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A belated post, playing catch-up...
I'd intended to visit Arran over 20 years ago but never got round to it, so this lightning trip was a recce. The drive up was uneventful (good) and it was a treat not to have to do the Glasgow bit.
An increasing niggle was my back. It was really stiff, and getting worse, but I have no idea why (and it improved after a couple of weeks equally inexplicably). So, as I sat in the rain at Ardrossan ferry at 8pm, I wondered if I was going to be stuck in my tent come morning, unable to move... Good humour, that's what I needed.
At Glen Rosa the rain abated enough to get the tent up dry, in full midge-armour, have some scran and go to bed. As I snuggled down with my book, "
Grief is the Thing with Feathers", it just started to patter on the tent, then set in for the night and morning. By 7.45am everything was covered in cloud as I set off - able, just about, to move. A heron flew over to settle on Glen Rosa Water. I couldn't stand up straight or walk properly upright, so the heron was a solace. Uphill in this pain is ok. Downhill is
agony.
001 Morning coffee at Glenrosa by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
From Glenrosa I headed to Cladach to walk through the Merkland Wood, behind the castle and up from Corrie.
001b Glenshant Hill from Cladach by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
001c Hypericum - St Johns Wort by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
I was trying to find a good place to turn right through the wood, when I heard footsteps shuffling behind me.
Lots of footsteps shuffling... I looked round.
Bullocks, doing their curious thing.
In the end,
they helped me decide where I wanted to turn right through the woods...
001d Bullocks by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
001e Goatfell sign at Cladach by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
I found myself at a little dark cemetery with the graves of the Duke of Hamilton and his family.
001f Hamilton graves by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
001g Eleventh Duke of Hamilton 19C by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
001h President of local Red Cross grave missing that out by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
Heading on, I stopped on a little footbridge and peered up to a small waterfall.
003 Waterfall zoom by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
There had been a small group of walkers at Cladach heading up that way, and no one else wanted to walk through the woods for four miles before heading uphill, so I had the woods to myself. Not only that, but a sign
after the footbridge said that it was closed.
After some icky signage...
004 Toads Trail in the woods by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
...the woods finally spat me out on a timber road. What an eyesore. But even here in the spoil banks at the side of the track, life was trying to break through in the form of tiny conifers and foxgloves.
005 Timber forest track - eyesore by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
006 Life against the odds by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
At last the sea came back into view, and the pointy peak of Mulloch Mor on Holy Island to the south...
010 Mullach Mor on Holy Island by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
...together with a chemicals tanker.
011 Bro Nibe - Chemical or Oil Products Tanker by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
2 1/2 more miles to Corrie. What more delights awaited me?
Oh, chemical spraying..
014 Mans dominion by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
and a creepy wood with a spooky, gauzy haze...
017 Creepy wood by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
but on the upside, tadpoles, chiffchaff and pockets of more natural growth.
016 Tadpoles by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
And a water cricket amongst the pondskaters.
020 Water cricket - Microvelia reticulata by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
At Corrie I was welcomed with open arms,
022 Welcome to Maol Donn tree by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
and an obvious, signposted track lifted me up to the claggy hills of Goatfell at last. Ahead I could see the Corrie Burn, but not the tops above.
027 The Corrie Burn but no tops by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
028 Goat Fell sign on Corrie track by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
029 Wet bracken path up by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
030 Beside the Corrie Burn by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
Three lads, Dutch I think, caught up with me, and I stood aside to let them pass. The last one was very slow, and really didn't look into this hillwalking lark at all. At the top of the burn they paused and decided to head on NW to North Goatfell rather than cross the burn to Goatfell's summit. That was my plan too, but the combination of cloud cover and my very painful back was giving me second thoughts.
033 Meall Breac with Goatfell and N Goatfell drawn in by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
On reaching the same point, I set off for North Goatfell too, but after a few yards just felt, what's the point. The cloud wasn't going to clear and I really wanted the views, so putting NG in my pocket for another day, I crossed the burn, nearly over-balancing into it (but no one saw
) and headed on up to Goatfell's top.
034 Crossing the Corrie Burn by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
035 Why I abandoned North Goatfell by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
037 Bute - Little Cumbrae Island - Ayrshire Coast by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
And into the clag.
041 Curling above Coire Lan by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
Peering down into the corrie as I rose I could just make out the floor, and then to my left I heard voices. My route was converging with the main route from Cladach, which was going to be my route back.
And suddenly, there were runners (I didn't photograph them). Apparently there were two races on, the main one coming up from Cladach and returning via Glen Rosa, which meant a long road run-out. There were also more walkers, and bits of rubbish started to appear. I picked bits up here and there, stuffing them in the side pockets of my daysack, and at the trig point was quite a crowd.
044 Summit trig by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
Suddenly, a woman who seemed to have something to do with the race turned on me haranguing me about banana skins, cheeky harpie. I just pointed to my bulging daysack pockets and decided to get the hell out of there. Even the cheery "haggis" from various folks' WH reports was gurning.
045 Haggis looking menacing by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
As I descended, there was a bloke up my **** like an Audi driver. I stood back to let him pass and he said it was fine. I had to insist. In the event he was quickly knackered, so I passed him again a little lower and thankfully didn't see him again after that. Instead, a couple of girls and I struck up a good conversation as we dropped down out of the clag.
046 Big cairn where paths converge - and nice gals by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
Back below the cloud, the sea looked deceptively close and it was a painful trudge back to the woods. When I came to the path I'd taken through the woods, it was blocked off with a birch branch. Because the footbridge is 'closed'?
047 Sea looking deceptively close by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
050 Brodick and Mullach Mor by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
051 My morning path is closed by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
Past rhododendrons, saying hellooo to the coos, and I'm afraid I was too peopled out to stop at the Wineport.
054 Feeling of tropics by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
053 How now by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
Back at my tent I grabbed a nap.
And didn't wake up til 7.30 the next morning!
Pretty glad to see the back of Saturday, I headed to Lochranza on Sunday, in a downpour and with a forecast of more low cloud. The more delightful inner hills would have to wait another day too. But, rats, in the event, the conditions turned gorgeous.
137 Beinns on left - Goatfell on right from road to Brodick by
Emma Kendon, on Flickr
One day I'll go back and do Arran more justice.