Cuckooland

Yes today we heard the cuckoo for the first time this year. We always do hear them and sometimes even see them in Scotland in May.

Just a couple of miles north of our hotel (they suggested you could walk it) is the small hamlet of Sannox with its lovely bay - extra - to walk up Glen Sannox. We took the car as the road is quite narrow and without pavements and we also wanted to continue north after our walk.

A short but very pleasant walk amongst the foothills of some of Arran’s biggest mountains. They are quite unpronounceable ( Cioch na h’Oighe - pointed one to the left and Caisteal Abhail, right) but they form the ‘ Sleeping Warrior’ profile of the north Arran hills from the mainland.
The mountains were beautifully clear and there seemed to be no one around, we heard the cuckoo almost immediately.

We crossed the burn on a little bridge and continued up the other side until we came to the stepping stones. The walk suggested returning the same way if you didn't fancy crossing them. I know a blipper who wouldn’t!
I went first and they were pretty big, more of a jump than a stride! Here is Chris following me. I took this with the wide setting on my phone as he had the camera having taken a shot or two of me crossing!

A pleasant walk back down the other side of the burn to return to the bay.
We headed further north to Lochranza at the top of the island looking for a coffee. We stopped to look at the castle ruin there and then continued up to the ferry pier where there is a little shack (formerly the fire station) called the Sandwich Station.
We got a coffee and watched the ferry to Cloanaig on Kintyre come and go.
There was soon quite a queue, the sandwiches are made while you wait and sounded to have very interesting fillings. They looked good but huge and I was still full of breakfast.
Back down the quieter, more wild west coast before crossing back over to Brodick. 

Had a leisurely afternoon with a drink in Brodick and a bit of shopping both there and in Lamlash at Arran Fine Foods where our son was working last week.

Can’t believe the weather, we’ve had another fabulous day but they are very worried about fire risk here as there have been
a few wild fires recently in many in parts of due to the dry conditions. 

Apart from the cuckoo the predominant bird song here was Willow Warblers..