campsite and a hotel, both of which look appealing places to stay.
Returning to Lamlash via the Ross Road, (built in 1821-22) we passed another Buddhist retreat in the middle of the hills: the Samye Dechen Shing Retreat Centre. It occupies the former Glenscorrodale Farm, near the head of Glen Scorrodale. The farm was gifted to the Kagyu Samye Ling Buddhist Monastery and Tibetan Centre in 1994 by the owner and converted to a retreat centre ten years later. Its name means “the blissful place”, and it offers men-only on long-term retreats of up to three years (women-only retreats are available at the centre on Holy Island). A closed retreat was underway when we passed by.

There are more ruined homes and farms in the southern part of Arran than the north. Leases for the farms after the first round of enclosures were not renewed and the homes were cleared to make room for sheep. Many of the people emigrated to eastern Canada. Another sad episode in the history of this island. On the second day we were back on the String Road, planned by Thomas Telford and completed by 1817. We passed through Shiskine where friends used to live and on to Blackwaterfoot which has a magnificent sandy beach stretching out to the cliffs at Drumadoon Point.

While James was stocking up at the butcher, I was swan watching. This one was having a siesta by the river:

while his mate was sitting on the nest on the other side of the bridge. After a beach walk, we continued up the coast to the forest where a circular walk goes through the spruce plantation, down to the coast to the King’s Cave. After a picnic at a table where an artist started setting to paint as we left, we started the three mile circuit. King’s Cave is one of several which penetrate the sandstone cliffs up to 100 feet. It is said by some to have hidden Robert Bruce when he visited Arran in 1307 during his campaign for the Scottish Throne (although this is disputed). The information board at the car park said that the current name was modern, as two hundred years ago it was known as ‘Fingal’s Cave’. There are carvings on the walls, but the gate was locked on our visit. The carvings suggest that is has been in use for at least two thousand years as it has early Christian symbols and may have been used by a hermit but also there are also earlier ones, the meaning of which is unknown.

The walk returns along the end of the forest with views over the surrounding area. There were gulls nesting and we watched a gannet diving. There are hut circles marked on the map but we could not see them through the trees and walls.

Arran is a great place for walking. The coast path is 60 miles long (only 11 more than the circumference of the island) and is one we might do. There are mountain walks, and short walks of all sorts, to suit everyone.