When I visited Scotland’s Isle of Arran in September, the 167-square-mile (432 sq km) island – with a population just shy of 5,000 – was filled with warmth and a generosity of spirit that was entirely authentic.
Recently anointed a Unesco Geopark and nicknamed “Scotland in Miniature”, Arran is an island on the west coast of Scotland anchored in the sheltered waters of the Firth of Clyde, an hour-long ferry ride from the city of Glasgow.
My guide, Alex Dickinson of Mogabout, did not leave a Viking’s stone unturned or a 12th-century shell of Lochranza Castle on the beach unexplored.
We hiked up hills carpeted with heather and thistle and viewed panoramic scenes of the sea and green-hued landscape below. A “Fairy Rain”, as the islanders refer to it, fell gently, laced with the scent of the briny sea.
After a stop at the Lochranza Distillery, where a dram or two of the award-winning Arran Single Malt warmed the cockles of our hearts, off we drove to the majestic Brodick Castle – the former ancestral home of the dukes of Hamilton and the only island country park in all of Britain.
Considered a baronial masterpiece, it is replete with historic art and artefacts and peppered with stories of scandalous intrigues, the dissolute life of one of the heirs a case in point. I must admit, though, that the massive staircase sporting innumerable taxidermy mounts of stags was a wee bit unsettling.
Next was the Bellevue Farm, which stole my heart – specifically Harry the calf, Milly the goat and all five of the alpacas. Not that the rest of the farm’s 60 cows, 200 sheep and 20 goats were not a joy, but bottle feeding each one would have been impossible.
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