Isle of Arran Holiday 2010

We took our annual holidays a little later this year, due to the fact that I had lots of weddings to play for during September. Our first week (2nd - 9th Oct) was spent on the Isle of Arran. We wondered if the weather would be as kind to us as it had been in previous years, when we had been there a few weeks earlier. We were not disappointed! The shot below shows the MV Caledonian Isles approaching its berth at Brodick.

For the past three years we have rented a superb little studio flat situated at Lamlash. It has everything any discerning holidaymaker could want, and is designed in an "upside down fashion". The bedroom is downstairs, and the lounge is upstairs (where the windows project from the roof line). Outside is a decked area, and we had breakfast each morning on the decking as the weather was so mild and sunny!

This was the view we had from the lounge - looking across the bay to Holy Isle which is owned by a group of Monks.

Ruby certainly enjoyed lounging on the decking in the morning sunshine. She had very quickly discovered a small branch of a tree which she promptly began to chew and strip the bark from it.

One of the places we visited was Brodick Castle, which is well known for its gardens. I came across these two characters outside the front entrance to the castle.

This was a general view of part of the gardens, showing some of the trees bedecked in their Autumnal colours.

One of the villages on the north west coast of the island is Sannox, and on closer inspection you might notice some sheep on the quay side. Not real ones - but iron ones placed there to tie the local boats up to!

We had spoken to a relatives uncle, who has a house at Lochranza, on the north end of the island, and he had told us to make sure that we visited Lochranza to hear the roaring of the stags which happens at this time of year. We not only heard the roaring, but met this fellow below with some of his lady friends!