Bute bike ride

10th April 2010

Dunoon to Rothesay | Wemyss Bay to Paisley

I've just cycled 87 miles today around Cowal and Bute, taking in 2 train rides and 3 ferry crossings. First I cycled to Glasgow Central and met Ellie at 8am. We then took the 0825 train to Gourock, and caught the Calmac ferry to Dunoon and were cycling along the Firth of Clyde coastline towards Holy Loch at 9:45am. Our first section took us through Glen Lean past Loch Tarsan and Loch Striven to the Colintraive ferry to reach the Isle of Bute. We then pootled around most of Bute in the sunshine, and bumped into Bruce Smith and his partner just before arriving in Rothesay.

After eating 10 choc ices on the putting green, we caught the ferry to Wemyss Bay. Our orginal plan from here was to jump straight on the train back to Glasgow, but since the sun was still shining and it was relatively early we started cycling back instead. We headed north up the busy A78 for 4km to Inverkip, then took the quiet back road up over the Greenock Cut and past Loch Thom, then a rough track past Gryfe Reservoir to eventually link onto Cycle Route 75 near Kilmalcolm. Time was marching on, and Ellie needed to be back in Glasgow, so we belted along the cycle path for 40 minutes and jumped on a train from Paisley for the last bit back to Glasgow Central.