A fan of Arran

Waking up and looking around Loch Ranza and the mountains and scenery that surround this pretty little harbour, it's a great view to start the day. The ruins of a castle looking over the harbour and pergola style roofs of the distillery poking above the trees in the distance. The purple heather coating the mountains, heavy clouds passing overhead, patches of green on the hill sides where the sun has broken through. So much to keep eyes occupied. But from a boat you can only see so much, getting up into the scenery is a whole new way to experience it.

We decided to do a nine mile round walk, first over the hills to Laggan, then a walk around the coast back to Arran Distillery for a tour.

The walk started off easy enough up a gravel track with sign posts pointing the way. Soon we'd lost the track, which seemed to go through a hedge on the other side of a field, we followed where we thought the track went. The track got fainter and fainter and soon the only footsteps through the boggy ground were those of sheep. We were heading in the right direction but on the wrong track. We persevered until we met what was clearly the right track, carved into the hill side. The going was much easier and once over the top of a pass between two rounded peaks we were treated to a stunning view over the Clyde.

An August weekend in the Solent would have hundreds of boats tacking back and forth. On the Clyde I counted 17 yachts. More boats sailing than we have seen since May, the difference was that these yachts were well spread out white dots, rather than collisions waiting to happen.

We decended the 260 metres down the path to sea level. Groups of red deer and birds of prey could be seen if we looked carefully up to the peaks.


Once back at sea level we found a sheltered place on the stoney beach for lunch, before walking around the coast to Lochranza. The coastal path was more like rock climbing for beginners at some points as we clambered up, around and down the rocks. Other parts of the path were like walking across a lawn. As we reached Fairy Dell it started to rain quite heavily and we got soaked on the last mile or so to the Arran Distillery.

Arran's only distillery is the 5th smallest and also one of the newest in Scotland. Unlike other island malts Arran don't use peat in the drying of the malted barley, so it lack the smokey flavour of many other malts. It does however make it a very smooth malt, that's really quite drinkable.

With the 1530 tour full we booked onto the 1630 tour, giving us enough time to head to their cafe. The cafe do selections of whiskys as tasting platters. We went for their Old and Rare selection and an Arran cheese platter. Because Arran are a new distillery, only now 15 years old, they experimented a lot with different finishes. So the spirit would mature normally in oak barrels, but for the last few months it would be transfered to a barrel that had been used to mature wine or cognac etc. The Old and Rare collection, as the waitress confessed afterwards were a selection of whiskys that the distillery used to produce. So rather than the whiskys having spent time getting old in a barrel, these had spent time getting old on a shelf, and weren't necessarily a selection of their best whiskys. Instead of mature like George Clooney, we got old like Dad's Army. A little dissappointed we joined up on the tour. Even after visiting numerous distilleries there is always something new that can be gained from a tour. This time we learnt that around £8 of a 40% bottle of whisky goes to the tax man.

This tour finished in the visitors' tasting room, where we were able to taste some more whiskys from their range. Our earlier dissapointment was forgotten as we tasted our 3rd whisky, we repaid their hospitality by buying a couple of bottles of this, their tasty single cask bourbon finish.