Visiting Arran

Getting to Arran is easier than you might think, with the ferry port at Ardrossan a comfortable drive or train ride away from most parts of Scotland and northern England.

A stone's throw north of Brodick is The Home Farm, where you'll find the Arran Aromatics factory and shop alongside Creeler's Seafood Restaurant and Smokehouse, the Island Cheese Company and James' Chocolates - a veritable feast for the senses in one location. Serious foodies should check out the Arran Taste Trail for information about restaurants and speciality island produce.

Those looking for a liquid form of refreshment should head for the Arran Brewery, nestled in the shadow of Brodick Castle for a drop of traditional ale. Travel north from there to the award-winning Isle of Arran Distillers, where the lost art of whisky making has been revived using the pure water of the Eason Biorach burn, rising through soft peat and over cleansing red granite, to create an appetising single malt with a light peat character.

If you're planning to stay for a while, we can recommend the Auchrannie Country House Hotel, once the home of the Dowager Duchess of Hamilton, widow of the twelfth Duke of Hamilton and Earl of Arran and now a comfortable country hotel with superb leisure facilities. The five star Kilmichael Country House Hotel is believed to be the oldest house on the island with sumptuously furnished rooms and an award-winning restaurant.

There are seven golf courses on the island, all of which welcome visitors for a bracing round and a leisurely dram at the nineteenth hole and Arran is compact enough to see by bicycle, pony or by foot. Contact the Isle of Arran Tourist Board on +44 (0) 1770 303774 for details of boat, bike and pony hire, outdoor pursuits and events, and for information about sites of historical interest, trekking and nature walks.