South West Scotland - 2

7 - 12 Jun 2019

Fly like an Eagle

From Muasdale we retraced our steps slightly, to catch the CalMac Ferry from Claonaig to Lochranza on the Isle of Arran, a short 30 minute trip. To reach the ferry you drive down several miles of single-track road (with passing places) and on arrival, the “Ferry Terminal” is, in fact, a slipway and what looks like a bus shelter.

The Lochranza Campsite is very peaceful (no main road nearby!) and there are plenty of walks to keep visitors occupied. Once we were settled on our pitch, we picked up some leaflets on local walks from the helpful staff at reception and headed off up Gleann Biorach. This was a short walk in pleasant sunshine, and we were delighted to see a pair of Golden Eagles soaring above the rocks on Torr Nead. 

Lochranza campsite

Looking for eagles

In order to see more of the island, without having to move the motorcaravan, we used the local buses to get to Brodick on the east side, then across to Blackwaterfoot in the west, travelling back to Brodick along the southern coast. This was the only day (so far, fingers crossed) that we have got really wet and we hid for a while in the Arran Heritage Museum until it was time for our bus. On Sunday afternoon we took another of the recommended walks, around the headland to the north of Lochranza. Walking out from the pitch, we passed nine red deer just outside - and even just inside - the campsite. 

On our way back, we saw another Golden Eagle, high above the hills. Glorious sunshine on Monday was an inducement to walk into Lochranza (about 15 minutes) to take some photographs of the castle and bay.

From Arran our journey continued with a 55 minute ferry crossing to Ardrossan on the mainland and then to Culzean Castle, where there is an excellent CCC site.  From our pitch we looked out over Arran and hoped for a spectacular sunset - in vain!  

The estate at Culzean is enormous, with several marked trails to follow, leading to points of interest such as the camellia house, the swan pond and the biggest walled garden ever.  One of the current projects for National Trust for Scotland is to restore the walled garden to its former glory and we chatted to some of the workers who were planting squares of yew trees, each cage containing 25 trees, which will eventually cover the cage.  We joined a guided tour around the castle and had an excellent guide who mixed his facts with plenty of humour.

Culzean Castle

Inside the walled garden