From the western side of Scotland, we took a ferry to the Isle of Arran to check out life on a Scottish isle.
We traveled about an hour or so from our base, Auchinleck House, located just southwest of Glasgow, to Ardrossan, where we caught the ferry.
To emphasize how small the world is, when I got home I went to a concert/show at a recording studio in Dallas and one of the guests was from Ayrshire, the county we were based in and exploring, and from which the ferry departed to go to Arran.
–Waiting for the elevator to board. Our ferry arrives. We landed at Brodick about an hour later.
The ferry ride was uneventful. We spent the time in the comfortable lounge area and had coffee and snacks.
–Arran had lots of beautiful flowers and trees.
–More flora
Once we landed and piled in the van, we drove around counterclockwise on the isle and found this old castle ruin situated on a small bay. It was windy, but peaceful.
More beautiful views from this quaint spot on Arran (Lochranza):
Next, we stopped at the Isle of Arran Distillery and had a lovely tour and plenty of samples of the wonderful whiskey:
More beautiful pics from the northwestern part of the island follow.
Sheep, caves, a beach. Oops, the last picture below is from the earlier castle ruin spot. Hey, that’s Elizabeth Essex!
At one of our stops, we met this personable teenage kitty named Tigger:
Below is a map of the island from the ferry brochure:
–We covered the island except for the southern tip. Parts of the island as seen in a van sometimes
reminded me of a roller coaster ride (especially in the back of the vehicle).
Oh, one last pic:
Next, Auchinleck House and grounds and some collages from different parts of the entire trip–finally, the last post from Scotland.