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Isle of Arran Residential and/or Expedition Adventure Expeditions are offering participants a fantastic opportunity on the beautiful Isle of Arran, Scotland. The full trip is 12 days long:

Residential: 6 days long allowing you to settle in to the bunkhouse, get to know your team mates and work towards the John Muir Discovery Award;

Gold DofE Qualifying Expedition: 6 days long with a rest day before hand giving plenty of time for route planning, pre-expedition assessment checks and shopping for food.

Arran is one of the most southerly Scottish islands and measures just 19 miles long and 10 miles wide. It has pretty villages along the coastline, a rugged and mountainous interior with green rolling hills and woodland in the south. Local wildlife includes seals, basking sharks, dolphins, otters, red deer, ponies, puffins, eagles and over 200 different species of birds. Arran therefore gives us the perfect setting for a wide range of activities – just make sure you bring your camera! Outline Day1: Meet at Glasgow Central rail station, transfer to the island by train and ferry, head to

our base. Evening meal and activities, get to know your team mates and the programme.

Days 2-6: Residential. Day 7: Rest day! We will spend the day making sure that everything

is in place for a successful expedition: training, route planning, equipment, food. You will have the opportunity to buy any further food/equipment that you need, wash kit that you need to, pack your bag and take some time for R&R.

Days 8-11: On expedition. Ice cream and celebrations to finish! Day 12: Depart Arran and head back to Glasgow Central rail station

to travel home. Residential This takes up the first six days of your time on Arran. Over the six days we will explore the island combining outdoor activities and some of the island’s incredible wildlife with the nationally recognised John Muir Discovery Award. You could therefore walk away from the trip not only having undertaken your Gold qualifying expedition and a residential, but also with another certificate and experience for your CV too.

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The John Muir Discovery Award The John Muir Award is an environmental award scheme focused on wild places and is split into four challenges. Participants must complete the four challenges over a minimum four day period and this is our aim for the residential. More specifically, during the residential we will: 1) Discover a wild place – get to know Arran, it’s wildlife and it’s different wild places. 2) Explore it’s wildness – the best way to discover! We will go in search of otters and explore the mountainous areas of the island – there will be a chance for you to walk, scramble and discover! 3) Conserve and take personal responsibility – We will spend a day or two with the local Arran Rangers working on whatever needs doing. Projects include building and restoring footpaths, clearing and burning rhododendron bushes, marking fences so that birds don’t fly into them. Each of these projects will give you the opportunity to learn from the Rangers not only about the task in hand but the wildlife and environment too. 4) Share experiences – We will have the opportunity to sit down and discuss each day, share stories and see each other’s photos – both together as a group over dinner and informally relaxing in the evenings. There will also be several structured sessions in the evenings (lasting for about an hour) where you will learn more about the John Muir Award and build on the activities during the day. We will also have the opportunity to revise some skills from your expedition training/practise expedition in preparation for the expedition.

Expedition Following the residential, you can spend four days on expedition around the island. A rest day between the residential and expedition will allow you to undertake all planning and preparation that you need, buy food, wash and dry kit and take some time for rest and relaxation. The five days of your residential will hopefully have allowed you to settle in to the island setting and way of life and given you a much better idea of the terrain and challenges you may encounter. Make sure you have your camera fully charged before setting off as there are tons of wildlife to see and some great sunsets to capture!

The expedition takes place over four days with three nights spent camping. When you have finished on Day 4 we will return to base to celebrate (with an ice cream along the way!) and stay for a final night before waving goodbye to Arran in the morning. Travel Arran is easily accessed by rail from Glasgow Central Rail Station and ferry. This involves a 50 minute train journey to Ardrossan and then the ferry for about one hour from Ardrossan to Brodick on Arran. We will then use local transport for the duration of our time on the island. Glasgow Central Rail Station will be the meeting point for the combined residential and expedition trip and we will aim to meet at the station at 16:00pm. Glasgow Central rail station will be our meeting point on Day 1 (late enough to meet the vast majority of trains) and our drop off point on Day 12 (early enough for you to take most trains to

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where you need to go). You will need to fund your travel to and from Arran from Glasgow Central rail station although this should only cost approximately £25.00 return. Accommodation You will be staying in bunkhouse-style accommodation throughout the residential and rest day. This will allow us to have space for cooking, activities, training, sorting and drying kit and socialising together in the evenings. During the expedition you will be staying in tents. Adventure Expeditions provides high quality, lightweight tents for you to use so you will not need to worry about bringing these with you. Trip price

£625.00 per person – full trip, 12 days; £280.00 per person – expedition only, 7 days.

What is included in the trip price?

All accommodation costs; Food except for the four days on expedition (however, we will visit the shops on the rest day

so you can buy all the provisions that you need); Fully qualified instructors (Mountain Leaders) for the duration of

the trip; Conservation work with local experts; John Muir Award certification; DofE Residential and Expedition planning and paperwork – if you

would like to use the trip to qualify for either of these Award sections;

Qualified supervisors and DofE assessors for the expedition phase; All group equipment required for the expedition: high quality lightweight tents, Trangia gas

stoves, fuel, first aid kits, maps, group shelters. What is not included?

Your travel to and from Glasgow Central rail station and between Glasgow and Arran; Your food while on expedition; Personal clothing and equipment for the residential and expedition; Any snacks that you feel you might require outside of the food we provide you with.

How do I join? You will need to complete a booking form – this can be found on our website on the ‘Residential + Expedition’ booking page. You will need to read the Booking Terms and Conditions before submitting your booking form. When we receive your booking form we will send you an invoice for the cost of the trip and give you access to the Members Area of our website – this has all the details you will need including a comprehensive kit list, itinerary, meeting times, FAQs, top tips for expedition success and more. You will also receive details of the other members of your team in case you want to combine travel arrangements. Further info... If you have any further questions then get in touch: info@adventure-expeditions.net

We look forward to welcoming you on Arran!