Kyles of Bute – Colintraive, Tighnabruaich and Portavadie
A few hours.
The route
The A8003 along the Kyles of Bute is a road to drive for its own sake, high above the narrow channel between Cowal and the Isle of Bute.
Watch the little ferry cross the narrows, stop for the view over the water to Bute, wander down to an old timber pier, then go over the hill for lunch beside the yachts on Loch Fyne.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is Glenstriven House. Sleeps 15; next free Sun 25 Oct to Tue 27 Oct.
Book lunch at The Marina Restaurant and Bar, Portavadie
Book a table for lunch at The Marina Restaurant and Bar, Portavadie, on its website or on 01700 800535: Portavadie recommends booking ahead.
The day
The Kyles
A morning on the road along the Kyles, then lunch looking out over the marina at Portavadie.
Colintraive
Colintraive sits at the narrowest point of the Kyles of Bute, where only a few hundred metres of water lie between Cowal and the Isle of Bute. Bute's cattle once crossed to the mainland here on their way to the Lowland markets, swimming the narrows, and the village is named for it: in Gaelic, the swimming narrows. Now a small CalMac ferry shuttles over the short crossing to Rhubodach, and it's a fine thing to watch from the shore by the slipway. Under a mile to the west, where the East and West Kyles meet, lie the low, wooded Burnt Islands.
About 5 min by car
Tighnabruaich
An attraction
The road runs north to the head of Loch Riddon, then down the West Kyle. It opened in 1969, cut into the hillside, and before it Tighnabruaich relied almost wholly on boats. It climbs to about 130 metres, with laybys looking over the water to Bute, and coming this way they are on your side of the road. The best spot for a photograph is the layby above Caladh Harbour, about three miles before the village. Tighnabruaich, the house on the hill in Gaelic, strings along the shore under wooded slopes. Its listed pier is one of the few working timber piers left on the Firth of Clyde: a pier is thought to have stood here from the 1830s, and it was rebuilt in 1885. The council's free car park is on the B8000.
About 10 min by car
The Marina Restaurant and Bar, Portavadie
Lunch
The shore road runs south through Kames, then over the hill by Millhouse to Portavadie on Loch Fyne. The Marina Restaurant and Bar has a wall of glass onto the moorings, and the boats are in view wherever you sit. Lunch runs from soup and a sandwich or fish and chips to Tarbert scallops and a ploughman's of Argyll Smokery salmon. There's a children's menu, and dogs are welcome in the lounge bar.
If it rains
In wet weather the views are still there from the car, and lunch is indoors behind the big windows at Portavadie.
The Oystercatcher, a café in Tighnabruaich.
Photograph by mick pointon via Google