West Island Way. Rothesay on the Island of Bute. September 2011

Todays transport .

In English and Gaelic

Victorian toilet block on the pier.

Rothesay Castle including moat.

The Winter Gardens

The Kilmarnock Rocket plus the teacher having lunch.

Not to be confused with these two friendly guys.

A polite way of getting the message across.

Wemyss Bay's wonderful railway station.

Today along with the Kilmarnock Rocket accompanied by the school teacher we crossed by ferry from Wemyss Bay to Rothesay on the Island of Bute to walk part of  the West Island Way. Arriving on the island we caught the local bus to Kilchattan Bay about 8 miles from the main town. On a very cloudy misty morning we set off along a track towards the airfield and this is where the  poor preparation came in coupled with the lack of a map we took the wrong turning and finished up on a hard road before a friendly farmer put us back on path through a golf course onto the shore. After another 2 miles along the beach we decided we had gone wrong again so headed up towards a farm which turned out to be a stables. A nice young lady corrected us again and finally  picked up way signs and now we were off on the right path. Nae fun if you have all these fancy gadgets for location and maps to assist you we got there in the end albeit with a wee detour! Up past a cairn on the top of a hill we could see through the mist a track meandering its way across the moor hopefully towards Rothesay town. The cloud and mist lifted in the afternoon to help us navigate safely back to the start.Great day out but we all agreed next time we should take a map or better still invite the pilot to accompany us he always knows the way and never gets lost!!