Today we went to Inishmor, the largest of the Arran Islands. This had to be my favourite day of the trip so far. We took a bus then a ferry to the island, the we all jumped on bikes to get around. First bit of physical activity for the trip apart from walking and it was great to be off our feet. The island is sparsely populated, with only a few hundred living on it is the largest of the Arran Islands, even though it is maybe 15km from tip to tip! The island gently slopes up to the highest point so it was a very nice relaxing and scenic ride. It is a very rocky island, and for the inhabitants to be eligible for help from the monarchy they had to work, so they literally started picking up rocks and building fences. There are soo many paddocks, even though there was hardly any livestock. The highlight was the Black Fort at the highest point of the island. Centuries old and built to defend against the Vikings. The fort is at the top of some massive granite cliffs, the ground just keeps sloping up and then stops. It's very daunting looking over the edge, as soon as your head goes over you feel massive blasts of air coming up from the wind, and the noise of the waves from far below gets really loud. It is so unexpected you get a shock and it can be really scary! All downhill on the way back to the ferry, then a relaxing trip back to the hostel.
