Book data

Arran Coastal Way
Jacquetta Megarry  
24 August 2021
UK price £13.99
80pp, 130 x 220mm, 190g
978-1-913817-02-2

Arran Coastal Way

(3rd ed)

£13.99

Jacquetta Megarry

In stock

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"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.

Both text and photos have been thoroughly updated after route changes and extra options created by the Coastal Communities Fund project. This third edition has mapping at 1:55,000 and 125 colour photos. Its predecessor was Highly Commended by the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild in 2018. This edition has more pages but is lighter and more rainproof than before.

This book is in our lighter, more pocket-friendly format, with perfect binding instead of concealed wiro.

Features

This guidebook contains all you need to plan and enjoy the Arran Coastal Way, including:

  • detailed description of the route walked anticlockwise, updated for 2021
  • background on geology, pre-history and history
  • whisky-making, wildlife and habitats
  • boat trip to the Holy Isle
  • Foreword by wilderness walker Cameron McNeish
  • clear mapping of the entire route (1:55,000)
  • information about public transport and travel
  • lavishly illustrated, with 125 colour photographs
  • on rainproof paper.
Look inside

Click on the thumbnails below to view sample pages from the book "Arran Coastal Way" in standard PDF format.
To reduce loading time, resolution is limited in these extracts, but all photographs are printed at top quality in our books. All text and images are copyrighted ©Rucksack Readers and licensors: please respect our intellectual property.

Contents
Planning (pp 4-9)
Scotland in miniature (pp15-17)
Sannox to Lochranza (pp40-45)
Gallery

Click thumbnail to enlarge.

Reviews

From an online review by Undiscovered Scotland

Rucksack Readers has long represented the gold standard for long distance walking guides. Their guides have always been bright, attractive, light, waterproof and comprehensive, containing between their covers pretty much everything you really need to tackle the walk in question: from excellent mapping to route descriptions to background features to sources of additional information. …

The third edition of “Arran Coastal Way” by Jacquetta Megarry is fully revised. It provides an “all you need” guide to the 65 mile or 105 kilometre Arran Coastal Way, though as most of the island’s settlements are on the coast and most of its roads run round the coast, this is also … an excellent guide to the Isle of Arran more generally.

Read the full review here.

Ken Lussey on Undiscovered Scotland

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

Reviewed in Strider no 144

This revised edition … is in the familiar Rucksack Readers format, with copiously illustrated waterproof pages, and with excellent 1:55,000 scale maps with the route clearly shown.

Arran offers a great deal for a holidy of a week or longer, and whether walking the Coastal Way or not, this guide will provide plenty of ideas for the visitor.

Ken Falconer, August 2019

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

Bonus content

GPX route file
Video

This 2-minute video illustrates features of our guidebook to the Arran Coastal Way.

Updates

From September until Christmas 2021, Forest & Land Scotland has closed for felling operations the track through Merkland Forest that we mention and show on guidebook pages 36/37. This means that if your preference or the weather conditions make the high route over the shoulder of Goat Fell unsuitable, your only options are either to walk beside the main road from Cladach (with care, facing the oncoming traffic) or (perhaps preferably) take the bus to Corrie.

All other updates are included in this edition, mainly hotels and cafés that have closed, opened or changed their names.

More info to help with your planning

Support services

Service providers that support this route

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Recommended maps

For those who want a larger scale map

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Links

Links relevant to this book

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