Prestwick holding the very first in 1860, followed by many more. Prestwick has now been taken out of the tournament's rotation but many have also been held at Turnberry and at Royal Troon, which both remain choices for the organisers. The one man who has created a cottage industry in his own right is Robert Burns. Born on the 25th of January 1759 in Alloway near Ayr, Burns' poems are renowned world-wide. He has become a cultural icon for Scots, both in Scotland and in the many expat communities around the world.
A Short History of Arran
Lying some 15 miles off the Ayrshire mainland, Arran translates (depending on the source) either from the Gaelic Ar Rinn as ‘place of the peaked hills’ or from the Irish Arainn, meaning kidney-shaped. Certainly, both make sense. Gaelic plays a large part in the names of Arran's spectacular mountains (Cir Mhòr and Caisteal Abhail, for instance) while Old Norse has left its mark on Glen Rosa, Glen Sannox and the island's highest peak, Goat Fell, which climbs to 2866ft (874m) above Brodick Bay; itself a translation from the Old Norse Breithr Vik, which means Broad Bay. This association with the Old Norse language stretches back to around the 9th or 10th centuries, when Arran was under the ownership (as were many of Scotland's present islands) of the Norwegian crown. It was not until after the Battle of Largs in the 13th century that it fell into Scottish hands. In fact it was at Lamlash Bay on Arran's eastern side that Norway's king, Hakon IV, reassembled his defeated army after the battle.
Again, like the Ayrshire mainland, people have left their mark on Arran for more than 5000 years. The wonderfully bleak Machrie Moor, with its amazing stone circles, is just one spot on the island that contains evidence of human activity from that time. Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age sites have all been excavated.
After Viking rule ended things became very complicated, especially when Scotland's King Alexander III died in 1286, leaving no immediate heir (the nearest descendant was his four-year old granddaughter Margaret, the ‘Maid of Norway’, so named for being the child of King Eric II of Norway and Alexander III's daughter, Margaret). Things were complicated even further by the Maid of Norway's death in the Orkney Islands in 1290, which occurred during her crossing of the North Sea to be crowned Queen of Scotland. Over the next 20 years or so Scotland's claimants to the vacant throne were plunged into a variety of feuds. One such rivalry eventually led to the 1306 murder of John Comyn (known as ‘The Red’ Comyn) in Dumfries by his then competitor for the crown Robert the Bruce. This was an infamous event in Scottish history, having occurred at the altar of the town's Greyfriars church.
In the same year, the Bruce was crowned King of Scots. After defeat in battle against occupying English forces he fled Scotland for a time, ending up on Rathlin Island off the Northern Ireland coast, before ultimately finding his way to Arran and taking shelter at King's Cave, a short distance north of Blackwaterfoot. It is claimed that this was the setting for his famous encounter with the determined spider, which refused to give up building its web on a slippy cave wall until it succeeded. This gave the Bruce the inspiration he needed to return to the mainland and continue the fight for Scottish independence.
Over the subsequent centuries, and certainly in some part due to its position in the Firth of Clyde, Arran became continually caught up in various dynastic struggles (particularly between the clans of the Stewarts and the Hamiltons). Its population decreased in 1828 during the Clearances instigated by Alexander Douglas-Hamilton, the 10th Duke of Hamilton, and it was hit hard by the Potato Famine of 1845. The number has varied over the years, but the current population of the island is around 5000.
By the end of the 19th century Arran had finally begun to establish proper links with the mainland, with piers having been built at Brodick, Lamlash, Whiting Bay and Lochranza. Since then agriculture and tourism have become the backbone of Arran's economy. When the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry began making regular, daily sailings to the island in the 1970s, Arran became one of Scotland's most popular tourist destinations.
Arran's Geology
The wonderful natural arena of Arran was formed around 400 million years ago and its layers of rock, including Dalradian and Ordovician schists as well as red sandstone, have made the island a playground for geologists for decades. James Hutton, the ‘father of modern geology’, visited Arran in the late 1800s and found evidence that transformed his ideas concerning the earth's age and formation. The island is split by the Highland Boundary Fault Line, a geological fault that traverses Scotland from west coast to east and which separates the country into its two distinctly different regions, the Highlands and the Lowlands. Arran's northern half is dominated by igneous rocks formed around 50-60 million years ago while the southern end is formed by Devonian and Carboniferous rocks estimated to be around 380 million years old. Yet it wasn't until the beginnings of deglaciation at the end of the last Ice Age, approximately 10,000 years ago, that the magnificent mountains of Arran started to emerge from under the ice and the island's wonderful glens began to gouge their way through its landscape.
Looking along Arran's peaceful western coast from The Postman's Path (Day 7)
There are many wonderfully erratic glacial boulders clearly visible right round Arran's coastline and the huge, shapely boulders at Corrie are particularly beautiful.
Wildlife
The Ayrshire and Arran Coastal Paths are teeming with wildlife and feature a particularly diverse birdlife. This ranges from common coastal species like the black-headed gull, herring gull, oystercatcher, razorbill and guillemot to seasonal birds such as the common tern, grebe, golden plover and goldeneye. The great cliffs near the Heads of Ayr, Ballantrae and round much of Arran are home to birds of prey including buzzards, kestrels and sparrowhawks while the wilder, open landscapes above Glenapp and Largs accommodate moorland birds such as grouse, curlew and meadow pipit.
On quieter sections of the route you may well spot a reclusive roe deer, a contrast to the many sheep and cattle on view. Both common and grey seals are a regular sight off-shore, especially round Arran. The marvellous sight of a sea otter may also be glimpsed round the island's coast. Basking sharks (the world's second biggest fish), dolphins and minke whales have also occasionally been seen, especially from ferries. Arran is one of the few remaining areas of Britain where there is a healthy population of red squirrels, its larger grey cousin never having been introduced to the island.
Holy Isle, sitting just off Arran at Lamlash (a short ferry trip to the island leaves from the harbour at Lamlash), is home to wild goats, Soay sheep and Eriskay ponies. Rabbits, hares, adders, lizards, toads, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies can also be seen along the Ayrshire and Arran coasts if you keep your eyes peeled.
During spring and summer the sheer variety of wildflowers is fantastic. Bluebells, red campion, wood anemone, field mouse-ear, common scurvy grass, sea campion and sea pinks are just a small selection of the plants that quite literally brighten the paths.
The first ferry docks at Brodick after crossing the Firth of Clyde from Ardrossan (Day 6)
For much of the route the conspicuous outline of Ailsa Craig (also known as Paddy's Milestone as it lies approximately halfway between Belfast and Glasgow) is a near-constant sight and there are regular sailings from Girvan for visitors to the island. A day trip is highly recommended. The granite sentinel rises to over 1100ft from the Firth of Clyde and is a Sight of Special Scientific Interest as, with nearly 40,000 breeding pairs, it is home to Britain's third-largest gannet colony. Even from the mainland, or from the southern and eastern shores of Arran, you can see these fantastic seabirds circling the seas round Ailsa Craig. Fulmar, kittiwake, shag, razorbill and (since the eradication of rats on the island in 1991) an increasing number of puffins also breed here. In the 1860s puffins had numbered in the hundreds of thousands before the rat managed to hitch a ride onto the island. Ailsa
