Two Weeks on Arran, Scotland by Motorhome

We’ve been on Arran for two weeks now, and it’s been a blast! Our intention was to spend a few days here and move on to Kintyre. But the scenery, wildlife, hiking, history, beautifully clear seas, delicious food and wonderful park-ups have been just exceptional. They’ve contrived together to slow us down to a glacial crawl.

A seemingly endless supply of sunshine didn’t do the isle any harm either. It’s a lush place in springtime though, so something must be watering all those plants! We could see from the forecast the wet stuff was about to make a re-appearance, and in style too.

The forecast for the next, well, forever, is rain. There’s also a wee blast of stronger winds coming in tonight, 40 to 50mph depending on which forecast you choose to believe.

Motorhomes aren’t the greatest of places to kip when they’re being rocked by the wind. Once, parked up on the coast in Sicily and were caught out by a storm. The howling wind made a game attempt at ripping the skylights off. We spent a sleepless night in our washing machine of a motorhome being chased around the car park by a bin on wheels. It’ll be relatively calm tonight, but it taught us to not be out in the open.

After a silent night in the hills of North Glen Sannox we decamped and headed around the A481 (the only road) into Brodick. Our fridge and food cupboard were getting a little bare. The Co-Op calleth. The route took us along the coast through the hamlets of Sannox and Corrie, both attractive-looking places with sea-facing cottages, a hotel with a well-placed seaside beer garden (previously a croquet lawn) and a tiny, stone-walled port.

The road surface was in good nick, but wasn’t flat so the van wallowed from side to side. Constantly correcting and watching for oncoming traffic, driving a 2.2m wide van along the narrow bits is never going to be relaxing. Most of the time it’s a non-issue as the roads are our own, zero other traffic. When a rare car gets stuck behind us we pull in when it’s safe and Ju waves it past. Horn honks, hand waves and flashing hazards come back for thanks. Everyone’s good.

When we see the road’s too tight to pass oncoming cars or vans, we come to a halt and get as tight in as we can. No-one seems in much of a hurry and it works out fine. We’ve only have one incident (today, I’m still in a bit of a huff about it). A car driver was ‘stuck’ behind us for literally a couple of minutes when he tried to force an overtake somewhere he really shouldn’t (and really couldn’t) and we all nearly came a joint cropper.

Thanks be to the gods, we ended up safely parked in one of the abundant large spaces along the shore road near the ferry. Two minutes later we piled into the Co-Op, whereupon we tried to buy everything. Luckily we’d no coin for a trolley and could only carry so much in baskets, or we’d have stripped the place bare like locusts. Restocked, we climbed back in the van and, suckers for driving punishment, headed back along the coast road. Elbows in, here comes the bus folks!

Park4night has been our friend on this trip as for many before, and we were heading for a seaside parkup north of Sannox. A newly tarmacked single track road dropped us from the A road down to a gravel parking area. Out front lay a flattish grassy area we’d later learn is used by ‘proper’ wild campers, over which we could see the calm Firth of Clyde.

A few seagulls, a heron and the occasional oyster catcher stalked around on the rocky foreshore. On the other side we could make out an unusual white building. Turns out to be Hunterston nuclear power plant, no-longer in use and in the slow process of a decades-long decommissioning.

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been walking roughly double our usual number of steps. The hiking here is spectacular, but our legs were feeling it. The coastal path led directly from the parking area, a very gentle affair, but we only managed two or three miles before turning back for the van. Maybe we didn’t go far enough though, as later on we both found ourselves getting a last sunny run in before the grey skies came.

Up until this point we’d barely encountered the little bitey midges Scotland is infamous for. A few had buzzed about up at the Lochranza campsite. One lass there relayed a story of how she’d worn leggings with areas of breathable mesh behind her knees. When she took them off the midges had left a pattern of itchy red bite dots through the mesh. Last night as dusk settled on us, the midges did too. We noticed when I opened the door to let some air in as I cooked. When I closed it in came 500 of the tiny buggers, uninvited. It took us an hour to track ’em down and Ju was less than pleased!

Once we’d done midge hunting, a large group of cyclists provided the remaining entertainment for the evening. Arriving in rain and soaked through, they set about pitching tents. Ju knocked up a flask of hot water and took it over. This morning I had a chat with Patrick as he was disassembling his tent and packing it into a tiny bag, all 2kg of it, a great bit of kit.

They’d come over from Glasgow and had cycled a fair bit of the island. This morning they were off to Lochranza for a sandwich from the famous shop by the dockside, then on the ferry over to Kintyre. They were following the ‘five ferries’ route, a 70-odd mile loop taking in some of the best bits of Arran, Bute and Cowal.

This morning we decamped back to the donation-based Mountain Rescue Car park in Brodick to avoid the wind. It’s a bank holiday weekend, which is why we shopped yesterday, as today it is (by Arran standards) rammed. There are several motorhomes in this park-up and the area by the ferry is very busy.

The shops are all open, there are even folks playing crazy golf. The rain has arrived and summer is here! We’ve nipped into Arran Active to have a look-see and get some Smidge (a well-reviewed DEET-free midge repellent). To refuel for the two mile romp back to the van we headed into the famous Wooleys to grab various bakes and slices of cake and scoffed half of it on a bench overlooking the bay.

Our next destination remains an exciting unknown folks. It’s a toss-up between ferries: back east towards Troon and the mainland near Glasgow. Or west to Claonaig and more remote places. It might literally be a coin toss too. The change in the weather knocked us a bit, along with the arrival of the midges. It had crossed our minds to head back south of the border, but I think we’re back onto staying in Scotland. Armed with Smidge and wet weather gear, nothing can stop us! *smile-wink*

I’ll leave you with a few pics from the hike through Glen Rosa to The Saddle. Fantastic views up the glen and then down into Glen Sannox from the top. Windy today though, almost blown over a couple of times.

Cheers, Jay