Blackwaterfoot to King’s Cave

The west side of Arran is lovely, it is quieter and less tourist-oriented than the east side, and you get views of Kintyre. The tiny village of Blackwaterfoot sits along the even tinier harbour. There used to be a huge burial cairn above Blackwaterfoot, but the stones were plundered for building material. I really like the name Blackwaterfoot but do not know the origins of the name. Blackwaterfoot was the beginning point of our walk to King’s cave.

There were no views of Kintyre this morning, or anything else for that matter, as the rain had moved in and it was a day for low level walking. The walk started out at the harbour and then cuts through the Shikine golf course where nobody cares that you wander right through the golf course, although there were no crazy golfers out in the morning rain, just a few workers driving a gator. The worm catching oyster catchers were on the course though.

What is really funny are the signs absolutely forbidding golfers from going after stray golf balls in the field next door, as it is in crop. It was a cereal, likely barley. I thought the golf course was pretty cool looking for a round of golf and sure enough, it ranks as one of the top 100 in the UK.

After crossing a few sheep pastures we walked to an area known as Doon, which has really interesting columnar cliffs facing the sea. The path dropped down to the sea and we walked along a beach toward the caves. Just prior to reaching the caves, a herd of young people streamed down the hillside toward the caves as well.

They all poured into the first set of caves so we passed those caves by and carried on to King’s cave, which is the 6th of 15 caves along the sea. Legend has it that Robert the Bruce hid in King’s cave (thus the name) while fleeing, after his defeat in Perthshire. There is also a story about his encounter with a spider, which inspired him to try again, thus changing the course of Scottish history; however, there is really no evidence to support the legend and the spider encounter may have been cooked up by Walter Scott.

The caves are really spectacular and quite large. Further along the beach we met the people who were on the summit of Goatfell with us the other day. Yesterday, we met the Scot with whom we talked to on the Glen Rosa trail...Arran is a really small place.

After checking out all the caves we continued up to a path through a forested area and back to a car park. From the car park, we opted to loop back down a different path though the forest and back down to the beach, rather than take the paved road back to Blackwaterfoot. This way we could return to the caves that were full of people when we first walked the beach. This proved to be a great plan, as the beach and caves were deserted, so we had our lunch in the cave and then walked back to Blackwaterfoot.

Before returning to the car we cut through the golf course where I yelled ‘die-hard golfers!’ to a couple of guys on the course who yelled back ‘die-hard walkers!’ it was raining of course. When we got to the golf course’s tearoom, the sun peered out. We were so muddy we removed our boots and rain pants before entering the tearoom, which was newly built with the aid of lottery money, it was very nice.

A word about the cheese, the Scottish cheese is incredibly good, Arran has a cheese maker so we dropped in there yesterday to buy some Arran cheddar. Our favourite is hot pepper, but we also have whisky, smoked, herb and mustard. They are all so good that we are really gorging on cheese.

As always, click on pics to enlarge....

Blackwaterfoot

Columnar Cliffs at Doon

Walk-through cave to entrance of King's Cave

Low walk-through cave

Farms near Machrie

Hut circles - evidence of Iron Age round houses

Misty loch

Pillar in between two large caves

The view from our lunch stop

Weather breaking near the Shiskine golf course

Goatfell from Brodick

Brodick Castle

Ferry leaving Brodick for Ayrshire

Machrie Moor

The earliest signs of human activity on Machrie moor date from 3500 BC and farming from 2500 BC. The ancients used early ploughs called ards which cut through, rather than turned the earth. They grew barley and wheat and raised animals. There is evidence that these early farmers erected timber circles. Around 2000 BC, stone circles, burial cairns and round houses were built.

Today there are 6 stone circles, Fingal’s Cauldron near the ruins of Moss Farm is a double ring. The stones sit in a lonely moor with very good views to the mountains of Arran to the north. Access is through a sheep pasture, the sheep being blocked from the stone circles with fencing.

This is great time of year to visit as we had the moor to ourselves. Also, Scotland is very casual with respect to their ancient sites, there are no huge sign boards or large parking lots to ruin the atmosphere of visiting the stones, there are just a few small information boards and stiles to assist in clamouring over the sheep fencing.

The Machrie moor settlements were abandoned in 700 BC. Climate change likely forced the farmers to higher land as the temperatures cooled and the environment became wetter allowing peat to form. The moor is difficult to walk on and if you get to a low area it is a peat bog where you sink in water.

After visiting the stones we had tea in the Machrie Tearoom at the Machrie golf course. Then we carried on up the east side of Arran to the Druid stone which is situated in the middle of a sheep pasture. We then travelled down to the south end and had a whisky in the bar of the Kildonan Hotel, a bar with a terrific view of the seafront. You look out at the lighthouse on Pladda and beyond that lies Alisa Craig, the volcanic plug where granite was quarried for curling stones.

We were too lazy to do any long walks today but will be back in action tomorrow. A couple of older men we met hill walking advised us to buy whisky in the grocery stores, so we checked it out, of course they were right about that.

Moss Farm Kerb Cairn

Fingal’s Cauldron

Druid Stone

View from Kildronan

Moorland grass

Wire tightener

Goatfell

Our destination for today, although we could not see it at all. We have a view of Goatfell right from our cottage door but the low cloud today obscured everything.


We waited until noon then set out for the Goatfell summit from our cottage door. Goatfell is the highest summit on Arran and a very popular walk. The trail is very good, someone has put in a lot of effort in building the trail with rock steps at the higher level and along the rocky moorland as well. The beginning of the trail is a track through forest.

We didn’t know how well we would fair on this walk as the elevation gain is something we have not undertaken for years. The gain is 2870 feet, which is something we would have thought was a stroll some years ago but not now. The walk was 16km and took us a total of 6 hours as we dilly dallied on top.

