A friend once said to me, ‘Every holiday should start with a ferry to an island.’ Advice I have often followed. A ferry-ride brings with it a sense of adventure, remoteness and a departure from the fast pace of our mainland, although in reality the nearest city is often still only a couple of hours away.

Of all the UK islands, it is the Isle of Arran that I have frequented the most. I first visited Arran in my late teens. As a climber and fell runner my objectives focused on traversing and scaling the islands granite peaks, ridges and climbs. The Witches Step and the A’Chir Ridge Traverse being among the finest scrambles the UK has to offer. While I still enjoy days out in the mountains, with a young family, I have refocused over the years to explore other gems Arran has to offer. Caves, stone circles and dinosaur footprints are enough to tempt any child out on a walk.

On Arran, one of my favourite stretches of coastline is that of the Cock of Arran between Lochranza and Sannox. On our latest holiday, at half term, I spent a glorious evening traversing this coastline out-and-back from Lochranza in search of Ossian’s Cave (pictured); the cave’s position incorrectly marked on Ordnance Survey maps. The walk is pleasant going to start. Moths, disturbed from the undergrowth as I walk, flit across my path, but time is too short to identify them if I am to reach my destination and return before dark. There is such a richness of plant-life, too. I notice bird’s-foot trefoil and ragged robin, but my botany skills are not good enough to place all in such a diverse array of fauna.

After a while the path becomes rockier, soon enough I am clambering rather than walking, the way easing as I approach the cave. The entrance is narrow and, framed by gnarled trees, has a mystical feel. A tall-ship carved into the rock, thought to date back to the eighteenth century, marks the way in. Switching on my headtorch, I ascend up into the back of the cave. I imagine how sailors might have once found this place as they moored their boats in one of the many sheltered bays of Arran and came ashore to explore.

I am not the only one here this evening, a cave spider hangs from roof close to her egg sac. Once hatched, the young spiders will soon leave the cave. They have an attraction to light that aids dispersal. Within a few weeks they will be setting out on their own adventure to explore this remote and rugged landscape.

wharfedale-nats.org.uk