Easter in Arran (Brodick Castle & Goat Fell)

Hello dear readers! I hope you have spent great Easter holidays. We had a blast: Saturday I went to see the Kilmarnock VS Aberdeen football match with my boyfriend, my German friend from university and my Scottish relatives and we had a lot of fun! When you have good company everything is better. The following day we went to the Isle of Arran and yesterday we had a pic nic on the beach because we had sunshine and 21 degrees here. I’d like to share with you some photos that I took on Sunday. I broke a record, I think: I walked 19.8 km, almost 20 km. Our first visit in Arran was Brodick castle: we only visited the gardens, we didn’t go inside. The park was beautiful, it has a breathtaking seaview and was full of beautiful flowers. I will split the photos into two blogposts, because I really took tons!

We didn’t reach the very top of Goat Fell because of me! 😦 I was so tired. We hadn’t planned to reach the Goat Fell top, we actually wanted to see some Highland cows, so we started the trail and then ended up walking almost 20 km! We just couldn’t stop because we wanted to see what was the view behind that hill and then behind that hill and so on.

We stopped 15 minutes before reaching the top and we went of the side of the mountain to look at the seaview. It was such a relaxing and peaceful place, I would love to go back there with a tent someday. I just hope the wind wouldn’t blow me into the sea!

After our walk we finally saw some Highland cows, by chance, really. We found them on our way to the brewery (we stopped there because there was a bus stop nearby and we deserved a fresh beer).

In the end we decided not to take the bus because it was quite early, so we enjoyed walking on the beach, but we ended up being quite in a hurry because it was longer than we thought and we saw the ferry approaching. We even had to cross a little river, that we hadn’t seen, because otherwise we would have lost the ferry. Thank God it was shallow. But my boyfriend still got the lower part of his trousers soaked!

We took the last ferry from Arran to Ardrossan just in time! On the ferry we stayed out on the deck to look at the beautiful view but after 15 minutes we went back inside at the bar to have a tea because it was cold and windy (the waitress gave us some cakes for free, it was the last journey of the day and otherwise they’d have to throw them away!).

If you’d like to go to the Isle of Arran you may want to know that there is a convenient direct train going straight from Glasgow Central Station to Ardrossan Harbour, taking you right in front on the ferry. It’s a great service, really. Obviously dogs, cars and bicycles are permitted on the ferry. We took the 9.45am ferry (it takes 55 minutes to get to Brodick Harbour in Arran) and then we took the 7.20pm ferry from Arran and arrived in Ardrossan at 20.15. The ticket is so cheap, 8 pounds with return. The ticket for the car (return) is about 32 pounds. In Arran we paid for the Day Rider ticket on the bus (6.30 pounds) but in the end unfortunately we didn’t use it because we took the 324 bus to get to Brodick Castle and spent all day (as you can start the trail to Goat Fell there, too) and we didn’t even take the bus to go back to the harbour as we walked on the beach. The next time I’d love to do a tour of Arran, going to Lochranza, a distillery and seeing other parts, in general (hopefully some deers, eagles and seals, too! 😀 )

Anyway, this was an unforgettable Easter with two of my favourite people in the world so I really can’t complain. Walking in nature, with the sun shining, seeing the sea from above… It gave me such a peaceful feeling.

Have a lovely day, guys

xx

Camilla