Loch Quien

We set off from Edinburgh after a lovely breakfast about 9:30, and sat in traffic for a while until we got to the M8 which we followed as far as Glasgow. We came off and took the A760 to the coast and up the A78 to Wemyss to catch the ferry. A much nicer road which was within a couple of metres of the sea for much of the time.
The sky had looked threatening all the way from Edinburgh but it only actually started raining a couple of miles short of the ferry, but it was coming down hard by the time we stopped.
We timed our arrival perfectly and within 20 minutes we were heading for Bute.
It was still raining as we arrived, but seemed to be easing up, so we headed for the first cafe we spotted for lunch, The Kettledrum. By the time we'd finished the rain had just about stopped, so we had a walk around the town and grabbed some supplies from the co-op before riding across the island to our home for the next 3 nights.

The cottage is in the middle of nowhere, as far as that's possible on an island only about 6 miles wide, near the loch and about a mile from the beach. It's really spacious for just 2 of us, and we were left fresh eggs and home grown tomatoes and peas by the host.

After some of us had a short nap, we headed out for a walk to Scalpsie beach and along the coast a little to spot our first seals which were sitting on rocks just off the beach. There are also jellyfish everywhere, some really very large, dotted all along the shore line.

The weather was beautiful, so knowing that it was going to change tomorrow we tried to make the most of it.Read more