Some holiday snaps from Arran.
We arrived on Monday via Ardrossan in Ayrshire but only just got off the island on Friday following high winds and thundery showers.
On Thursday all sailings to and from the mainland were cancelled and on Friday there was a restricted service.
In fact, the (smaller) ferry on which we were booked didn’t leave port at all.
Instead, and with a huge dollop of good fortune, we found ourselves being waved on to the larger ferry when our instructions were to join a queue of cars waiting for a later sailing on the smaller ferry, subsequently cancelled.
No-one checked our tickets and I genuinely don’t know if we were meant to be on board or whether we had simply got lucky in the confusion.
At least we were off the island because every sailing over the weekend was fully booked so it’s no exaggeration to say we might still be there if we hadn’t made our dash for freedom.
That said, Arran seemed a very pleasant island and I wouldn’t have minded being stuck there for another day or two, as long as I had a bed to sleep in.
Weather permitting it’s quite easy to get to and if you like beaches, castles and scenic views it’s worth the trip.
Although tourism is the major source of income, it didn’t feel like a tourist destination.
The handful of pubs, brasseries and tea shops we visited gave us a universally warm welcome but visitors never outnumbered locals, which is how I like it.
Best of all, the midges mostly kept their distance thanks to a combination of wind, rain, insect repellent and fire.
