Arran the Goatfell range without Goatfell
Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 8:31 pmThis had originally started out as a walk taking in the 4 Corbetts on Arran. The forecast looked promising but wind speed was a lot more than expected 
We cycled in to the bridge over the Glen Rosa water (ref 983388), saving us a 6km walk each way from the ferry 
A very easy cycle and we were on our way.
A nice steady walk up Beinn Tarsuinn, crossing over Beinn Nuis. Fairly uneventful with just a slight scramble down towards A'Chir. Even at this stage we were having slight concerns about time, so decided to bypass A'Chir altogether. In hindsight, a wise choice. Bypassing Cir Mhor we headed to Caisteal Abhail, in to the clag about 800m, and over to the summit tor. Deciding against taking a path downhill, we decided on a full frontal assault on the tor 
Not too difficult but it did involve some rock hugging 
which made our minds up to take the easy route back down from the summit.
Now over to Cir Mhor, which looked impenetrable on approach from this side but the path actually veered around the biggest slabs and up to the summit on a easy-ish path. We stood here for 5mins watching a helicopter, assuming it was on a training exercise. Coming off Cir Mhor we followed the first path off, which turned out to be a pretty full-on down climb, harder than what we'd done on the AE
Anyway, we made it down safely and the bealach at The Saddle looked a long, long way down. Once there, we did a time check and with around 4 hours til the last ferry home we decided just to bail. I think it was a wise choice because we would have missed out on the best of these hills had we gone over Goatfell, as we'd be unlikely to come back to the island very soon if at all.
So with a 4.5km walk and a 6km bike ride, we decided we'd try to get the earlier ferry at 4.40pm. So with some major power walking we set off and made fantastic time, leaving us 20mins for the cycle... off we set as fast as we could, knowing it would be a close call! As we got in to Brodick we seen the ferry was still there only for the rope to be thrown in and the ferry to take off when we had just about 0.5km left to go 
This left us 2 hours to sample the food in Brodick 
Now we're really looking forward to going back to do the Sannox horseshoe with the 3 corbetts this time
We cycled in to the bridge over the Glen Rosa water (ref 983388), saving us a 6km walk each way from the ferry A very easy cycle and we were on our way.A nice steady walk up Beinn Tarsuinn, crossing over Beinn Nuis. Fairly uneventful with just a slight scramble down towards A'Chir. Even at this stage we were having slight concerns about time, so decided to bypass A'Chir altogether. In hindsight, a wise choice. Bypassing Cir Mhor we headed to Caisteal Abhail, in to the clag about 800m, and over to the summit tor. Deciding against taking a path downhill, we decided on a full frontal assault on the tor
Not too difficult but it did involve some rock hugging which made our minds up to take the easy route back down from the summit.Now over to Cir Mhor, which looked impenetrable on approach from this side but the path actually veered around the biggest slabs and up to the summit on a easy-ish path. We stood here for 5mins watching a helicopter, assuming it was on a training exercise. Coming off Cir Mhor we followed the first path off, which turned out to be a pretty full-on down climb, harder than what we'd done on the AE
Anyway, we made it down safely and the bealach at The Saddle looked a long, long way down. Once there, we did a time check and with around 4 hours til the last ferry home we decided just to bail. I think it was a wise choice because we would have missed out on the best of these hills had we gone over Goatfell, as we'd be unlikely to come back to the island very soon if at all.So with a 4.5km walk and a 6km bike ride, we decided we'd try to get the earlier ferry at 4.40pm. So with some major power walking
we set off and made fantastic time, leaving us 20mins for the cycle... off we set as fast as we could, knowing it would be a close call! As we got in to Brodick we seen the ferry was still there only for the rope to be thrown in and the ferry to take off when we had just about 0.5km left to go This left us 2 hours to sample the food in Brodick Now we're really looking forward to going back to do the Sannox horseshoe with the 3 corbetts this time