The magic of Arran, Scotland’s most underrated island

With heady spirits, Scotland’s ‘Big Five’ and rugged scenery that’s straight out of ‘Skyfall’, there’s something about Arran that keeps Robin McKelvie coming back for more…

Weaving through Arran’s cinematic scenery (Robin McKelvie)

There’s something about Arran; there must be. I’ve worked in over 100 countries, but this is the one island I return to every year. I flock to an isle that is eulogised as “Scotland in Miniature” for sanctuary, for escape, for the positivity that many of us crave in these trying times. 

Arran has never disappointed whatever the time of year, but as I stand with my young family on the bow of the MV Caledonian Isles, I’m nervous. In the time of Covid-19, will Arran be enough?

Scotland’s seventh-largest island may be well Kent among Scots like me, but it sails under the radar of many visitors as they bash further north on the fast-track to Skye. More fool them; as I peer into the salt-tinged breeze, Arran’s mountains rise in welcome, striding north of the Highland Boundary Fault, which bisects the island into Highland and Lowland halves as it does the country.