
"The perfect companion to a fascinating route" - Outdoor Focus magazine
The Arran Coastal Way is one of Scotland’s Great Trails, and perhaps the finest circuit walk in the country. It runs for 65 miles (105 km) around the Isle of Arran in a memorable week-long hike from Brodick. It’s accessible from near Glasgow by the Ardrossan ferry. Famous as`Scotland in miniature’, Arran is rich in scenery, castles, caves and standing stones. The walking is varied, from mountain paths to deserted beaches, from minor road-walking to boulder-hopping, and in places it is refreshingly rugged. Arran’s wildlife is uniquely approachable, and its residents welcoming.
Based on three research trips in 2017, both text and photos were thoroughly updated to cover the many route changes and extra options created by the Coastal Communities Fund project. This edition has mapping at larger scale (1:55,000) and 125 colour photos. It was Highly Commended by the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild in 2018.
This guidebook contains all you need to plan and enjoy the Arran Coastal Way, including:
- detailed description of the route walked anticlockwise, updated for 2018
- background on geology, pre-history and history
- whisky-making, wildlife and habitats
- boat trip to the Holy Isle
- Foreword by wilderness walker Cameron McNeish
- new mapping of the entire route (1:55,000)
- information about public transport and travel
- lavishly illustrated, with 125 colour photographs
- on rainproof paper.
Click on the thumbnails below to view sample pages from the book "Arran Coastal Way" in standard PDF format.
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From Outdoor Focus' review of the second edition
Excellent design and photography and crips, easy-to-follow directions with Rucksack Readers’ usual large-scale mapping make this the only guide you’ll need to explore Arran’s glorious coastline, from castle-crowned Locharanza in the the north to the cliffs of Bennan Head and the Black Cave in the south.
Roly Smith in Outdoor Focus Spring 2018 page 5
Excerpt from 5-star review at Amazon.co.uk
This book is a gem … it feels like it has been written as a labour of love. It’s obvious from her enthusiasm and detail that the author knows Arran at first hand, and the information is up to date at time of publication. Apart from doing a bit of website searching for travel timetables and accommodation bookings, I’d say that this book has all the other information you need.
Bob Robinson, Lincolnshire
Excerpt from the Foreword
Arran’s geology makes it ideal for coastal walking … My own favourite section remains the toughest part of the route … With steep cliffs on one side and open sea on the other, there’s something very satisfying in the uncompromising nature of the terrain. Rocky reefs run out towards the little lighthouse island of Pladda. This is rugged coastal walking at its finest …
Cameron McNeish
From a review in "Outdoor Focus" magazine
This handsome, well-illustrated and waterproof guide to one of Scotland’s newest long distance walks … is the perfect companion to a fascinating route.
Reviewed by Roly Smith, President of OWPG, SPring 2008
This 2-minute video illustrates features of our guidebook to the Arran Coastal Way.
The Catacol Bay Hotel closed in 2019 and is now a private house: this affects pages 46 and 48.
The Sannox Bay Hotel is temporarily closed, but may reopen in 2020.
Corrie no longer has a shop, and the Rock Pool café has become the Mara Fish Bar & Deli; the Corrie Hotel also serves food.
Finally, a learned footnote, thanks to Arran Almanac: the dinosaur footprints mentioned on page 54 bullet 1 have been reclassified as Isochirotherium herculis by paleontologists.