You’ll never forget the view as you sail into the port of Brodick. The Scottish Isle of Arran’s main village lies where the depths of the Firth of Clyde segue into a mile-long sandy crescent sheltered by pointy summits. They rear up from gentle folds of farmland, suddenly topping out on the pyramidal peak of Goat Fell at 2,867 feet, and are scythed open here and there by deep glens.
Tightly packed cottages and villas dating from the 1920s and ’30s line the south side of the bay, facing the red sandstone turrets of Brodick Castle that protrude from towering pine trees on the opposite shore.
Brodick is an hour’s ferry crossing from Ardrossan on the mainland, itself an hour from Glasgow, but this scenery is unexpected. As a result of the Highland Boundary Fault,
