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I went for a wee trip to one of my favourite places yesterday, the Isle of Arran. The walking on Arran is fantastic with wonderful compact hills, gripy rock and scrambley ridges and with the exception of the "tourist path" up Goatfell it tends to be quiet. I took the bus from the boat to the village of Sannox and then ascended Cioch na h-Oighe.


The ascent involves numerous short sections of easy scrambling on the way to the rocky summit. I love being on these hills on my own, there is a sense of solitude and remoteness while at the same time I can see the town of West Kilbride on the mainland where I live. It was one of those beautiful days we get this time of year, cool and bright with enough of a breeze to keep the midges away. The only problem with the conditions was as it was a Northern slope and the night had been cold the rock was freezing on the hands. From the summit there is a fun scramble along a short rocky ridge round the top of Coire na Ciche otherwise known as the Devils Punchbowl.
Then it was a wander along a broad ridge to North Goatfell and a final scramble to the summit of Goatfell. It was here I encountered my first other walkers of the day, all 12 of them. The "tourist path" gave an easy descent and then it was a short walk to Brodick for a few pints before the boat back to the mainland.