Adventures on Arran

Our roving Editor travels to the west coast island of Arran.

Welcome to another great issue of Scotland Magazine! This issue's regional focus is on the delightful region of Ayrshire, part of Scotland that is close to my heart and one that I have visited often. But I only went to Arran for the first time recently and just fell in love with it.

I had been invited over by Arran Fine Foods, purveyors of Scottish oatcakes and delicious biscuits, chutneys and sauces. As well as a factory tour we visited a man called Robin Gray, a chef trained under Raymond Blanc, who now grows beetroot and squash on the shores of Whiting Bay (pictured).

Robin supplies no end of posh Scottish restaurants with their salad leaves and trendy veg, while growing things like beetroot and elephant garlic for Arran Fine Foods to transform. The island's own brewery and distillery also supply some raw material, so that all the produce of Arran is combined to best effect.

(The Vintage Marmalade with Arran Malt Whisky is particularly good).

This is all part of living on a small island – businesses tend to rely on each other for tourism and trade, perhaps more than they would do on the mainland.

Take the distillery, for instance.

The production of whisky is one of Scotland's most traditional and archetypal industries, but the Arran distillery is actually quite young.

Very recently it celebrated the first bottling of its 12 year old single malt; an important milestone for one of Scotland's few remaining independent distilleries. The resulting spirit is sublime: cr...

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• By : Sally Toms
• In : Editor's View
• Issue : 43
• Page : 3
• Words : 708