Arran is an island, 20 miles long and 57 miles around, located off the south-west coast of Scotland. Picturesque villages like pearls on a necklace are strung around its edge. The climate is tempered by the Gulf Stream and is mild enough to support the growth of palm trees.

Annual events include the Wildlife Festival in May, the Arran Festival of Folk around the second week in June, and the Brodick Highland Games in early August. There are also various hill races; Goatfell in mid-May, Glen Rosa in mid-June and Urie Loch in mid-July. Shiskine Valley Sports Day happens in July, shortly after the Shiskine half-marathon race.

Highlands to the north and Lowlands to the south mimic the regional topography of the Scottish mainland without the mainland’s overpopulated and industrialised central rift valley. Similarly, the West is wild and windswept, Hebridean in character while the east is gentler and more populated. Everywhere the scenery is breathtaking and the peace is deafening.