The Ferry to Arran, Scotland by Motorhome

We’re on the isle of Arran, safely ensconced in the forested car park besides the Mountain Rescue center in Brodick. It’s a 30 min walk from the town. The mountain rescue folks have their own area of reserved parking should they need it, so we’re in no-one’s way. We’ve popped a donation in the box and are sharing the large flat area, a stone’s throw from the beach, with one other motorhome and a pop top camper. We’ve chatted with both couples and they are lovely and interesting folks.

We’re really happy as we were finding the mainland really busy with motorhomes, even in early May. After just a few hours, Arran feels much more laid-back. We’re planning on mixing up free parking with campsites while on Arran, and this is a great start.

If we’d found this area full, there are motorhomes overnighting on the road next to the ferry port in Brodick. Although right next to the road, we very much doubt there’d be much if any traffic after the last ferry leaves. There are a few other free parking spots on park4night we could have tried too.

We made the trip here on the CalMac ferry from Troon. It’s pretty cheap to bring a motorhome over from the mainland, thanks to Scotland’s approach to subsidising many island ferry crossings. From ChatGPT: the government’s “Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) is a distance-based ferry fare structure used in Scotland to ensure that ferry tickets are priced no higher than an equivalent road journey.”

For our 6m van, with rear bike rack and two adults it was £30 one-way. We booked a couple of days ago as there aren’t that many crossings which take motorhomes. You can book or get an idea of prices at www.calmac.co.uk.

The crossing was straightforward. We arrived very early at Troon ferry port having stocked up on fresh food and fuel at Tesco. There was one other camper in front of us, who we happily followed through the process of boarding. Being too early to even enter the queue lanes (there were cones across the road before the check-in booth), we both stopped and waited. The couple in front, Andy and Shena, had seen the blog before so jumped out for a chat.

During the conversation they told us about the ferry we were about to board: the Glen Sannox. It’s a new boat, which went into service just a few months ago in November 2024. The build project was plagued with problems though. The cost went from £96 million to £400 million (ouch). It was delivered seven years late. And to top it off, it was supposed to sail the shorter Ardrossen (not Troon) to Brodick route, but can’t do that. Changes needed to the port at Ardrossen were never made, so it won’t fit.

Also, for reasons best known only to herself, then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon decided to ‘launch’ the ferry back in 2017 despite it very obviously not being ready. The windows were painted on and the funnels were made of plywood. Politics eh?

We’d been emailed PDF tickets when we booked the crossing. At check in a chap in high vis came to the window and scanned the PDF from Ju’s phone. We rolled forwards into the queuing lanes and waited a while. A fair few cars, a caravan, vans, and motorhomes queued up behind us. At this point we were half expecting Arran to be packed with motorhomes too, and the parking we’re in to be full to bursting.

We sat and watched all the incoming passengers walking or being bussed off, and cars driving into Troon. Then the cars rolled onto the ferry, followed by us. Weirdly when we boarded there were no cars to be seen, they’d all been hauled up towards the ceiling above us on a huge flat deck that you can see yellow edge of the photo above. A second deck, on the left in the photo but just looks like the ceiling, was up there empty, clearly the boat can take far more cars than were on it.

The crossing itself was completely calm. It only took about an hour and 20 mins once we got moving. The whole boat looked and felt new, of course, although we didn’t try out the facilities inside other than a short sit at the front as we docked.

In broken cloud we stood on deck and felt the sense of departure wash over us. Although we’re going from Scotland to Scotland, it felt like we were heading abroad. A few folks with dogs sat on deck with us, but most of the chairs were empty. The sea was beautiful, reflecting the sky like an oil painting. Huge jellyfish floated past. Sea birds skimmed the surface. For a few brief moments five or six dolphins breached the mercury-like surface.

Disembarking was easy too. Unsurprisingly there are no border controls, we just drove off and onto the quiet roads of the island. All of about two miles later we turned in here, relieved to find plenty of space. We had a brief chat with some rather well-spoken septuagenarian gents who’d just hiked Goatfell, learning it took them 7 hours, the views were magnificent and they never needed a jumper.

We also chatted with the guys in the pop top camper, who we quickly learned were VERY well traveled (the kind of folks who make you wonder what you’ve been doing with your life). After that we headed along what’s branded ‘The Fisherman’s Path’ into Brodick, along the beach and through the golf course.

As far as I know Brodick is Arran’s Big Smoke, the largest town on the island. Perhaps Sunday evening is the reason it was very quiet. A few locals were grabbing supplies at one of the two Co-Op’s. A small eaterie opposite competed with an adjacent Chinese takeaway for our attention, winning out with a couple of fresh-made pizzas. We sat and swung our legs on a bench by the sea, keeping a close eye on the local seagull population, ready to defend our grub. With the mountains of Arran rising over yachts anchored in the calm bay, it was a pretty cool place to enjoy tea.

The weather is looking a little iffy tomorrow, but from then onward it’s wall-to-wall sunshine for a week. Unbelievable in May in Scotland, but we’re not complaining. Our plan is to hike up Goatfell tomorrow or the day after. Other than that we’re not sure. There’s a campsite in the south which looks inviting and we’ve a few free parking places lined up. But it’s all unscripted stuff as usual, we’re really looking forward to it.

Cheers, Jay