Isle of Arran

Isle of Arran

Scottish Gaelic name	Eilean Arainn
Old Norse name	unknown
Meaning of name	Brythonic for 'high place'
Location
OS grid reference	NR950359
Physical geography
Island group	Firth of Clyde
Area	43,201 ha
Area rank	7
Highest elevation	Goat Fell 874 m
Administration
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	Scotland
Council area	North Ayrshire
Demographics
Population	5,045
Population rank	6
Largest settlement	Brodick
References

The Isle of Arran (Scots Gaelic: Eilean Arainn) is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde (430 km²). It is in the unitary council area of North Ayrshire. In the 2001 census it had a resident population of 5,058.

Arran is the seventh largest Scottish island and the ninth largest island surrounding Great Britain (excluding Ireland). It has an area of 167 square miles.

Arran is commonly lumped with the Hebrides, with which it shares many cultural and physical similarities, but in actual fact, the Hebrides start off the west coast of Kintyre.

Geography

The island lies in the Firth of Clyde between Ayr and Kintyre. The main village on the island is Brodick (an Old Norse name meaning "broad bay") to which the main ferry to the mainland connects. Brodick Castle is a seat of the Dukes of Hamilton. Arran has many mountains in the north. The highest of these is Goat Fell at 874 metres (2,867 feet). The south of the island has many raised beaches and tall sea cliffs. The island is sometimes referred to as "Scotland in miniature", as it is divided into "Highland" and "Lowland" areas by the Highland Boundary Fault which runs northeast to southwest across Scotland. The island is a popular destination for geologists, who come to see intrusive igneous landforms such as sills and dykes. Most of the northern part of the island is a batholith, as seen in the satellite photo.

There are three main roads on the island; the coast road circumnavigates the island, while the String and the Ross both cut across the hilly interior at different points.

King's Cave is an example of an emergent landform. This cave is exposed above the present day sea level due to isostacy[1].

Satellite photo of Arran. The island to the east of Arran is Holy Isle and the tiny island - just visible - to the south of Arran is Pladda.

The peaks of north Arran seen over the isle of Bute from a farm in North Ayrshire.

File:Arran fields.jpg

A panorama of the southwest part of Arran, close to the King's Cave.

Villages on Arran

• Auchencairn
• Balliekine
• Balmicheal
• Bennan
• Blackwaterfoot
• Brodick, the main village
• Catacol ("gully of the cat")
• Cladach
• Cordon
• Corrie
• Corriecravie
• Corriegills
• Dippen
• Imchar
• Kildonan, the most southerly village
• Kilmory
• Kilpatrick
• Kingscross
• Knockenkelly
• Lagg
• Lamlash
• Largymore
• Largybeg
• Lochranza ("loch of the rowan trees")
• Machrie
• Margnaheglish
• Penrioch
• Pirnmill
• Sannox ("the sandy one")
• Shiskine
• Sliddery
• Strathwhillan
• Torbeg
• Tormore
• Whitefarland
• Whiting Bay

Islands surrounding Arran

Arran is a part of an Island group, comprising Arran, Bute, and Large Cumbrae, which are inhabited. Small Cumbrae, Inchmarnock and the Burnt islands are smaller uninhabited islands in the group.

Arran has three smaller satellite islands;

• Holy Isle lies to the east opposite Lamlash
• Pladda lies off Arran's south coast
• Tiny Hamilton Isle lies just off the Arran shore around 1.2 kilometres north of Holy Isle.

Eilean na h-Airde Baine off the south west of Arran at Corriecravie is more of a skerry than an island and, in any case, is connected to Arran at low tide.

History

Macrhie Moor Standing Stones

There are many stone circles and standing stones dating from neolithic times, including the standing stones on Machrie Moor and the Giant's Graves above Whiting Bay. St. Molio's Cave has wall carvings which are evidence of a rare Pictish script.

It is likely that along with Bute, Arran was once the home of a Brythonic speaking people. However, the Gaels spread to the island from their adjacent kingdom of Dál Riata and replaced the older language with their Goidelic tongue. Later the island, along with the vast majority of the Scottish islands, became the property of the Norwegian crown. As a result, many current place names on Arran are of Viking origin. Haakon IV of Norway visited the island in 1263 en route to the Battle of Largs.

St. Columba and St. Ninian are said to have stayed on Arran, and there are other Irish connections, e.g. a stone circle named Fingal's Cauldron. Nearby is the 34 metres deep King's Cave where Robert the Bruce is said to have taken shelter.

Transport

PS Waverley in front of Brodick Castle.

Arran is connected with the Scottish mainland by two Caledonian MacBrayne ferries:

• Brodick to Ardrossan, Ayrshire, from the east coast of the island.
• Lochranza to Claonaig, Argyll, from the north of the island.

A third ferry route connects Lamlash to neighbouring Holy Isle during summertime.

In summer the paddle steamer PS Waverley calls in at Brodick on regular cruises.

Economy

The main industry for the island is tourism, but farming and forestry are other important industries. Successful local businesses include:

• Arran Distillery, situated in Lochranza and built in 1995
• Arran Brewery, situated in Cladach, produces Arran Blonde beer, alongside other premium ales which are sold throughout the UK.
• Arran Aromatics, produces a range of toiletries on site which are sold throughout the UK.
• Auchrannie Resort, 2 hotels, 3 restaurants and 2 lesiure complex, one of biggest employers on island.
• Creelers, adjacent to Arran Aromatics, a seafood restaurant with locations in Arran and Edinburgh.

The main tourist spot on the island is the imposing Brodick Castle, owned by the National Trust for Scotland. Another interesting site is the twelve apostles of Catacol, a row of 12 small whitewashed cottages along the shoreline. The upper window facing the sea is different in each one. The theory behind this system was that the wife at home would be able to signal to her husband out fishing in the bay with a candle at the window. The husband would be able to identify who was being signalled by the shape of the window.

Notable Residents

• Jack McConnell, First Minister of Scotland.
• Jackie Brambles, Broadcaster.
• Billy Connolly, Comedian - regular visitor.

Trivia

• Brodick Castle features on the Royal Bank of Scotland £20 note
• Lochranza Castle was used as the model for the castle in the Tintin adventure The Black Island.
• There are 42 red post boxes on the Isle of Arran
• The Bishop of Man and Sodor refers to the sodor or southern isles, Arran being one, which used to belong to the bishop's see.
• The island has two species of tree, the Arran Whitebeams which grow nowhere else in the World.
• The Scottish Gaelic dialect of Arran died out when the last speaker died in the 1970s. However, there is now a Gaelic House in Brodick, set up at the end of the 1990s
• The last force-fire in the Isle of Arran was about 1820.
• The knitting style used to create Aran sweaters is often mistakenly associated with the Isle of Arran rather than the Irish Aran Islands.
• Arran's local newspaper, The Arran Banner, was listed in the Guinness Book of Records in November 1984 under the ‘Newspaper Records’ section. Under the sub-heading of ‘Most read’ it was entered under the title of ‘local newspaper which achieves the closest to a saturation circulation in its area.’ The entry reads: ‘The Arran Banner, founded in 1974, has a readership of more than 97 per cent in Britain’s seventh largest off-shore island.’

External links

• Template:Wikitravel
• Arran seen from space, NASA
• Isle of Arran Tour and Information
• The Isle of Arran Heritage Museum
• The Arran Banner Arran's local newspaper

55.57351°N 5.25333°W / 55.57351; -5.25333