Goatfell off the tourist path

[Kenny Monaghan]

Due to the low cloud base we decided to head for Arran and have a walk up Goatfell, we walked round from the ferry and on arriving at the path from the Claddach it was obvious it would be busy so we decided when we got to the Deer fence at 1000ft we'd head straight across the moor. The moor was a bit boggy in some places but perfectly passable. The slopes were a bit steeper than the normal route and the climb was a fair bit quicker due to not having to walk round the tourist route. On the way back down we left the summit to the left again avoiding the crowd, which gave us a bit of a head start on a group leaving at the same time as us, when we reached the Deer fence again we opted to avoid the tourist path so went down using the forestry path. All in all it was a good walk in reasonable conditions with the obligatory clearing of the clouds when we were down.