Brodick Castle, Arran

A few weeks ago, my walking friend from Cumnock was down my way visiting family.

As a follow up to Culzean Castle we'd decided on a trip over to Arran and visit Brodick Castle.

As it turned out it was a bit of a whistle stop day. Traffic delays and bad roads meant we ended up spending six hours travelling, and just under three hours on the island.  

We just made the ferry at Ardrossan in time, and the crossing was pleasant enough.

Closing in on the island we could see the castle nestling in the trees under Goat Fell.

I zoomed in for a shot.

Sitting just outside Brodick is the Chemtrans Oste an oil/chemical tanker.

Looking at it's details it left here for Dublin and is now in Pembroke.

We disembark at Brodick. I get a picture of our ferry, the Caledonian Isles.

We board a bus which will take us to the castle gates.

Brodick was the home for 400 years of the Hamilton family, the Earls of Arran.

This from Scottish Places explains the family crest.

The crest of the dukes of Hamilton, an oak tree with a saw through it, commemorates his escape in the disguise of a woodcutter, whilst the motto 'Through' was Sir Gilbert' exclamation on seeing his pursuers ride unsuspectingly past the place where he and his servant were in the act of sawing through an oak tree.

There's a comprehensive map of the grounds...........

.........and some lovely gardens.

We had lunch overlooking the gardens and the bay with the company of a few finches.

Lady Jean Fforde, a cousin of Prince Rainier of Monaco.

There's some scaffolding up on one corner of the castle.

I had to stitch a couple of pictures together to get the whole castle in.

As usual with National Trust properties I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside.

 Inside however is an impressive collections of period furniture, silverware, porcelain, paintings and sporting trophies.(The sporting trophies are mainly horse racing trophies, they won almost every major classic at one time or another.)

After visiting the castle we began walking back towards Brodick for the ferry. Reaching Arran Aromatics we waited for a bus.

The ferry was much busier on the return.

We stopped to eat at the Lauriston Hotel Ardrossan. Great food great prices.

 The road between Girvan and Newton Stewart isn't a very pleasurable drive in the dark and we were glad to see the end of it. A nice outing, but spoiled somewhat with all the travelling. Early and late boats might make a better day.