You can get a hop on/hop off bus ticket that lets you travel all over the island for one low fee. I had breakfast in my tiny room since I felt the full breakfast at an additional £10 seemed a bit steep. The bus from Lamlash to Brodick, where the ferry had arrived took only a couple of minutes. Since the day was sunny I decided to walk through Brodick to see the village and then for exercise I went to the local castle but passed on touring it. About 2 miles. 
It was the land, the birds, the gardens and the sea I wanted to sense. The sounds, the sights and the smells. Gorse in bloom is an overwhelmingly wonderful smell. Sort of like coconut. An interesting plant gorse. The thorns are so sharp and dense it would make an impenetrable abatis and yet the brilliance of the yellow and the aroma caught me off guard as I don’t recall seeing it in bloom in the past.
I jumped on the bus again at the castle’s entrance heading counter clockwise around the northern side of the island. The Kintyre peninsular can be seen a mere 15 +/- miles away.
I told the bus driver that I wanted to get off at the Machrie Moor Standing stones. These stones were used to create monuments for deceased persons of import in clans over 4500 years ago so are the most archeologically important sites on the island. Unfortunately he remembered my request about a mile past them. I trucked back easily and soon found that instead of a highly touted, commercialized site, there was a simple sign and a car park. The trip to the site is through working sheep pastures (one should watch where one is walking) and the frequent siting of pheasant soon became as novel as starlings.
The circles range from stones of no great size arranged in concise circles to those ranging as high as 5 meters out of the ground and I have no idea how deep. 
The work involved in cutting them from wherever they came from to the site and then positioning them made one marvel at human ingenuity.
With no notion of when the next bus would pass I walked the 5ish miles to Blackwaterfoot. There was a very nice inclined grassy verge where I could lay back on a 45 degree angle to rest, watch the harrier circle over pastures, smell the gorse and take a blow.
Oh, by the way, the buses on Arran are relatively new and a wee bit different than what you might find in the states.
Unfortunately, after shopping for dinner at Co-opertive, I missed the bus so I got to add 4 miles to my day’s perambulation as I hiked back to where I was staying. I’m guessing I did 13 – 15 miles total. Waaay over what I should safely do. I’ll pay for it the next couple of days. Especially if the weather turns rainy.
{ 0 comments… add one now }