Brew one for me Traditional Geocache
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This is a series of caches set out on a circular woodland walk through the Merkland Woods and Cnocan Woods. The route is commonly known as ‘The Balmoral Ride’ The whole walk is approximately 5 km’s and can take between 11/2 to 2 hours.
You can access the circuit from three access points.
1: walking from Brodick, enter via the private road leading of the junction with the String Road. This is also the route to GC11HVT Arran industry Sand. Follow the tarmac road until you meet the start of the Goat Fell Tourist path.
2: Take the bus from the ferry terminal number 324 for Lochranza. Leave the bus at the Arran Brewery and follow the Goatfell tourist path from here.
3: Take the bus 324 from the ferry terminal to Lochranza and disembark the bus at the Merkland Wood Trail Head. From this start point you can walk back to Brodick via this cache trail.
Just tell the driver where you want off and they will shout you when you are there. Alternatively, you can drive to the Merkland trailhead where parking for three cars can be found, coordinates for this car park are given as a separate waypoint for this cache.
Whilst walking around this series of caches, you can see some of the best views on the island looking out over Brodick Bay. A large part of the trail follows a hard core carriageway that led to one of four Bavarian Summerhouses. The upper section of the walk is named as the summerhouse trail. There is only one remaining Bavarian Summerhouse and this can be seen in the castle grounds at Brodick Castle.
A small part of the route is off the main carriageway and is through the Merkland Woods, this path follows the Merkland gorge with lots of small waterfalls and pools to cool down in when the sun is out. There are some fantastic water carved shapes in the rocks of the gorge to be seen as well.
The trails are managed by The National Trust for Scotland and The ranger service based at Brodick Castle. Trail surfaces vary throughout the cache series. Please wear stout footwear as paths can be muddy during wet periods.
For those who like to cache on mountain bike’s, the trail is indicated by bike signs on the map, and posts on the ground. Please cycle the route anti-clockwise and respect walkers i.e. from the Merkland trail head. Where parking is available at the parking coordinates.
These caches have been set out by the Arran Cachers. We are a group of geocachers who consider the Isle of Arran to be a gem for the geocacher to discover some of the finest walks and historical places to visit in Southern Scotland, combined with the abundant wildlife that can be seen here. We feel that the caches that are on the island, which have been placed by holiday makers and those cachers that no longer live or cache here anymore, could be maintained by a group of dedicated cachers. If you came across a cache that needs maintenance, please feel free to carry out this maintenance and note this in your log or put a needs maintenance log and someone will attend on their next visit.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
ybjre guna lbhe srrg vs fgnaqvat ba gur hccre cngu. Byq ebbgf haqre ebpx.