Mystic Isles : Three Wind-swept, Romantic Outposts of Britain and Ireland : Scotland’s Arran

There’s a bonnie road that sweeps down from the moors edging Glasgow to the west coast at Prestwick, known to wartime pilots as an airport landfall after long transatlantic flights from North America. Along the way there’s the old town of Kilmarnock, famous for its Johnny Walker whisky distillery, and soon afterwards the Halfway House hotel, whose heyday was the not-too-distant past, when only travelers who had covered more than three miles could get a drink on a Sunday. As a boy growing up in Presbyterian Scotland I remember that Sunday drives often ended in such a place.

These days, most flights from the New World come into Glasgow, 35 miles to the northeast, which is a pity as Prestwick is a fine airport opening on to country roads. But one advantage about Glasgow is that, having negotiated the urban clutter and found the A77 road, the traveler is set to see the lovely Isle of Arran from a marvelous perspective.

It takes perhaps 20 minutes or so to reach the Halfway House, and at about that point there are some fine hills in the distance. Then, unexpectedly, the road drops away and you see the water, and realize that these hills are part of an island.

This is Arran, 15 miles from the Ayrshire coast, an isle of such charm that it casts a spell on visitors, making them return again and again. Magic, we used to call it as kids.

At Prestwick there is a short drive north, maybe 15 minutes, to Ardrossan, to catch the Caledonian MacBrayne car ferry to Arran.

The trip takes one hour, and on a good day most people will sit on deck admiring the majestic scenery of the Firth of Clyde, the outlet of the Clyde River, and home waters of the Queen Mary and QE2, both built on the Clyde, in Glasgow shipyards. And there will be scores of steamers, which have been going “doon the watter” from Glasgow since city businessman Henry Bell built the world’s first steam-powered passenger vessel in 1811.

Sometime later there was the Bonnie Doon, vintage 1876, which was so unreliable she was known as the “Bonnie Breakdoon,” and the Ivanhoe, launched in 1880 to cater to the teetotaler trade. Some gentlemen and ladies, however, carried a little something, still known as an Ivanhoe flask.

Today the only survivor of that era is the paddle-steamer Waverley, and in the summer it does excursions down the Clyde and across the sheltered coastal waters to Arran.

And so we arrive at Arran’s Brodick Bay, where the little town of Brodick lies to the left, the jagged slash of Glen Sannox dead ahead, and to the right, majestic Brodick Castle lies in the lee of Goatfell, 2,866 feet of rock and heather.

The Vikings, who had some presence on Arran during the 500 years they rampaged around these waters, called the peak Geita-fjall, or goat mountain. Breidavik, “broad bay,” became Brodick. The Scots rallied to drive off the Vikings in the 12th Century, and Arran became a sleepy backwater of farmers and fishermen.

Our vessel, aptly called the Isle of Arran, unloads at Brodick pier, at the end of which is the island tourist board, domain of Charles Currie, kilt and all, whose staff has information on where to go in Arran (Pop. 4,000), 20 miles by 10, or 56 miles around by road.

On this day a couple from Texas has dropped in. They are on their way to Machrihanish on the nearby Kintyre peninsula (via another Cal-Mac ferry from the top end of Arran) to play golf at the remarkable course there. “It’s one of the best-kept secrets of the game,” the husband told me. At which point another visitor in the office said with a twinkle in his eye: “Just don’t tell anybody about Arran.”

Arranires, as the regulars call themselves, tend to be possessive about their island, with its air of rustic gentility. Many have been coming here since they were children, and their parents before that, the latter probably looking down their noses at the more developed and commercial Clyde resorts, popular for their music halls, carnival midways and pubs. The Ivanhoe would have been their ship.

Some Arran regulars own cottages, others rent houses, while others stay in small hotels in the villages of Brodick, Lamlash, Whiting Bay, Blackwaterfoot, Corrie and Lochranza, the latter with its ruined castle made famous by Sir Walter Scott in his poem, “Lord of the Isles.”

These places never used to advertise. They were filled every summer by the same people, who would phone on New Year’s Day and book the same rooms for the same period, Glasgow folk for “the fair fortnight”--the last half of July--while Kilmarnock factories would close the first two weeks of August.

Everyone had a routine. Men played golf in the morning; women bowled or played with the children. Everyone would meet in the golf clubs at lunchtime. The afternoon was spent on the sandy beaches, pony-trekking or walking in the glens. There is good fishing in rivers and the sea, and an ascent of Goatfell is a grand afternoon’s hike. If it rained, the children would play games like Monopoly, and if not they would hang out at the tennis courts.

It was paradise for families, for couples, in fact for anyone who didn’t need bingo.

Unlike other Clyde resorts, Arran was spared the effects of mass tourism for the simple reason that most of the island belonged to the Hamilton family and the National Trust for Scotland.

All this goes back to 1306 when Robert the Bruce passed through Arran on his way to Turnberry on the mainland, where he started his campaign for the Scottish crown. In 1503, his descendants gave the island to the Hamilton family, whose dukes built Brodick Castle, still going strong and featuring one of the finest rhododendron gardens in Britain.

But to return to those salad days (basically the ‘20s to the ‘60s), there were dances in the Arran villages, often featuring a college jazz band. Everyone wore shorts all the time, regardless of the weather, including the men at dances.

There were movies at the village hall at Brodick. I remember going as a teen-ager on my first date. The movie was “Treasure Island.” We sat on wooden pews behind a pillar; she leaned one way and I leaned the other. In the last 10 minutes we held hands. It was magic.

When the big jets came along, some folks deserted Arran for cheap holidays in Spain and other parts of Europe. But as Britain grew more crowded, hoteliers with imagination moved to the island, charmed by its beauty, lifestyle and accessibility.

