Bloke on Scottish isle briefly left thicket of brushwood (9)

I believe the answer is:

chaparral

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'thicket of brushwood' is the definition.
(chaparral means tangled bushes)

'bloke on scottish isle briefly left' is the wordplay.
'bloke on' becomes 'chap' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'scottish isle' becomes 'arran' (island off Scottish coast).
'briefly' means to remove the last letter.
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'arran' with its final letter taken away is 'arra'.
'chap'+'arra'+'l'='CHAPARRAL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for chaparral that I've seen before include "US growth area" , "thicket" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.