©Andrew Lawson
Last updated: 28/06/08

'The Arran Corbetts'
20-22 September 2007

Day One

At 3.45am on Thursday 20^th September, I set off on what turned out to be a six-hour car journey, from home to Claonaig, to catch the 10:10 ferry across to Lochranza. (For any Aberdonians reading this, taking the car across from Claonaig is almost half-the-price of taking the car across from Ardrossan!)

Following a half-hour trip on the Calmac ferry, I arrived at Lochranza and continued on driving through to Cladach, where I parked beside the Isle of Arran brewery. From this starting point, after passing the Wineport, I continued on along a good track through a wood with lots of ferns and brambles at the track-side. The path to Goatfell from this starting point is possibly one of the best-constructed paths to be found in the Scottish hills.

Before long, I was passing tourist after tourist, puffing and panting their way up this tourist-attraction of a hill. Without paying any attention to the map during the ascent, I was surprised to find out that I had ascended so quickly reaching the summit cairn and indicator within about 90 minutes after setting out from the car.

Fortunately, the mist cleared for a few minutes while sitting at the summit of Goatfell providing views across to Cir Mhor and the A’Chir ridge and also out towards North Goatfell. After a bite to eat, I returned to the car via the same route making the descent in around 60 minutes. A nice and easy first day on Arran.

After spending an enjoyable night in the Lochranza Youth Hostel, I set off around 8.00am the following day to park just before the bridge at the beginning of the road/track leading into Glen Rosa. I followed this good track, past the campsite (really just a field), until reaching the bridge over the Garbh Allt.

After crossing this bridge, I immediately began the ascent uphill, alongside the Garbh Allt, until reaching a deer-fence with bits of heather tied to it for what seemed to be its entire length. A bit further on I crossed the stream and took the path up Beinn Nuis.

On reaching the top of Beinn Nuis, I continued on, in low cloud, to eventually reach the summit of the first Corbett Beinn Tarsuinn, passing a rather strange rock ”face” en-route known as the "Old man of Tarsuinn".

Due to the low-cloud and lack of a summit cairn, I decided to get the GPS out to confirm I was actually at the top. (Don’t tell Alex Barbour! J)

From the summit of Beinn Tarsuinn, after a few bits of easy down-scrambling, I reached the starting point of the A’Chir ridge. Given I could hardly see twenty feet in front of me because of low-cloud, I decided to take the by-pass path below the A’Chir ridge (basically just a walk which avoids all difficulties). After several hundred metres of skirting the ridge I began the ascent to re-gain the ridge  between A’Chir and Cir Mhor.

At this point I had to decide whether to tackle Cir Mhor or Caisteal Abhail first. I opted for Caisteal Abhail.

 I took a path skirting below the summit of Cir Mhor to reach the bealach between Cir Mhor and Caisteal Abhail and then continued on up easy grassy slopes up Caisteal Abhail. I passed the source of a spring en-route marked by a large cairn.

As I reached what I thought to be the summit of Caisteal Abhail, I was confronted in the mist by a rock-face. My first thoughts were to climb this rockface, my second thoughts were ‘No, this is a rock climb there must be an easier way up.” My second thoughts were correct, a path round the side of this rock-face led to a very easy ascent to the summit of Caisteal Abhail.

After a bite to eat, I returned via the same route to the bealach between Caisteal Abhail and Cir Mhor but this time began the ascent of Cir Mhor. Fortunately, this ascent was far easier than it looks. Followed a path for most of the way and reached the summit of Cir Mhor encountering no difficulties.