The turnaround started in the ever-so-recent Cold War days, when Ron Stewart gave up a sales manager’s job at IBM in Glasgow and bought the elegant Lagg Hotel, just south of Whiting Bay, complete with palm trees and nestling near what must be one of Europe’s few nude beaches (where the locals claim you need to wear woolly socks). Stewart advertised his hotel in Private Eye, the satirical magazine: “Easter breaks with a fine view of World War 3,” a reference to the local training waters for British and American nuclear submarines.

Then Auchrannie Hotel, once the home of the Dowager Duchess of Hamilton, acquired a handsome new wing and an indoor pool-spa rivaling that of a good California resort.

Today, Arran has a fine variety of small hotels, many of them affording views of beautiful Brodick Bay and the castle. Typical is the Arran Hotel, where a comfortable room with private bath, full breakfast and dinner costs about $60 a day. You can swim in the ocean 50 yards away or in the hotel’s indoor pool.

Bed and breakfast can be had in private homes and farms all over the island for about $40 a couple. This wouldn’t buy the breakfast in a good London hotel. And on islands, you’ll meet characters. An Australian doctor tells about knocking on the door of an Arran farmhouse. An old woman slowly led him up the stairs and asked if he would like porridge for breakfast.

The Australian, noting her infirmity, thought she could use the rest more than him, and said not to trouble with breakfast. She replied: “It’ll be no bother at all. I’ve got to make it for the dog anyway.”

Over on the other side of the island, the Kinloch Hotel at Blackwaterfoot has staff smartly turned out in the family Crawford tartan and a majestic waterfront location close to what may be the world’s only 12-hole golf course.

Arran is great for golfers. There are seven courses, all of them short and spotty, but getting a game is easy and it costs just a few dollars to play. What’s more, children of any age are welcome. Last summer, on a warm evening, I saw a mother and three children aged about 8-12 playing on the Brodick links. It was after dinner, the course was empty and they were having the time of their lives.

There was also a jolly crowd in the clubhouse. Visitors mix easily with locals in the stand-up bar, and up at the Ormidale Hotel in Brodick, host Tommy Gilmour runs a cozy pub where the bar is a section of a clinker-built boat.

There’s often music here and at Duncan’s Bar, beside the Kingsley Hotel, where the meals are tasty, wholesome and astonishingly good value.

It was here that I met the Texans again. They had been to Machrihanish and returned to stay over on the island. The husband said the drive up-island to get the other ferry had sold him on Arran. He had heard about the prize rhododendrons at the castle and they ended up staying for a week at a small hotel nearby. There were Highland cattle in the fields and deer in the woods.

His wife loved the craft shops and the island cheese and honey, and she wondered why more tourists didn’t come here, stay longer, relax and get to know the place. She was glad they were not on a tour bus, or being jostled in a city.

The population is only 4,000, but she knew why. She had read about the young men banished to America for criminal activity or political persuasion in the 18th Century and the immigrant ships that left here for Canada in the 19th.

The village bookstore had an amazing number of books about Arran, a testament to its fame. She had even heard of the Ivanhoe, and how it advertised that “passengers may rely on having a pleasant sail without the ordinary rabble.”

She had read in the local paper, the Arran Banner, that the Waverley would be at the pier the next day, and they were going along to take pictures of the old paddle-steamer. The newspaper, by the way, is apparently bought by 97% of the islanders, and has made the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s best-read paper.

She liked the way hotel guests repaired to the lounge for coffee after dinner, and everyone would socialize. She was getting to know the Scots, rather than the other Americans she was used to meeting in hotels such as Gleneagles in the Highlands. It was like a cruise ship, she said, but without the bingo.

But, she said confidentially, as if it was bad form to mention such a thing, there were movies in the village hall.

I know, I told her, I know.

Later that evening, fortified by the woman’s enthusiasm for the island, I walked into the village by the moonlit bay and looked in a window of the hall. The pews were still there, and so was that damn pillar. It was no dream; it was magic.

GUIDEBOOK: Scooting to Scotland’s Arran

Getting there: United, American, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways fly nonstop from Los Angeles to London for about $770 round trip, with 14- or 21-day advance purchase, depending on the carrier. You can take British Airways, British Midland or Air UK from London to Glasgow (one hour) for $140-$190.From Glasgow, the train to Ardrossan (one hour) is about $10. The Caledonian MacBrayne car ferry to Brodick (one hour) is about $40 for a small car and $8 per person. There’s also a train from London to Ardrossan via Glasgow. On summer weekends, advance reservations for the Cal-Mac ferry are essential; from U.S. phones, dial 011-44-475-34531, or fax 011-44-475-37607.

Where to stay: Lagg Hotel, Sliddery, 011-44-770-87255, is a comfortable country inn renowned for its food. A double room with breakfast is $80-$110; bed, breakfast and dinner for two is $110-$180.

Auchrannie Country House Hotel, Brodick, tel. 011-44-770-2234, is the former home of the Dowager Duchess of Hamilton, a fine old building, fully restored. Double rooms with breakfast, $90-$180; bed, breakfast and dinner for two, $140-$240.

Arran Hotel, Brodick, tel. 011-44-770-2265, is a refurbished waterfront hostelry with good food and friendly pub. Double rooms with breakfast, $80-$100; with dinner for two, $120-$140.

For more information: Contact the British Tourist Authority, 350 S. Figueroa St., Suite 450, Los Angeles 90071, (213) 628-3525. Also the Tourist Information Office, The Pier, Brodick, Isle of Arran, 011-44-770-2401.