We met a group of three walkers who came down out of the mist, they reported that they didn’t see a thing due to the low cloud cover and wished us better luck. Then we happened into a pair of walkers who came out of the moor and trailed along behind us until we stopped and let them pass.

As we gained elevation it was really clouded in, we couldn’t make out anything around us but the visibility as far as the trail was concerned was fine. Met a couple of older Scot men fairly high up, the older people are the best conversationalists, they always ask where we are from and when we tell them Canada, the flood gates open and we hear about their relatives in Canada and the places in Canada they have visited.

Invariably, when they find out I have Scottish ancestors and where they are from, the Scots tell me I have good blood in me hahahahahaha. Today I was also told I have the look of a Scot! In actuality, I look like a total freak as my hair goes totally, and I mean totally, ballistic in this moisture, you wouldn’t think my level of frizz is possible but it goes wild, I need to leave the humectant out of my hair conditioner and add an anti-frizz agent but cannot be bothered.

The last pull to the summit was a steep bugger, all rock, we could not see ahead of us, which was a good thing since the incline was masked. Then suddenly you reach the summit which is a really great flat top with huge granite slabs.

Once on the summit, we couldn’t see anything so we had our lunch, it was around 3:00. The pair of walkers who passed us gave up after a while and headed back down but John was certain it was going to clear. It was really cold, we were outfitted with layers and gloves but froze anyway since we were so drenched with sweat.

Luckily the clouds lifted and we got pretty good views, all considered. On a clear day the views are spectacular, supposedly, you can see Northern Ireland and the hills of Argyll. We could look way down to Glen Rosa which we walked yesterday and down to The Saddle.

It had cleared decently so we headed back down and are always amazed at how steep the walk up is. We were the last up and the last down as we didn’t meet any more walkers all the way down. It cleared more as we descended.

I have always wanted to walk up Goatfell since I started researching this trip so I am really happy we had the good weather to complete the walk. Originally, I wanted to walk this toward the end of our week here but we are strong enough and the walk was a lot easier than I expected. The weather is about to change as well, tomorrow afternoon the showers are to come in and then rain for the remainder of the week.

Tomorrow, we plan to shift gears and do more exploring of Arran since we have completed our mountain expeditions. Our walks should be easier and of shorter duration. We will head to the south west area of Arran and check out some standing stones.

Summit hidden by low cloud

Still cannot see it

View down to Brodick and the hill in the distance is Holy Isle, owned by Buddhists

Summit seagull, we were told that this fellow likes cheese sandwiches, we were not giving up any of our meagre lunch though, he was miffed

The view from the summit, spectacular

Clouds lifting

We have a view

Glen Rosa

Brodick from the summit

Looking toward the mainland

The Saddle and the witch's step

On the descent, we can now see what we walked up

Descending to the moor

Another view back up

Back down and a tree full of sea gulls

Glen Rosa

‘The scenery is majestic, and blackcock and grouse are numerous. A small number of red deer are also found. In the whole of Britain, there are few valleys more magnificent than Glen Rosa and Glen Sannox’ John Scott Hughes - ‘Harbours of the Clyde’ 1954

We set out today right from our cottage door as our cottage is at the end of Glen Rosa. Our destination was ‘The Saddle’ which divides Glen Rosa from Glen Sannox. Last night was move the clocks ahead in the UK so our start was a bit late but that is not unusual for us anyway.

The skies were a bit cloudy with sun but as we walked toward our destination the mist started to roll over the mountain tops, obscuring our view. We continued on and met a few other walkers, then we happened into a couple of older Scots who pointed out some red deer with a few young, over in the heather. We had a great visit with these two guys, the Scots tend to be gifted yakers, they were lots of fun. In talking about accents they asked us how we did with understanding their accent, I told them they sounded normal and they laughed. One was from Edinburgh and the other from Glasgow so we got a taste of the rivalry between the two cities. The guy from Glasgow said the government pays for all the museums in Edinburgh, but if they want one in Glasgow, they pay for it themselves.

The Isle of Arran is very beautiful and is reached rather easily from Glasgow; thus, it attracts a lot of hillwalking Scots and other hangers-on like ourselves. It is a walker’s paradise really, with great accessible mountains and loads of places to stay. In the main tourist season it is really busy and there is only one main road that circles the island, which is only 19 miles long and 10 miles wide. The road is narrow as is usual and the most bizarre thing is that cars will park right on the road in a village facing any which way, so you have to watch for oncoming traffic and wait if a parked car is blocking your lane. However, it is not single track, except for a few roads like the road to our cottage.

Today was a good day to walk Glen Rosa as the hoard of geology students were here yesterday, they were easily spotted in green reflective vests carrying note pads.

Back to our walk, we carried on with our ascent and upon reaching The Saddle, had the most fabulous view of Glen Sannox as the skies had cleared and the sun was shining, our timing was unreal. John and I went absolutely berserk over the views up there.

We had lunch in the sun while sitting among the rocks then started back down the glen. This was a fantastic walk, took us about six hours total, we are not sure about the km walked since this was half of a long walk through both glens. We saw six red deer on the way back down. There are a lot of pheasants in this area as well, one is always just outside our cottage french doors and we saw a pair of grouse as well, right outside our door.

Glenrosa Water

Glen Rosa

Waterfall tumbling down Garbh Allt

The walk loosely follows the burn through the glen

Mist rolling in over The Saddle

The view down Glen Sannox from The Saddle

Caisteal Abhail

View to North Goatfell

Toward North Goatfell

View back down Glen Rosa

The Witch's Step - you can actually walk that ridge but that would scare the daylights out of us, it is a dicey walk for us prairie dwellers since we have lost our head for mountain ledges

View to Glen Sannox