Grace & I had set Monday 4th July to do a full day’s training for The Three Peaks. On Sunday Grace sent me a text and said “Would it be too radical to go to Arran to do Goatfell and rest of ridge?” Exceptional weather calling for serious memory marker?!”
I agreed that was a great idea. So we met at Central Station on Monday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed – and that was just the two dogs:)
Fantastic day, and off we set from Brodick to walk up to Glen Rosa, up the valley and unto the ridge. The two dogs were in serious doggy heaven – no sheep to worry about and they could just run, and they did.
We climbed up over Beinn Nuis, unto Beinn Tarsuin, where we had our lunch, and on a very steep slope, poor Jess was sliding down the grassy slope at one stage. From Beinn Tarsuin we made our way to Cir Mhor.
Getting to Cir Mhor took us much longer than we had expected, lots of scrambling and as Grace says “technical walking” – which I’m not used to. We found the path off Cir Mhor, or at least thought we had! The huge rock slabs of over 2 meters high had other ideas, and eventually we had to give up, make our way back up and find an alternative route of Cir Mhor. I wished I’d had my camera to hand at one stage, as I helped Tazi up to Grace, who then lifted him up. He must have been terrified as he was gripping unto to her for dear life! His front paws round her neck and his back paws round her waist! I think even if she hadn’t been holding him, he would have stayed on himself anyway!
This wee delay meant that we could not make it from the Saddle back to Brodick in time for the last ferry. Oops. Now there was just the challenge of walking back to Brodick and trying to find somewhere to stay that would take two dogs. The Glenartney Guest House had a twin room, and willingly allowed Jess & Tazi to stay too. What a relief! They even provided food for the two dogs.
We virtually ran back down the hill to the wee restaurant and managed to get in for the last food order at 9.00!
We certainly made memories that day!! And were so thankful for the kindness of the guest house owners, we had to leave before breakfast was served on Tuesday, but they left us all we needed for a cold breakfast before we got the ferry back to Ardrossan at 8.20.
I never appreciated a toothbrush so much as on Tuesday morning.
After I got back I looked up some of the guides of the ridge that we had done and read this:
“Arran’s 4 Corbetts are sufficiently close to one another to be climbed together, but Goatfell is popular as a single peak and is described separately. The Three remaining peaks lie on a long winding ridge that starts with Beinn Nuis (729m) then goes N to Beinn Tarsuinn, Cir Mhor and finally Caisteal Abhail. Cir Mhor is a more comact hill with with three ridges, NNW to Caisteal Abhail, WSW to join the A Chir ridge of Beinn Tarsuinn and E to a bealach. (The Saddle). All three ridges are well served by paths, but the descent from Cir Mhor to the saddle is very steep and should not be attempted.”
English (UK) 
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