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I seem to have hit it lucky with this trip to Arran
Today I decided we had to do Goatfell but as I hate crowds I thought we'd take the scenic route up to North Goatfell and along the Stacach ridge to Goatfell. I was so glad we did! This was a lovely route, paths fantastic throughout. No bogs or wet feet.... fantastic!
So, we set off through the forest and heather...
Then followed an excellent path along to the proper ascent for North Goatfell. You can see the entire ridge and Goatfell in this pic.
The climb was hard work, but aren't they always?! I've figured now that for the first 300m i'm fine, the next 300m I want to give up and the last 300m I'm determined to get to the top!!
Looking along the ridge once i'd gained some ground-
and looking back the way we had come
We kept to the left of the ridge as advised in various reports to avoid the tricky bits... It was very easy, much easier than what we'd faced doing the three beinns earlier in the week! A few pics of the paths along the ridge.
Looking back along the ridge just before Goatfell
Just about to head up to Goatfell itself
Nice easy wander through the bolders to the top and there was no one at the summit!
You really couldn't beat the views on this walk... on a clear day they are amazing.
Witches step behind and what we've just done...
Witches Step and Cir Mhor
Not sure with this one.
Then we joined the tourist route back down and must have met 60 odd people before we continued along the ridge rather than heading down to Brodick. It was a bit of a shock having not seen anyone for the past four hours or so! Anyhow, pics heading down...
Looking back to Goatfell
Looking down on the next bit of the walk
Just keep walking...
Looking over to Brodick and Holy Island
Paths down really good, went across the stream (burn?) without issue and back down to the car easy peasy. Descent only took 45mins once we'd passed the crowds!
Lovely day on the hills!