Day Trip to Bute

We do want to explore the islands that are on our doorstep, and to fill a day we plumped for a trip to the island of Bute. For us, this is a 5 minute ferry crossing 20 minutes down from from Colintraive to Rhobodach (which John calls Rubberduck as we aren't sure how to pronounce it!).

The beauty of the inner isle ferries are that they are literally turn up and hop on, no need to pre-book and hopefully never massively over subscribed. They're not free, but £25 return for a car with 4 adults isn't too expensive. This ferry, being so short, runs every 20 minutes so if you miss one, the next isn't far off.

Bute is a beautiful island although it did feel a little run down in Rothesay, its main town. Bute and Rothesay boomed in the industrial revolution when wealthy holidaymakers came in droves from Glasgow for the island's clean air and beautiful beaches. One of the highlights in Rothesay are the public toilets (don't laugh). The gents is a fully restored Victorian splendid affair and Liz switched sides for 5 minutes to get the full experience.

Hopefully, the town will come back a bit and we're sure in the summer it will feel a bit more alive. We could see investment going into one of the big buildings on the main street. The visitor centre in the middle of town was a great source of insight into the history of the island and the town and there were great friendly staff to help us make the most of the day. The promenade has winter gardens that get quite a lot of TLC.

Again, to support local industry, we called in at the distillery on Bute, which is gin and rum rather than whiskey. We had delicious cocktails outside (a little nippy), but the welcome was very warm and the girls at the bar were lovely. Then we headed across the island to some standing stones, one of which looked like it was made out of concrete...

Below is just one of the many views along the way - looking across to the island of Arran in the distance and so much weather going on in just one view - so much coastline to explore! It's one of those photos you look at and on reflection you wish you'd stayed longer!

We also called in at a church called St Mary's which now houses two large tombs and several grave stones. The is a huge grave yard a mausoleum (Liz loves a grave yard!) which are quite photogenic.

After the view point we stopped at another random thing (the kind often seen on tourist trails in Scotland). The pencil box is an old telephone box re-purposed as a book swap, selling tablet (Scottish fudge), eggs and other random stuff in a little honestly shop.

Last stop before the ferry was a cup of tea and cake at the Tea Room at the far end of Ettrick Bay (a beautiful bay about 1 mile long with clean sands and few people). One of the best lemon meringue pies and really decent hot chocolate!

The island is pretty quiet when it comes to traffic and the roads aren't too hilly, so John has it in his mind to cycle round the island in a day - its only about 34 miles.