The Armin Grewe Homepage
Picture of the Isle of Arran distillery Picture of the ruins of Lochranza Castle
After all the exercise the previous day I decided to take it a bit slower this day. I started the day with a quick visit to the Isle of Arran Distillery. Having been on various distillery tours I decided to skip the tour and just visited the distillery shop. I then continued to Lochranza Castle, or what's left of it. The castle is located on the shore of Loch Ranza on a piece of land jutting out into the mud flats. There isn't that much to see, but it's still worth a quick look.
Picture of rain falling over the north of Arran Picture of the rocky beach leading to Kings Cave
Picture of the gate at the entrance of Kings CavePicture of the inside of Kings CaveI continued along the western coast of Arran until I reached Machrie Bay. My next stop was the car park at Torr Righ Beag. Here I decided to take a little risk: Looking north it was raining quite heavily, looking south it didn't look too bad. I decided to walk to King's Cave, a nice short walk first along the woods and then along the beach.

According to legend Robert The Bruce hid in the cave and had his famous encounter with the persistent spider. According to most guide books the cave is locked and a key has to be obtained from the tourist office. However, when I was there the gate was unlocked and no lock in sight. The cave is quite mucky and damp, probably not a very nice place to live in. There are a few carvings on the walls, some quite old, but apart from that there isn't much to see. After taking a look at some of the other caves (there are several in the vicinity) I continued a little bit further south until I had the nice view below over The Doon and to Drumadoon Point. Occasionally the sun was breaking through, glistening on the water. After a while I decided to turn back to return to my car to continue my drive around Arran.

Picture of a panoramic view towards The Doon
Picture of Machrie Bay Picture of Pladda with its lighthouse
On my way back to my car I had a better view over Machir Bay with Beinn Bharrain in the background. Past Blackwaterfoot I continued south and then started to turn east. Looking south I could make out Ailsa Craig in the haze and when I reached the south-eastern tip of Arran I could see Pladda with its lighthouse.

The last stop on my drive around Arran was Lamlash with the view over to Holy Island. The last ferry was already gone, so I didn't visit Holy Island, which is now owned by Tibetan Buddhists. I had a quick look at Lamlash, but didn't stay too long.

Finally I drove back to Corrie with a short stop in Brodick for some quick shopping. A nice day allowing me to relax for some more hillwalking the next day.

Picture of Holy Island Picture of the promenade in Lamlash

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