Countrywise

Our Countryside

A view from Largs

It is a beautiful summer’s evening at Largs, the holiday village on the North Ayrshire coast, and the camera pans round to take it all in. Straight across the water is the island of Great Cumbrae, often referred to by west-of-Scotland holiday-goers as Millport, even though Millport is merely the island’s main village, located on the south side of the island, facing away from Largs. Beyond Great Cumbrae lies Bute, a large pastoral island just offshore from the complex tangle of mainland peninsulas that make up Cowal. Further round, to the south-east, stands the much larger and higher island of Arran, premier island of the Firth of Clyde and impressive in all conditions. Sharp granite peaks tower into the sky, and the camera zooms in to give a glimpse of the sharpest of them all, the mighty Cir Mhor on the watershed where Glen Rosa and Glen Sannox meet. Further south still, and a long way from Largs, is the extraordinary 1000ft rocky lump of Ailsa Craig, better known to many as Paddy’s Milestone, marking as it does the way towards the Northern Irish coast.