Doon The Watter

Tell someone that you are going “doon the watter,” and you will be met with puzzled looks. Unless of course they are from Glasgow, in which case they will immediately understand you plan to sail “down the waters” of the river Clyde.

For Eric any trip doon the watter would be incomplete without a visit to the holiday destination of his childhood Millport.

Millport is the only town on the island of Great Cumbrae, which sits one and a half miles off the coast of north Ayrshire. Alongside other towns like its island neighbour Rothesay it used to be a popular destination for holidaymakers coming doon the watter on paddle steamers from Glasgow.

In the 20th century, Millport became a tourist destination with thousands of families taking trips from Glasgow, Greenock and other Clyde towns. Some would stay in Millport throughout the summer with fathers taking the boat to join their families at the weekend. At this time there were hundreds of pleasure steamers linking all the Clyde costs towns. Today, the paddle steamer Waverley (last seagoing paddle steamer in the world) continues this tradition with regular visits to Millport in the summer months.
For today’s meander by car, foot, boat and bike we are joined by Emma’s good friend Janice from Lowestoft who has taken six days sabbatical in Scotland to recharge her batteries. To get there we take the ferry from Largs on Scotland’s west coast. The crossing only takes 15 minutes. The small car ferry alights on the islands north shore and from here it takes a leisurely 10 minutes to the timeless hamlet of Millport. Once you arrive, the traditional way to see Great Cumbrae is by bike. It's only 11 miles round and the road is flat thus making it a great place to cycle. We quickly hire our cycles and take off around the coastline, taking in the delights of the island's nature and wildlife, sandy bays and pebble beaches.

Our first stop off point is 3 miles in to the trip as we feast on tea and cake at Fintry Bay a renowned café and popular resting place for the thousands of cyclists who circumnavigate the island each year. Shortly after Fintry we view the first of several bizarre rock formations that has evolved on the island over the years ‘Indian Rock’. The Indian's face was possibly done by Fern Andy who lived in a cave near the area in the 1920's. It is probable that the eyes of the Indian were painted as a guide point for boats sometime previously.

Further around the island we encounter ‘The Lion Rock’. Its proper name is Houloon Keipel Dyke & it's a natural rock formation from volcanic lava - but the folklore story is that good elves were building a bridge to the mainland, the bad ogres tried to copy them but didn't do it very well, so kicked holes in the bottom & it ended up looking like a lion. As lions are frightening to elves, they all ran off & you'll never see an elf on the east side of the island today!

On returning to Millport we pass perhaps the most famous of the islands legendary rocks ‘Crocodile Rock’. The crocodile was painted by a retired architect, Robert Brown, in the early 20th century. He came out of the tavern after his regular lunchtime tipple & remarked that the rock looked remarkably like a crocodile, the next day he took it upon himself to paint it. It's been freshened up many times since but the black, red & white colours you still see today are the same colours used by Robert Brown.

As we return our bikes after our 3 hour sojourn around an island that remains unaffected by the passing of time we venture over to The Royal George Hotel for rehydration and rest before ascending to the highest point on the island to capture a panoramic image and then speeding down off the hill to catch the ferry we have been tracing coming over from Largs and quickly clambering aboard it’s opening bow securing us back to the mainland.