It was great to arrive at last, although the ride over the water seemed much longer than an hour. We docked at Brodick on Arran at 11.05 and chugged off the ferry to seek our hotel. Couldn't have been easier, as it's one of the biggest on the whole island and only a few hundred metres away from the boats. A bit of good fortune at last. We tramped into Reception to introduce ourselves to the once more very pleasant (in all respects) ladies at the desk who issued our keys and told us the basics. We were also offered the laundry room to store the bikes in. A fortnight ago when terry booked the place he was told they could store the bikes in the Dining Room! Pretty easy-going place, this. We settled for the laundry. Once more John and Terry found themselves unloading the car without the Wanderer, who was again trying out his shower. I'm sure he's got some mental issues. He gave us a knock after we'd settled in and we were straight out to begin our first slightly overdue ride on Arran.

First job was to check over the bikes. After about 6 months John had his first flatty after switching to Slime-filled tubes. He took it apart and was going to pop a new tube in until the wise old Gollum insisted he blow the tube up hard and let the Slime do it's stuff, which it did, so one tube saved for later. Jason's Whyte E5 took on a completely different character with some extra wind squirted into his Rockshox Revelation forks, becoming much kinder to the arms and providing a smoother, softer ride. And Terry's Mutha didn't need quite so much air added to it's perpetually leaking X-Fusion 02 rear shock after giving it plenty at Kirroughtree.

Our hotel was right next to a new Co-op store, the biggest shop on Arran, and that was first port of call to get the supplies sorted and for John to christen his virgin credit card in the cash point. While John and Golly waited outside for Jay to get his week's supply of spinach in, they were accosted by a local chappie who'd been retired about 20 years and lived close by. He picked up on our accent from 30 yards and proceeded to tell us about his old Geordie romance from sometime in his distant contracting past. His wife didn't seem to mind the lurid details being spewed to a couple of complete strangers, must be used to it. It was quite an arousing story, I must say. Anyway, he also turned out useful to us as he knew where the trail started, the one we were told was the "Black Route" by a certain MTB club in the area. His wife gave us slightly different directions but basically the ride started behind the Co-op, we were there already!

Sure enough, after Jason returned and we mounted up, we could see that the road at the side of the store rose up steeply and turned into a Dolomite track a few hundred yards away so we hit that and out came the little gears straight away. We were only a short distance into it when a lad popped out in front of us pushing a barrow. He worked for the Water Company and redirected us to the proper trail half a mile away! Still very close to the back of our hotel, and this time it was spot on, so off we went. Upwards. There was one gate to get through and then the dual turned into a super, hardly-used singletrack, again built with Dolomite, so deliberate, but we couldn't tell if it was bridle, footpath or motorway, so we just stuck at it. Even the Scotties don't know where you can and can't ride up here just now.

Eventually it peaked at the top of the hill through Fairy Glen between Brodick and Lamlash, then the fun started on the down slope off the side of Meall Buidhe - really sweet, fast, flowing, tricky in parts and very prickly in others. The down run spits you out where  there's a road to cross to the right hand "leaf" so we did that first. Unfortunately we could only ride up the lower side as there was a Forestry 4WD vehicle sat at the fireroad junction with a nice Scottish person in it who said we couldn't go the other way, or complete the loop either due to logging operations. We made do with a ride to the top over the Clauchland Hills and a bit of a photo session at the crest overlooking Lamlash Bay and Holy Island. Very scenic, beautiful land and seascapes whichever way you turn.

The trail opened out a wee bit on the lower slope towards Lamlash (see right) and got even faster. This section runs right next to the main road (we were doing it backwards!) but you'd never know it if you were driving down there. It's actually the bit with the "Up" arrow just above Blairbeg (see right) as we were tackling it the wrong way round!

We had to join the main road for the last half mile down to the sea front. What an immaculate place this is. Not a trace of rubbish anywhere, until you get near the spot where the local teen group hangs out, but even that's not bad with a light dusting of Stella Artois bottle tops.

We sat on a wooden bench on the links at Margnaheglish enjoying a light lunch break and soaking up the beautiful sunshine and the views. Jason was reading signs on the ship anchored in the bay a mile off shore with Golly's binoculars and trying to see in the windows of the hotel on Holy Island, 2 miles away. We were distracted by a young mother pushing her baby along the links, and when she got close Terry asked if she'd mind taking a piccy of MidAirCrisis basking in the afternoon sunshine. She agreed and took probably the best of our 1600 digital snaps! One good turn deserves another, so here she is, front (ignore Jason and the Gollum) and rear views courtesy of John the Secret Snapper!

  Here's a 14 MB video of the ride or if you prefer, a 7 MB low resolution version. Please right click, and Save Target As... onto your computer, and then open it on your computer. This is more efficient than watching it online! For 14MB click here. For 7MB version click here (same but for slower Internet connection). Files are in Windows Media Player wmv format.