As part of our trip to Scotland, we were planning to spend two nights on the Isle of Arran at Auchrannie Resort. Due to the impending Storm Floris, we made the call to leave Glasgow a day early, and try to get on the ferry on Sunday night ahead of the storm. After some phone calls to re-book our accommodation and rental car, we arrived safely ahead of the 90+ MPH winds that hit the Northern UK the next morning.
That first evening, we checked in around 21:00 and went looking for dinner in the resort. Cruize is the more casual of the two restaurants and was able to accommodate us. I had the lamb and haggis lasagne (creamy bechamel, rich tomato sauce, garlic bread). This was so very satisfying, and not just because there was no food available on the evening CalMac ferry between Troon and Brodick. It was warm throughout my dinner, thanks to the cast iron skillet it was served in. The balance between the lamb and haggis, and the tomato sauce, was excellent, with no one flavour dominating.
We braved the high winds on the next morning, going out to play mini golf in Brodick. On the walk from the resort, we passed by cute gift shops, bakeries, and other stores with food provisions. Wooley’s of Arran is a little bakery that specializes in meat pies, sandwiches, cookies, and other baked goods. I sampled an apple tart, which was diced apples in a pie pastry ring, topped with a circle of puff pastry: nothing special about it. I also tried a raspberry melba tart, which had a jammy bottom, and an soft icing on top. This also was pretty mediocre, and the deeply baked crust was the best part.
For lunch, we sampled sourdough pizzas from The Parlour, which also served ice cream made from local Arran dairy milk. The pizzas were made to order, with a good chewy Neapolitan style crust. Unfortunately, the high winds meant we lost a slice or two to the lurking seagulls.
There’s also a small food co-op in town that we went into to look for snacks: there’s a small section of refrigerated prepared foods like mini pork pies but their selection was quite limited: there was only one kind of chilled juice in a can (but many more energy drinks and soft drinks, bleh).
Dinner was back at Cruize: this time I tried the creamy seafood and potato pie (smoked haddock, salmon, king prawns, mussels, garden peas, smoked Arran cheddar mash, rustic bread). This was a bit disappointing: everything tasted a little bland) and my mussels had a disagreeable ammonia flavour (I didn’t eat any of them after that first bite).
We all wanted to try Ice Cream Sundae for dessert (Arran traditional & chocolate ice cream, biscuit crumble, berry compote, whipped cream, raspberry sauce, Tunnocks caramel wafer). My only complaint was that the wafer had softened (maybe it was chilled).
The next day we had a farm tour at Bellevue. This is a real working beef farm with lots of sheep and chickens as well. Our tour included a hot or cold beverage at the end. Our kids had cold cups of Arran dairy milk, served with a “magic straw” aka Sip-ahh that flavours your milk via these tiny pearls that dissolve in the straw as you sip. I had not heard of these before, but my son had used them at his summer camp this year.
We lunched at Cruize once more, and I tried the Arran Black Pudding & Chorizo Salad (mixed leaves, warm Arran black pudding, deep fried poached egg, honey mustard dressing, charred flatbread). This was a really interesting mix of textures. I don’t have a lot of experience with black pudding, but have eaten it in various forms and have enjoyed it in all its forms.
That night at the resort, we tried Brambles Seafood Grill. This restaurant is more seafood focused than Cruize. I had this filet of stone bass:
Very tasty, but I should have ordered a side as well.
My son also ordered from the grill section of the menu, this 14oz pork tomahawk steak. The grilled items come with a choice of sauces: they swapped our choices, so my son ended up with the lemon and dill hollandaise with his steak, while I got the garlic and parsley butter with my fish:
My wife had the baked fillet of North African-spiced cod (butter beans, tomato, chorizo, salsa verde). She was ho-hum about it.
For dessert, after my daughter was introduced to a Terry’s Chocolate Orange in Edinburgh, we ordered the Bramble’s Chocolate Orange (chocolate sphere, macerated orange, genoise sponge, stracciatella white chocolate mousse, blood orange sorbet, orange gel).
This was a fun combination of flavours that worked well together, and I liked all the textural contrasts. My spoon wasn’t fast enough to sample everything though, we devoured this quickly.
On our final day on the isle, we went to the Arran Show, the 187th year that this annual agricultural show has been running (first Wed in August). There were a lot of food trucks with the standard fare (donuts, burgers, coffee) but some surprises too (a Japanese food truck with what tasted like chicken liver dumplings).
(I’m writing this from a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, but as we’ve been discussing our summer trip, we’ve all had the fondest memories of our time on the Isle of Arran. Highly recommended to go!)
