Cumbrae by Bike – Fintry Bay, the Cathedral and Crocodile Rock
A day by bike, from Largs station and back.
The route
Great Cumbrae is small enough to ride right round, and you can reach it from Glasgow without a car.
The train runs down the Ayrshire coast to Largs in about an hour, and from Largs pier a small Caledonian MacBrayne ferry makes the ten-minute crossing. A bus waits at the Slip, the island's landing, to take you into Millport, where the bikes are hired. The island is about four miles long, and the road round it keeps to the shore. Millport itself has a cathedral said to be Britain's smallest and a rock on the beach painted as a crocodile. It's about 11 miles in the saddle, a relaxed day out on a hired bike.
The day
Cumbrae
A day across the water from Largs, round Great Cumbrae by bike. The ride fills the morning, and the afternoon slows down in Millport, with lunch on the front, before the bus and the boat back.
The ferry to Cumbrae
It's 4 minutes' walk from Largs station to the pier, where the Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) ferry to Cumbrae ties up beside the seafront. Check the times for a Glasgow Central train into Largs by about 10.05am, and buy a return ferry ticket online beforehand. Be at the pier ten minutes before the 10.30am sailing, which the island bus meets at the Slip. The ferry and bus times on this page are summer ones, Monday to Saturday (late March to mid October); Sunday and winter times differ, so check those.
10 min by bus
Millport
It's a 10-minute bus ride from the Slip into Millport, the island's town, curved round its bay on the south shore. The bus carries no bikes, so the bike is hired in town, at Mapes of Millport on Guildford Street, a family business since 1946. It opens at 10am, helmets are included, and the bikes go back by 5pm. Take one for the day rather than the three-hour hire, since lunch and the town come after the ride.
About 10 min by bike
Lion Rock
Ride about 10 minutes east along the shore road out of Millport to Lion Rock, which stands about 10 metres high on the slope above the road. It's a dyke, a wall of once molten rock that forced its way up through the island's older stone tens of millions of years ago and has outlasted the softer rock around it. It takes its name from its shape. Pull well off the road when you stop, as cars and the island bus share it.
35 min by bike
Fintry Bay
It's about 35 minutes' ride on to Fintry Bay, north up the east shore past the Slip where the boat came in and round the top of the island. Then the road runs down the west side. Fintry is more than halfway round, about 3 miles short of Millport, a good spot for a picnic with the Isle of Bute across the water. Don't count on the café at the bay: bring water and a snack.
20 min by bike
Garrison House
Garrison House, the battlemented house on the front, is about 20 minutes' ride on, down the west side and round into Millport. It was built in 1745 for the captain and officers of the Royal George, a customs sailing ship that chased smugglers in the Clyde, and after a fire in 2001 the community won the funding to rebuild it. Have lunch at the Garrison Café, then see the Museum of the Cumbraes, from prehistoric stone graves to smuggling and the war.
3 min by bike
The Cathedral of the Isles
It's a 3-minute ride up College Street, between the Newton Bar and the Garrison grounds, to the Cathedral of the Isles among the trees behind the town. William Butterfield designed it, it opened in 1851 and became a cathedral in 1876, and it is said to be the smallest in Britain: its tower and spire, at 123 feet, are three times the length of the nave. Celtic crosses found on the island stand in the porch. It keeps no set visiting hours, so the door may be shut.
Crocodile Rock
Ride 3 minutes down to the front and east to the Crocodile Rock on the beach, painted as a crocodile for over a century. Hand the bike back at Mapes in time for the bus to the Slip, which stops almost outside. The 3.40pm meets the 4.10pm sailing and the 4.20pm the 4.50pm, each with minutes to spare; the later pair gives you 40 more minutes in Millport. Back in Largs, there's ice cream at Nardini's on the front before the hourly train to Glasgow; check the times.
If it rains
Garrison House is the day's roof, with its museum, library and café, and the cathedral is the other. On a wet day keep the ride short or leave the bike out: walk Millport's front from the old pier to the Crocodile Rock, with Garrison House on the way and the cathedral a short walk up College Street, and take an earlier boat home. The west side of the island takes the weather, and in a strong wind sailings can be cancelled, so check CalMac's service status before leaving Glasgow.
Where to eat
Nardini's, a restaurant in Largs.
Photographs by Mapes of Millport, James Henderson, Derek Locke, darren carrick, The Cathedral of The Isles & College of The Holy Spirit and Sue Ruddick via Google