level of the sea. The entire surface, from shore to centre, is a gallery of landscape, in almost all styles, from the sweet or gentle to the terrible or sublime. The outward views, in all directions, are great and beautiful. The rocks present, in a main degree, an epitome of the geology of all Britain; and the plants, the insects, the marine animals, the sea beaches, the trouting streams, the rambling grounds up glen and mountain, over field and fell, are replete with interest. A road goes round the island, generally near the shore; and commands no mean proportion of all the scenery; and cars with springs, or carts with spring seats, are to be had for hire. We shall trace all the road, beginning at Lamlash, and proceeding by the north, and shall indicate, as we pass along, the paths by which vigorous pedestrians may reach the attractions not seen from the road. Paragraph 797 Shiskin, 39 miles....... Blackwater, crossed; Drimadown Bay, right; Kilpatrick and Brown Hills, left; fine distant view of Campbelton Loch and the southern heights of Kintyre, right; Sliddry Water, crossed; Lag village, at Torlin Water, 46 miles 798 Black Cave and Struey Rocks, right.............. 799 Dippen Rocks, and Lar- miles..... Keskadale, left; Kings cross, right; fine view of Lamlash Bay and Holy Island, in front; Lamlash, 59 miles. 801 802 tains a post office under Ardrossan, a neat modern inn, and a parish church. Holy Isle, in the mouth of the bay, is 2 784. LAMLASH Bay has a horse-shoe | houses, has a good stone pier, and conoutline, and measures about miles across the mouth, but is more than half occupied there by Holy Isle. Its interior enjoys perfect shelter from every wind, and is one of the best natural harbours of refuge to be found on any coast. Its shores rise from a pleasant beach, in ornate, well-cultivated slopes, to a near boundary of pastoral hill. Lamlash village, at the head of the bay, consists chiefly of one long string of miles long, about a mile broad, and 1020 feet high; comprises sandstone strata and clinkstone cliffs in successive superposition, rising tier above tier from the sea to the summit; and presents to almost every point of view a strikingly picturesque appearance. It got its name from being the retreat of a Culdee anchorite, and it contains a cave | from it of about a mile, to the picturesque which is reputed to have been his abode. The carriage road from Lamlash to Brodick leads through a little glen; while a path along the shore passes under cliffs about 500 feet high, pierced with caves, and full of interest to geologists. A road goes from Lamlash south-westward up Moneymore Glen, and down Glenscorrodale, to Lag. 785. BRODICK Bay has a half-moon form, and measures about 3 miles across the entrance. A smooth beach of sand and shingle lines its margin; a sweep of ornate plain, sprinkled with dwellings, spreads away from the beach; and a semiamphitheatre of grand mountains, cloven by the glens of Cloy, Sherrig, and Rosa, blocks the plain. A space on the north side exhibits, amid a noble park, the stately turrets of Brodick Castle, a seat of the Duke of Hamilton, the proprietor of most of Arran. This edifice is in the old baronial style, with steep crow-stepped gables, battlemented roofs, flanking turrets, and a lofty central tower. It sprang from a fortalice of the Norsemen and the Lords of the Isles, and appears itself to be an ancient structure of different dates; and either the original fortress or the oldest part of the present pile was an object of sharp contest in the wars of the Succession. Brodick village, on the south-west side of the Bay, is a choice watering-place, and contains a number of neat residences, a spacious hotel, a post office under Ardrossan, and a small belfried church. A road strikes inland from it up Glensherrig, and goes down the glen of the Black Water to Shiskin. 786. GLENCLOY descends 4 miles north-eastward to Brodick. Its head is a corry on the crest of the mountain watershed, scored by the tracks of leaping rills; and its reach thence for 2 miles is a deep, dark ravine, overhung by high hills, and traversed by an impetuous streamlet. Glensherrig descends 2 miles parallel with Glencloy, at a distance lowest reach of Glenrosa, called Glenshaut, or "the vale of enchantment." Glenrosa commences at the west shoulder of Goatfell, descends 3 miles southward to the east base of Ben-Gnuis, makes there a sudden deflection, and descends thence 23 miles east-south-eastward to Brodick. Its upper reach is one of the sublimest pieces of Highland scenery in Scotland; and its lower reach shows a rich blending of grandeur, romance, and beauty. Its 787. GOATFELL extends 4 miles, from Brodick Park to Glensannox, and attains an altitude of 2875 feet at 2 miles from the shore. Its south end has bold ascents and a rugged surface, but can be scaled without difficulty by either of two paths leading up from Brodick. east side springs from a narrow belt of sea-board, and rises so abruptly and ruggedly as to present a stern appearance to observers from the sea. Its west side and its north end start aloft in mural abutments and tremendous precipices from the engirdling glens. Its upper mass, at a great height from the base, dispreads in a kind of tableau, formed by the convergence of three shoulders, east, west, and south. Its acclivities are extensively strewn with huge isolated blocks of granite; and one of these, at the south skirt of the tableau, has the reputation of being a Druidical altar. The central summit of the mountain has the form of a conical peak; and another summit, of a similar form, and only 247 feet lower, called the Maiden's Breast, rises to the north. The near view from these summits is an assemblage of peaks, corries, wild mountain lines, fantastic breaks, precipices, aud chasms, plunging into gulfs of perpetual shadow; and the distant view is a great and diversified panorama of indescribable magnificence. 