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The towering mountains of Arran’s east coast

Author Holiday Arran

Most people’s first view of Arran is the east coast with its towering mountains rising up towards the north.

The east coast of Arran is home to the three bigger villages on the island, Brodick, Lamlash and Whiting Bay. Brodick is usually the first port of call as the car ferry MV Caledonian Isles from Ardrossan docks here. Sailing into Brodick Bay you are greeted by one of the most beautiful views of Arran; the long sandy beach sweeping up towards Goatfell, and the impressive sandstone bricks of Brodick castle.

The modern village of Brodick has grown and expanded over the years. Arran’s first pier was built here in 1872 and the Golf Club celebrated its Centenary in 1997. Brodick Hall was opened in 1895 with money raised by the Brodick Public Hall Company Limited. Generations of visitors and locals cherish fond memories of that old hall which is still the venue for concerts and dances and community activities, with the added bonus of the new library.

Brodick is the largest village and has everything for the holidaymaker with its shops and stunning views. In fact, if it should rain during your stay there are plenty of things here to keep you entertained. The tourist information office is directly across from the Cal Mac office and it is a very useful place to visit before heading off around the island. Incidentally, just along from it is the island’s only fish and chip shop. The biggest shop on the island is the Brodick Co-op, which offers a full range of grocery items.

There are other smaller village shops dotted along sea front including James of Arran who produce high quality handmade chocolates and confectionery for those with a sweet tooth. The bakery, Wooleys of Arran, is famous not just for its bread and cakes but also for their traditional Arran oatcake a simple product with amazing versatilities. It can be eaten on its own or with butter, but it can also form the base for cheese, pate, fish, marmalade, jam or honey.

The village’s many gift shops have plenty of goods to attract the eye. Bilslands is the largest independent retail outlet on the Isle of Arran and is located on the seafront in the centre of Brodick, just minutes from the ferry terminal. The shop is a mini Visitor Attraction, not only offering labels such as Quicksilver, Berghaus and Regatta but also offers a fully licensed Cafe Bar and Art Gallery, a fifteen hole Mini Golf Course and a ‘Taste of Arran’ shop. The Burnside Gallery is the largest on Arran with a big exhibition space. They display contemporary fine arts and crafts by some well-known Scottish Artists like Gordon Davidson, Janet Inglis, Alison Hood, and Pat Salt.

The biggest shop on the island is the Brodick Co-op, which offers a full range of grocery items.

They also offer various adult and children’s classes from basket making and weaving to ceramics, painting, sculpture and jewellery. Brodick has six hotels and a spa resort. If you want to be spoilt and pampered then the Auchrannie Resort is the place to stay. They have a leisure centre that is open to the public. The 20 metre indoor swimming pool with children’s pool can provide hours of family fun, whilst to unwind, the health suite includes a steam room, and sauna. There is a gym too and on the occasional rainy day the games hall provides lots to do for all the family. The large hall can accommodate indoor tennis, badminton, table tennis, indoor bowls, football, basketball, volleyball and many other team sports. There are also plenty of bars and restaurants to choose from.

The Brodick bar is well known for its food. Look out here for fresh fish – especially scallops, roast monkfish and sea bass – on the daily-changing blackboard menu. There is also a range of other choices, varying from day to day, which might include a roast rack of Arran lamb, Arran beefsteaks and a special dish of Arran pheasant breasts. This is a large, busy, informal and friendly bar, off the main street but opposite the Post Office. Though prices may be slightly higher than other bistro bar food on the island, the commitment to fresh ingredients and great standard of cooking make it well worth the extra cost. The Ormidale Hotel is perched on the hill above Brodick’s playing fields. It offers a good range of real ales. It stocks all the Arran beers; the brewery is only 5 minutes away after all.

The food is good but the highlights are the discos that take place on Friday and Saturday nights in the summer. The old Victorian conservatory doubles up as a dance floor and no visitor to Arran has had a proper experience until they feel the condensation dripping down their backs. For fans of more traditional music there is a folk session every Sunday from 4p.m. The Isle of Arran Heritage Museum, founded in 1976 is on the main road, at Rosaburn, just north of Brodick. Originally the site of a small farm, the present group of buildings were a croft and smiddy, and include a farmhouse, cottage, bothy, milk house, laundry, stable, coach house and harness room.

The exhibits reflect the social history, archaeology and geology of the island. There is also a delightful tearoom, the Rosaburn Cafe. You enter through the museum, so that sets the scene. This is main street 19th century Brodick where horses were hoofed, butter was churned and bannocks baked on girdles while tongues gossiped. Turn left along the row of cottages facing the Rosa Burn and into a haven of modern traditional Scottish baking and cooking. On the outskirts of the village in an idyllic courtyard setting, the Arran Aromatics factory and shop sit alongside The Island Cheese Co. and the celebrated Creelers Seafood Restaurant and Smokehouse, making Home Farm one of Arran’s most popular visitor attractions.

Arran Aromatics have been making specialist body care products on the Isle of Arran since 1988. Today Arran Aromatics produce some 250 items, including triple milled vegetable soaps, foam bath, bath grains, shower gel, body wash, bath oil, body lotion, hand cream and lip balm.

Brodick has six hotels and a spa resort.

Visitors can see the factory at work through a viewing window in the factory shop. The Island Cheese Company next door was initially established to supply delicious flavoured cheddars to a local and tourist market and in here visitors can view the cheese making process as it happens. They offer a wide range of cheeses including the new Arran Brie.

The emphasis at Creelers has always been on the provision of top quality, locally caught seafood. The smoked products come fresh from the smokehouse, where Tim James personally supervises the smoking process. Whilst specialising in seafood, meat-eaters and vegetarians are well catered for using local venison and organic vegetables and herbs grown on the island. One of the highlights is Brodick Castle and Country Park, (pictured above) which overlooks Brodick bay from the hillside. It is unique in being the only island country park in Britain.

…the Arran Aromatics factory and shop sit alongside The Island Cheese Co. and the celebrated Creelers Seafood Restaurant and Smokehouse, making Home Farm one of Arran’s most popular visitor attractions.

The Park extends from the seashore to the mountaintop with over ten miles of marked trails and abundant wildlife. With its backdrop of mountain peaks, its terraced lawns and luxuriant gardens, Brodick Castle and Country Park is the very image of a Victorian ‘Highland’ estate. A stronghold of some kind has occupied the site since the fifth century, when an ancient Irish tribe came over and founded the kingdom of Dalriada. It was probably destroyed and rebuilt many times during its turbulent history. In 1503 James IV granted the castle and the Earldom of Arran to his cousin, Lord Hamilton. That structure was demolished in 1544.

Parts of the present castle date from the 1588 during the ownership of the 2nd Earl of Arran who was the guardian and regent of Queen Mary. Inside are paintings, ceramics and furniture from the various owners. It is also home to the art collection of 18th century author William Beckford of Fonthill whose daughter married the 10th Duke of Hamilton. One of the rooms is known as ‘Bruce’s Room’ but since the castle was all but destroyed in 1455 and 1544, it is unlikely that Robert the Bruce actually ever stayed there.

The Burnside Gallery is the largest on Arran with a big exhibition space.

The colourful gardens which feature lots of rhododendrons, include; a walled garden, the ‘ice house’ where they used to pack ice in the winter so they could store food during the summer, and the hexagonal Bavarian Summer house built in 1845 and decorated with elaborate arrangements of fir cones.