I've had a bit of a minor fascination with the Scottish Island of Arran ever since I watched Robert J. Flaherty's "Man of Aran" in a University screenwriting class.   The beautifully told story of fearless whale-hunters in tiny boats on a rolling sea seemed to me to have parallels to my own family's history in Newfoundland.  The film stuck with me, but I hadn't heard anything of Arran since then.

Now news that the island has formed a tourism marketing committee and launched a new campaign to attract fellow Brits for a weekend getaway.  Billing itself as "Scotland in Miniature" and a chance to "travel back beyond the mists of time", Arran seems to not have progressed too much beyond the island depicted in the film.  Or at least, let's hope so.