Isle of Arran, April 2003

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Two days later the legs had recovered and it was clear that the unseasonably good weather had settled in so we decided to take another mountain walk. Paul and Lesley opted not to come so we set a one-way route and planned to be picked up at the other end. We headed back back up a sun-baked Glen Rosa and skirted the West side of Cir Mhor to take the ridge along the top of the near vertical head wall of Glen Sannox and up to the broad bouldery summit of Caisteal Abhail


Resting on the slopes of Cir Mhor	The Hunter's Ridge to Caisteal Abhail	The cold Eastern cliffs of Cir Mhor	Atop Caisteal Abhail	Catching some rays

North Goatfell, Goatfell, Cir Mhor and Beinn Tarsuinn from Caisteal Abhail

From Caisteal Abhail the narrow ridge heads West, Glen Sannox on the right, North Glen Sannox to the left. It's a good ridge, slightly scrambly but straightforward and with views, until... until the Witch's Step (Ceum Na Caillich). I'm always nervous when guide books use phrases like lofty, airy or entertaining and all the books used similar adjectives to describe the Witch's Step. A 40m notch cut deep into the ridge, one side requires full climbing kit but can be avoided, the other side, the side we were descending, is "just a scramble".

Call me risk averse, but I hate downclimbing on steep rocks with loose gravelly surfaces where a slip between the boulders is almost certainly going to hurt a lot and could well be fatal. I could feel the panic rising through my chest and rushing my steps, but managed to keep my head and safely reach the base of the notch where scree gullies drop steeply away to the Glens on either side. The others followed, looking a little less flustered than I.


On Caisteal Abhail summit		In the Witch's Step <shiver>	There's no better place to be	A new volcano in Scotland

Beyond the Witch's Step the ridge broadens, and looking back towards Caisteal Abhail a view of Alpine grandeur opens up. The ridge drops to North Glen Sannox on the left, scene of possibly the wettest, coldest, most miserable day of the first field trip in 1993. Ten years later it was hot, sunny and clear, and as an extra visual treat an unseasonal brush fire was sweeping across the Glen towards our position with some rapidity. From where we stood we could see the flames consume the dry bracken and hear the crack of wood as it succumbed.

We moved swiftly on, walking down to the waiting minibus at the road bridge in North Glen Sannox in summer heat, exorcising the cold, sodden memories of our previous vist, and then heading off for a welcome pint in the Corrie Arms.


Volcanologists Godbee and Walker	North Glen Sannox	From Corrie foreshore	The accommodation	The album cover

That night we celebrated Denise's arrival on the island with whatis normally referred to in the newspapers as "hi-jinks" in the grounds of Brodick Castle.

With mountain fit legs we selected a short walk the following day so we could get back to meet Roz from the Brodick ferry. The route started and finished in Pirnmill, and took in a short horseshoe around Beinn Bharrain. It was only four hours, but they were all glorious. Away from the tourists the ridge was empty, and, like all the other granite ridges in the North of Arran, steep and fun, with cliffs to one side and gigantic sloping slabs the other. Chris proved his mountain credentials by scrambling the length of the ridge, the rest of us took a long detour around the difficulties.


	The broad summit of Beinn Bharrain	Scotland like the brochure	Returning to Pirnmill

Roz arrived, the one pure geologist remaining amongst us, straight from an undergraduate field trip to Greece and insisted that for her only full day we go up Goatfell again. We plotted a different route, from Sannox up Cioch-na-h-Oighe (no, I don't know how to pronounce it either) and along the ridge to North Goatfell before walking back down the tourist track to Brodick Castle

The day was sunny again (how often do you get seven straight sunny days in Scotland at Easter?) but slightly cooler and clearer with a strong wind, near perfect walking weather. A hardy band of four - myself, Roz, Paul and Janey - took the easy scramble up Cioch-na-h-Oighe to be confronted by an amazing looking half mile of precipitous, narrow switchback ridge to the broader summits of Mullach Buidhe. It took half an hour to negotiate the finest ridge I have walked, my fear of heights pressing me onto hands and knees on the exposed sections, but the views of Cir Mhor, Casteal Abhail and across the water to the mainland were spectacular.

After lunch we summitted North Goatfell before joining the masses on Goatfell and skipping down the tourist track for our final night at the Kennels.


The ridge from Cioch-na-h-Oighe	North Goatfell	Roz summits Goatfell	Brodick from Goatfell

Before catching the ferry back to the mainland on the final Sunday we squeezed in a gentle stroll to the ancient standing stones of Machrie Moor.

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