I signed up for a sponsored walk to help raise funds for the Fullarton Building Funds (Fullarton Parish Church, Irvine) and on Saturday (21st of June) I managed to climb to the top of Goatfell in Arran.
7 of us were climbing the mountain and we started at beginning of the Goatfell pathway (at the Arran Brewery) at 1:35. It’s fair to say I was knackered by the first 10 minutes. 3 went on ahead, 3 decided to go back a third of the way up, and I continued climbing trying to catch up with the others. Needed to try and find some sort of motivation, so for some reason I took inspiration from the famous Yoda quote, “Do or do not… there is no try.” I got about an hour away from the top and I kept stopping to rest every minute! It took everything in me to get to the top. While I was sitting down, there was an unusual silence; nothing but breathes of wind. It was extremely tranquil! I then heard the other 3 coming back down, and I said I’d meet them at the bottom; they said it’ll be worth it.
Another 20 minutes and I made it to the top and it was spectacular! Oh the feat; getting to the top and the agony of my feet! Got to the top at 4:05, so it took me 2 1/2 hours. I was the last person to climb Goatfell, so had to balance my camera and set the timer to prove I got the top! Was proud of myself for making it, but honestly couldn’t be bothered walking back down. I didn’t need to rest on the way down; it wasn’t tiring, it was just agony on the feet trying to step on the right rocks. Anyway I managed to get down in one piece and met the others back at the cafe near the brewery at 5:45 (took 1 hour and 40 minutes to get back down).
So it was a total of 4 hours and 10 minutes it took to get up and down Goatfell. A person I met coming down from Goatfell said it was an average of 5 hours to go up and down Goatfell, so I think I did pretty well. It was very hard work, but had enough determination to get there and it was definitely worth it. The weather was pretty good for the whole day. It was warm and cloudy which was perfect for climbing; I remember climbing Ben Lomond a few years ago and it was torture climbing in a full day of sun! Nether-the-less, I still got burnt.
Managed to get some good photos while up there. Take a look below. Camera used: Fujifilm Finepix HS10 Bridge Camera
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