788. CORRIE has a post office under Ardrossan, a small inn, and a landingplace for vessels. The road to it from Brodick, round the skirt of Goatfell, passes a series of romantic cliffs pierced | head, and sends down a furious rivulet with caves; and the road from it to to the loch. The precipices in some Sannox goes past a striking piece of ancient sea-cliff, and past declivities thickly clad with natural wood. parts have a depth of nearly 1000 feet, and enclose profound, dark, and awful chasms. A summit above them, called Tornidneon, not much inferior in altitude to the summit of Goatfell, looks down among the chasms, and away, over other bits of wild alpine foreground, to a gor 789. SANNOX has a small pier, an ancient burying-ground, and a modern farm with well-embellished home grounds. Glensannox, opening out to it from behind the alpine buttresses of Goat-geous distant panorama. fell, is the grandest glen in Arran,—more 792. LOCH RANZA is a bay about a silent, sombre, stupendous, and awful than any other place in Scotland, except Glencoe and Coruisk. A mill for crushing sulphate of barytes is worked in one part of it, and mars its solitude. 790. THE FALLEN ROCKS, 2 miles north of Sannox, occur on the sea-face of an isolated mountain ridge, 5 miles long, and 13 mile broad, so disposed as to compel the road to turn inland from the north-east coast. Any tourist who wishes to visit the Fallen Rocks must go on foot from Sannox, and make wary walking; but will be well rewarded by their wondrous scenery. They consist of shattered blocks strewn down a steep declivity, and looking like a rocky avalanche rushing to the shore. The Scriden Rocks, 3 miles further on, near the northern extremity of the island, present a similar appearance on a grander scale. Many of the blocks here fell in one crash about the middle of last century, from a part of the overhanging steep, which now exhibits a long deep rent; and the noise of their fall was heard in Bute and Kintyre. 791. GLENRANZA descends from the central part of a central mountain ridge, called Cir-Vohr. This ridge extends 7 miles north and south; has a sharp, jagged, irregular summit-line, nowhere lower than about 1600 feet above the level of the sea; and projects at least six peaks to an altitude of 2000 feet or upward from its base. Glenranza is 4 miles long, and comes down northward to the head of Loch Ranza. A tarn lies at a lofty elevation, among precipices at its A mile long, with a mean breadth of about 3 furlongs. A pleasant green peninsula projects from its south-west shore, encloses a small inner basin, and contains the ruin of an ancient castle, once a hunting seat of the Kings of Scotland. village, of the same name as the bay, stands above the peninsula, is a great fishing station, and has a post office under Greenock, a good inn, and a Free Church. The view of Loch Ranza, with the mountains overhanging it, as seen from the sea, displays striking features, and is graphically touched by Sir Walter Scott in his "Lord of the Isles." The road hence to Catacol runs in a semicircle between picturesque wooded cliffs, torn into caves and fissures, and commands a pleasing prospect of the coast and seaboard of Kintyre. 793. CATACOL is a modern fishing hamlet, at the mouth of Glencatacol. A battle is alleged to have been fought on its site between Fingal and his foes; and a small green mound on the neighbouring beach is fabled to be the grave of a famous sea-king whom Fingal slew. Glencatacol descends three miles from the south-east, has a romantic pastoral character, and leads up to a wild tarn and grand views among the mountains. A great ridge, called Benvaren, extends on both sides of it, north and south, to a total length of 7 miles, and has greater breadth, but less height and less sublimity, than the ridges of Cir-Vohr and Goatfell. The road, after leaving Catacol, becomes rough and hilly, and leads through deep cuttings, but continues to 264 GLENIORSA-THE STRUEY ROCKS. be picturesque, and is overhung in parts | front shows a range of cavernous cliffs, by great blocks of detached, shattered, about 300 feet high, and contains a cave, impending rocks. The outline of the partly artificial, which was the abode of Benvaren ridge, as seen here, resembles Robert Bruce during much of his stay in that of a long house with rounded roof, Arran, and still bears the name of the and shows on the summit two cyclopean King's Cave. The south crown, overwalls of granite blocks meeting at right looking Drimadown Bay, displays reangles. Two masses of peculiarly con- mains of a great ancient fortification, torted schist occur on the shore, near either Caledonian or Dalriadan, spread North Thundergay. A range of ancient over an area of several acres, and formerly sea-cliffs, which had more or less flanked defended on the land side by a broad high the coast all round from Lamlash, strikes rampart. inland in the neighbourhood of Imachar, and comes to a termination 2 miles further on, in the flank of Gleniorsa. 