UKC

Looking at spending up to a week on Arran early may. Everyone will be in tents or motorhomes and will have transport. Plans are the obvious climbing areas and scrambling routes. I've know Glen Rosa campsite has best location but heard no showers. Probably gonna bivvy a night to save a walk in when climbing so have the option of commuting round.

Was just wondering people's personal experiences with Arran campsites and the locations commutes and walk ins. Also if not camping in Glen Rosa where is best to park for access up the valley. 

Cheers

Stayed at Middleton's in Lamlash on short notice on our way back from the Great Glen Canoe Trail last year. Was clean, hot showers, not too pricey, and you could walk into town for the pub. Nice family campsite really. It was quite midget but it was a damp day with no wind so perfect for the blighters.

Also, you can/could park at Glen Rosa for the day. Beware the sea fog if you set off late. We got engulfed when doing Sou'wester Slabs as a three. Ended up wrapped in a bubble of head torch light. Took a long time to finish the route, find the way off and get back to the tents! It went from a lovely midsummers evening to thick fog in about 20mins.

Lochranza campsite is OK, well actually the site is nice and gives access to the Northern parts, but beware they won’t let new arrivals on till late in the day, and only between specific time slots.  
Last time I went one of the staff was very officious, so be prepared to be told off for something. Treat it as a comedy experience.

My infraction? I had been Sea Kayaking so rinsed my kit and hung it on the fence by the tent to dry. Wrong, they don’t want the fences used as driers, so I moved it all to hang off the car and the sea kayaks.  Warden comes back, that was also wrong, apparently the neighbours don’t like looking at campers laundry.  Look across to the neighbours house several hundred meters away, to see it’s their washing day. But still wrong!

The site at the South of the island at Kildonan is very nice, and keeps the breeze for longer in the evening, but the commute is longer.

No small matter on Arran

🤣 Bloody autocorrect.

Its hardly a massive commute - Arran isnt that big!

We've stayed there a couple of times and really enjoyed it. I'd agree with the comments about officious staff - I think we were drying our towels on the fence.

Also beware of deer getting into your rubbish bags in the middle of the night - ours had a full potty (which someone had driven the van over) when a stag started rooting through it at about 11pm

+1 for midget Middletons site. There are midges, but less than Rosa and it attracts families so is quieter at night than Glen Rosa. 

No midgets here, or midges.

I hope you' ve booked your ferry. There has been a delay in the  annual overhaul programme for the main  ferry "Caledonian  Isles" meaning that the smaller ferry  "Isle  of Arran" may still be covering the service in early May ,so there will be reduced capacity. Check with Cal Mac  asap

Actually looks like "Caledonian Isles" back on the route from 4 April  but the normal summer 2 vessel service probably delayed into May.  Arran will be busy early May especially if you are going on  a holiday weekend so you should book  ferry as soon as possible if you haven' t already done so.

We're (hopefully!) off to Colonsay in the last week of March and we've already had our return trip altered (thankfully not cancelled). I notice there are quite a few gaps in the usual winter timetable because of the extra requirements to schedule repairs to ships which are already struggling. Calmac really need to get things sorted.

Hope you make it ok, Colonsay is great. Make sure you take the low tide wade to Oronsay as well. Cal Mac will struggle until new ferries become available. . They have no spare boat capacity at present. 

Yes, Oronsay is on the wish list. Must remember to check the tide tables. I've got a tide app on my phone but it will only give results for Scalasaig. I've read somewhere that Oronsay tables are available at the shop and ferry pier. Do you know if there's a reliable source online and what state of the tide is it best to set off over the strand?

If you Google "Tide times for Colonsay" you should get a website called Tides Chart. This should help.

Thanks. I'll have a look.