Isle of Arran Day 1, 3 Corbetts

[Johnny Corbett]

A few weeks ago a mate of mine, well he said he was my mate and that we went all the way back to primary school, asked me if i fancied cycling round Arran and doing a bit of walking while we were there. Obvious the guy was desperate for company and even more desperate wanting me to guide him round the hills, so how could i say no.
So we arranged to set off on the 21st July returning on the 24th with a plan to cycle the island and take in some walks. Throughout this report my mate will take a bit of stick, just banter and the best thing about it is he's not a member so he can't reply unless he joins, which is a good way of getting a new member i suppose. I will now start the report.

Day 1

We arrive off the 09.45 ferry, cycle to Glen Rosa camp site, pitch up the tents then cycle 1km up Glen Rosa to a bridge where we leave the bikes to start heading up Beinn Tarsuinn. We follow the path which takes us up over Beinn Nuis and on to Beinn Tarsuinn, lower down the path was a bit boggy but generaly a good path. This path then carrys on to Cir Mhor and Caisteal Abhail via A Chir though A Chir is easily bypassed. We decided to try going over A Chir but as we are not expierenced climbers we had to give up as it rained and the slabs were getting quite slippy. We made our way down to the bypass path and decide to head to Caisteal Abhail, taking in Cir Mhor on our way back, the reason for this i wanted Cir Mhor to be my fiftyith Corbett. Once off Cir Mhor we took the path between A Chir and Fionn Choire back down to Glen Rosa and back to the campsite.
This walk took us 7 and a half hours with about 45mins messing around on Cir Mhor and could easily have included Goatfell,which we would have done but for the fact we didn't set off till 13.30. We arrived back at the campsite at 9pm had salad for tea, good choice Dave, not and got eaten alive by the midge. We had what could only be described as one of the best days we've ever had together and not even the salad or midge could spoil it and we were only at day 1.

our_route.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

Where to leave Glen Rosa

Glen Rosa

Crossing the corrie

Who's the baldy geezer?

Not looking too promising

The rocky terrain

Was it going to be our day?

Myself on Beinn Tarsuinn

It's starting to clear

The Bald Eagle leads the way

Goatfell

Caisteal Abhail & Cir Mhor

Route down Tarsuinn

You go first Dave

A Chir

Glen Rosa

Caisteal Abhail

A baldy napper & the ridge

Cir Mhor

The ridge

Goatfell

Dave coming up Caisteal Abhail

Eyeing up Cir Mhor

On my 50th

[Bod]

Like it Johnny, not been to Arran for a long time....it's still looking great!
Looking forward to your Day 2 - (well done with your '50')

[dooterbang]

Great 4 days mate.

Shame about wet slabs on Cir Mhor.

I havnt been to Arran yet

Thanks for posting.

[kevsbald]

I deliberatly left Caisteal Abhail and Goatfell for a return trip to Arran - a wonderful wee place Glen Rosa. Your pic of Cir Mhor from Abhail is fab.

[munroist3308]

Well done looks a great walk. Am planning to go over to Arran early August when there is a good slot in the weather. Taking my bike and plan to camp at Glen Rosa. What were the midges like.

[kinley]

Cheers for this series of Arran reports - it's migrated to very near the top of my to-do list so very timely.

Looks great!

Cheers

[Johnny Corbett]

Thanks folks, it's a stunning place, hopefully you all get the weather we got when you get round to visiting. The midge was a problem at Glen Rosa but ok at Lochranza & Kildonan