797. SHISKIN district, in the vale of the Blackwater, is the largest and most fertile tract of arable land in Arran, and contains a post office under Ardrossan, one or two hostelries, and two places of worship. Blackwater has a total run of 6 miles south-westward, to the head of | Drimadown Bay, and brings down the inland road from Brodick to the southwest coast. A small harbour at its mouth maintains a ferry to Campbelton, 12 miles distant; and a good small inn stands adjacent. A cairn in the neighbourhood, now much reduced by the carrying away of its stones for building, was at one time upwards of 200 feet in diameter. The road from Blackwater Foot curves through a fertile district of low swelling hills, cloven by deep watercourses, and commands in its progress a delightful view of Campbelton Loch and the southern heights of Kintyre. The shore here exhibits grand specimens of trap dikes. 794. GLENIORSA descends 7 miles south-south-westward, to the north haunch of Mauchry Bay. Its upper parts are grandly mountainous, and still contain some specimens of the red deer. Its right side is joined by two ravines, each about 2 miles long, the upper one embosoming a lake of 3 miles in circuit, called Loch Tana; and its left side is overhung at the middle by Ben-Gnuis, and joined immediately below by a streamlet coming from the tarn of Loch Gnuis. The stream which traverses the glen abounds with trout, and is frequented 2 miles up, to a lakelet there, by salmon. 795. MAUCHRY BAY describes the segment of a circle, 34 miles along the chord, and about a mile to the inmost curve. A stream of 6 miles descends south-westward to its head from BenGnuis. A considerable sweep of plain lies round it, under cultivation, over- 798. LAG stands in the mouth of the looked only by the skirts of the moun-rich, warm, narrow glen of Torlin Water, tains and by rounded hills. Numerous adjacent to the church and post office of blocks of stone are adjacent, variously Kilmorie; is connected, by road through upright slabs, obelisks, and fantastically the interior, with Lamlash; and contains outlined masses, some of them from 15 an hostelry which boasts having given a to 20 feet high, together with several night's quarters to the Duke of Hamilcairns and stone circles, which old legends ton. A natural harbour at Southend, declare to have been fashioned by Fingal in the vicinity, is a curious trap formaand his twelve giant companions. tion, comprising sides, quay, and breakwater. 796. KING'S HILL is an isolated eminence, 2 miles long, extending from Mauchry Bay to Drimadown Bay, between the road and the sea. Its shore 799. THE STRUEY ROCKS, a short way east of Lag, are a range of basaltic sea-cliffs, rising to the height of 400 feet, AUCHINCHEW-WHITING BAY. 265 deeply cut by vertical fissures, pierced by | almost murally from the water to the height of about 300 feet, and is leaped by a brook, in a curve of spray, to the sea. The road hither from Lag has kept considerably inland, and it still leaves another headland, called Largiebeg Point, a great cavern called the Black Cave, and terminating in a massive wedge-shaped protrusion, with point downward, called Bennan Head. The Black Cave opens at the level of water-mark, measures 40 feet in width, 80 feet in height, and up-to the right, passing the lodge gates of a wards of 160 feet in length, and gives a magical view down the Frith, past Ailsa Craig, to Galloway. 800. AUCHINCHEW is partly a rocky amphitheatre, ribbed with ravines, partly a short vale, descending to the shore. A lofty hill at its head, called Knocklecarlew, commands an extensive view, and was a watch-post of the Dalriadans. A waterfall, called Essiemore, is made in the amphitheatre, with sheer leap of about 100 feet, amid imposing accompaniments of cliff and chasm, often overarched by a brilliant iris, and serving, to a distance of some miles, as a land-mark to mariners. Pladda Island, nearly opposite the vale, and about a mile distant, is small and low, and crowned by a lighthouse. 801. KILDONAN CASTLE, on a headland 1 mile east of Auchinchew, is an old square tower, originally a fortalice of the Dalriadans, and long the seat of a branch of the clan Macdonald. Dippen Point, 1 mile to the north-east, rises recently erected shooting-box of the Duke of Hamilton; but it then descends to the beach, and begins to curve round Whiting Bay. Its 802. WHITING BAY has the form of a crescent, about 3 miles across. shores contain a number of snug houses for summer residents, and some fine sites for more; its sea-board abounds in spots of gentle and romantic beauty; and a glen above embosoms basaltic cliffs, and exhibits two waterfalls of 50 and 105 feet of leap. A high triangular tract fills the space between Whiting Bay and Lamlash Bay, and terminates seaward in the headland of King's Cross, whence Robert Bruce is said to have set sail for attacking Turnberry Castle. A foot track leads by the shore round this headland; but the carriage road strikes direct northward from the head of Whiting Bay, goes up a glen to the summit-level above Lamlash, and commands there a brilliant view. |