Bigfoot on Arran....

We headed to the beautiful island of Arran for a short break. We awoke (late!) to beautiful weather on day one, so trundled to the North of the island. Our plan was to sightsee, and go for a few short walks.

It didn't happen quite like that! We popped into the distillery on route, and the wee tot of free cask whisky (50+%) meant that I was firing on all cyclinders as we headed off on our ?first short walk.

We parked up at the start point and my mind wandered (due to the whisky) trying to determine how this small hamlet had been named 'Thundergay'. I didn't make headway with this puzzle, but off we set on the 1 hour walk to Coire Fhionn Lochan, a fine lochan ringed by mountains and with a golden sandy beach.

When we arrived, indeed it was beautiful, but the mountains surrounding it pulled us on! We'll just go up the first one then head back was my suggestion (hoping that once on the ridge Abi would not want to turn around!).

Beyond the lochan (visible), views over the sea to the mainland. Abi declares we go on...

On the first top, how tempting is the ridge?

  I knew Abi would want to carry on once we'd got onto the ridge and indeed she did! It was such fantastic weather we would have been fools to head down!

onward....

 

 

 

 

 

Two peaks behind us!

 At this point we were committed to finishing the ridge and the walk turned from a 2 hour amble into a brilliant, but longer prospect ;-). Abi saw a female snow bunting sitting on the boulders near to where we had lunch. It didn't seem worried by our presence, but I guess it doesn't get much company up here.

Mullach Buidhe the highest peak at 721m

Looking back it seemed a long way from where we had started and the car! We descended off the mountain, through moorland and hit a new man made 'hydro electric' track which saved some bog trotting. We arrived at a beautiful beach and had a couple of miles along the coast back to the car.

I'm not waiting for you to take anymore pictures Abi declares!!

 

 

 Half a mile before the car I had a quick rest...............

We didn't see a soul all day, but followed a mountain bike track the whole way round the route - strange, I would estimate that 30% was rideable so it wouldn't be my first choice for a ride.

A brilliant day in the hills, with outstanding views of the sea  and surrounding mountains.