A is for Arran

From beaches and ferries to cafés, castles and wildlife, nothing is far away on Arran, says Emily Rose Mawson, as she and her four-year-old tour the west coast island known as Scotland in Miniature.

Red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) are one of Scotland’s “Big Five” that roam Arran, an hour’s ferry crossing from Ardrossan in Ayrshire and a brilliant destination for a family holiday. You can spot the other four too – red deer, otters, golden eagles and harbour seals – in scenery sculpted by the Highland Fault Line. This is why the island in the Firth of Clyde is called Scotland in Miniature, for its 20-by-10-mile package of magnificent northern summits and deep valleys submitting to southern pastures.