Great Cumbrae: the high point of a grand circuit from Glasgow

Simon Calder spends a week visiting islands around the UK. Part 1: Great Cumbrae, Ayrshire​

Millport, the lone town on the island of Great Cumbrae (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The list of attributes for an ideal island begins with an alluring shore: each arc of beach punctuated with a rocky headland, and a small, friendly town decorating a bay.

A ripple of hills helps, particularly if they reach an impressive peak at the heart of the isle. A long and intriguing history completes the picture of perfection.

Every significant island in Scotland is a prospective candidate: Skye, Arran and Mull, for their mountainous might; Lewis and Harris (confusingly, the same landmass) and the Orkney mainland for astonishing ancient heritage and some of the best beaches in Europe.

Yet, for time-pressed 21st-century travellers, there is a practical quality: accessibility. And that is where Great Cumbrae comes in.

The island is just a 10-minute ferry ride from the Ayrshire coast, specifically the cheerful resort of Largs. And Great Cumbrae is the high point of one fine day out from Glasgow.

Your jaunt departs from the Victorian splendour of Glasgow Central station, on the brink of the Clyde. The train clatters across the river within a minute, and threads through suburbs of varying degrees of ascent and decline. It pauses at Paisley’s still-majestic Gilmour Street station, then glides west in parallel with the burgeoning Clyde as it widens from a mere river into a Firth.

This train terminates, as the announcement goes, at Wemyss Bay. As you will notice, the first part rhyme with “dreams”. The terminus should be an aspiration for all who love railways: far smaller than Glasgow Central, but even more elegant, with an ornate steel and glass canopy flowing from the circular ticket office that forms the hub.

Many of your fellow passengers will hurry down the ramp to catch the ferry to Bute. Yet with the travel gods on your side, you should reach your island faster than they will reach theirs.

Cross the road and hop on one of the frequent southbound buses for the exciting six-mile swerve right beside the Firth of Clyde to Largs. You could step immediately aboard the ferry that leaves every half-hour to Great Cumbrae – or indulge for a while in Glasgow’s first resort.

An ice cream from the palace housing Nardini’s (85 years old this year) is mandatory, as is a breezy stroll along the seafront.

Now for the main attraction. During the brief Caledonian MacBrayne crossing (a bargain £3.40 return), you will barely have time to register that the circumference of Great Cumbrae is just 10 miles, and that a coast road runs right around – making for a splendid circuit by bicycle, which you can rent in the island’s modest metropolis, Millport.

Besides “Scotland’s most accessible island,” one of the many slogans Great Cumbrae has made its own is, “The island of 1,000 bicycles”. And look, here’s a bus conveniently waiting at the pier for the run into town.

Magic ahead: the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry approaches Great Cumbrae (Simon Calder)

Whichever way you explore Great Cumbrae will prove gratifying. The circuit takes you past Stinking Bay (it isn’t) and a straggle of deserted beaches. A brisk hike lifts you to the peak of the “Jewel in the Clyde” (there goes another slogan), which provides stirring views of the mainland coast and the isle of Bute – as well as south to the less appealing Little Cumbrae, the smaller sibling.

As a fun spot, Millport may not be a match for Las Vegas, or even Largs, but it does boast the Cathedral of the Isles. The smallest cathedral in the UK – barely the size of a modest parish church – it stands cloaked in woodland in a heavenly location above Millport, and lends a dimension of dignity to Great Cumbrae.

Rock star: the stone crocodile decorating the shore in Millport (Simon Calder)

The other big attraction does not. If you find yourself holding hands and skimming stones on the shore in Millport, just look around and you may spot the Crocodile Rock. This is a shaft of stone, sculpted by the millennial and the sea into something that looks a bit like a predatory amphibious reptile.

To make identification easier, someone has applied gloss paint in white (for teeth) and scarlet (lips and nose). If you are in need of a bite, the Crocodile Chippy is immediately opposite on the promenade.

Time to return to Glasgow – and complete another circuit thanks to the vagaries of Ayrshire’s terrain. Largs has a direct connection with Glasgow Central, but the journey begins by heading due south for a dozen miles, for one final great coastal adventure. You may be tempted to hop off at South Beach.

Florida may be off limits this summer, but the Gulf Stream still reaches the great southwest of Scotland. And so does the train to Ardrossan South Beach. Not twinned with Miami.