Stronach Wood Cup & Ring Marked Rock


Forum » Walk Reports » Scotland

By Chris Mac on 14/09/15 at 11:45pm

Date started:04/04/2015
Distance:2.9 km or 1.8 miles
Ascent:260m or 853ft
Time taken:1:30
Naismith:1:01

Easter walk number 2 while on Arran and we decided to walk to the Cup & Ring Marked Rock up in Stronach Wood and take along little Corran for his first walk at two years old!

Walking along past the primary school you follow the String (B880 road) up the hill past the Glen Rosa turn off and after a couple of turns you will see the path into the wood on the left hand side. This was the only bit of the walk that Corran was carried due to there being no pavement!

Mac (no relation!), Fraser's lovely Bearded Collie, led the way! :)

Mac posing, he is one photogenic dog! I was also trying out Mum's new 36x zoom bridge camera which was fun:

This way!

The path twists and turns up the hill but is easy going and wee Corran managed to walk it all by himself, top work!

Mac having a sniff around, focus canine pathfinder of ours!

Mac back on track! :D

Y, Fraz and Corran walking up the path:

A point in the wood opens up to a long path with a strange looking shelter made of wood and what looks like a deer at the other end! Seems to be a shooting range of some kind, time to check out this new camera zoom...

Sure enough a wooden deer can be seen, this camera is great!

Future hillwalking star Corran leads the way!

The final stretch of path is a straight one that takes you along to the Cup & Ring Marked Rock:

Passing by more trees and signs of forestry work:

Almost there as the large rock begins to come into view...

It could do with a good power hosing but the cup and ring markings are still quite visible and very intriguing...

A panoramic shot of the impressive rock:

The rock sits at an angle and is a decent size:

The other side of the rock opens out onto a view of Glen Cloy and Brodick. Time for a game of fetch with Mac!

Looking down on Brodick with the Clauchland Hills in the distance:

Mac having fun:

Glen Cloy and you can almost see our route through Fairy Glen from the day before:

A zoom shot of Brodick and Brodick Bay:

I like this camera:

Instead of retracing our way home we decided to cut through Stronach Wood to find a path that takes us to Douglas Row and back to where we started, if we can find it....

You pass the impressive site of this large tree which looks very out of place amongst the fir trees:

An "up and down" panoramic shot showing the large tree:

Unfortunately at this point Mac became useless and we got a bit lost in the wood trying to find the path out before having to double back and head down to find it but we got there eventually although it meant the walk took a little longer than expected! Mac is no Lassie that's for sure, he was too busy playing in pools of water in the Wood to care about where the exit was!! :lol:

So another Brodick walk completed and some local folklore investigated plus it turns out that wee Corran is a natural as he never moaned once and kept up with the adults, truly impressive stuff for a 2 year old!



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