Inverclyde and Cumbrae - Who'd have thought

With a plan to get into some different outdoor areas of Scotland this year, I recently bought a batch of new OS maps to fill in some gaps in my collection. I even bought the Glasgow OS map. I did think I’d made a mistake when it arrived though, as there didn’t seem to be much outdoors on it. However, I did spot a dotted green line of cycle path heading off the southwest corner of the map which joined up with another on my new Inverclyde map. The green dotted line headed a long way south through Renfrewshire, quite close to the commuter belt and outlying towns around Glasgow. Despite that, it looked very inviting and therefore a plan was hatched with bike buddy Graham for our next cycle trip.

Our urban starting point was the train station at Port Glasgow. A fantastically steep climb here took us up to the cycle route along the Greenock and Johnstone Railway Path which passed high above the waters of the River Clyde. It was marvellous up here. In the February heatwave the views were a bit hazy but it must be great on a crisp, clear day when the view will extend to the Southern Highlands. The cycle route headed east towards Glasgow and then swung south for Kilbirnie passing along the pretty shores of Castle Semple Loch and all the while in a lovely traffic-free tunnel of trees.  We were never far from towns and the massive conurbation of Glasgow, so we were surprised how rural the route actually felt. 

The hazy sunshine gave way to spots of rain which soon organised themselves into a bit of a downpour as we approached Lochwinnoch. There was a great café here to sit out the rain and judging by the numbers of bikes propped against the wall outside, it’s a very popular spot with cyclists using this route. When the rain eventually went off late afternoon, we made the long climb above Lochwinnoch up into Muirshiel Country Park. There was a perfect wild camp spot by the river with a shelter and picnic tables, a few hundred yards away from the road end. I would never use a spot like this during summer but at the end of a wet, early dark day in February there was nobody else around. As we busied ourselves making temporary homes for the night, the gush of the river was a backdrop to the hooting of owls. After dark the view of the stars was superb. Again a surprise, given the nearby sources of light pollution.

Back on the bikes next morning, we cycled to the end of the path at Kilbirnie and made a mistake taking the A road over the hills to join the west coast at Largs. Given it was Sunday morning, we had thought it would be quiet but it was fast, quite busy and downright unpleasant. There is a longer quiet minor road as an alternative and I made a note to self to use that next time. There were two reasons for heading over to Largs. Firstly, from here the map showed a tiny, unclassified road though the hills back to our train at Port Glasgow. And secondly, it gave us the opportunity to take a short ferry ride to an island neither of us had visited, Cumbrae. 

I had always imagined Cumbrae and its main settlement, Millport, to be quite twee and genteel. And in some ways that was true. But what blew me away about the place was that it also has very rugged surroundings that imparted a whole different atmosphere to the island. All around was the rough, crenelated coastline of the land and a sparkling sea where other islands, such as Bute and Little Cumbrae, drifted offshore. And the stunning backdrop to all this was the jagged, mountain ridge of Goat Fell and Cir Mhor on the island of Arran. The other wonderful thing about Cumbrae is the lack of cars so you can really enjoy the circular cycle around the island, taking in all these stunning views and stopping for a picnic on one of the beaches.

After a dreamy few hours in the sunshine of Cumbrae, we took the ferry back to Largs to pick up the wee road through the hills. This was another wonderful route with only a few slow-moving cars. About halfway up the road, we found another great wild camp spot at a picnic area in the trees and enjoyed a relaxed evening sipping soup and cups of tea at the tents. 

It wasn’t far from our camp spot next morning to continue over the watershed of the hills and return to Port Glasgow. Our route took us along lovely quiet farm roads and forest tracks that hugged the shores of huge reservoirs and undulated over gentle, rolling hills. Snowdrops were everywhere in big clumps and yellow daffodils burst from the hedgerows. 

It had been a brilliant trip with great routes and surprisingly stunning views of coast, islands and mountains. Who’d have thought at first glance at the maps that would have been the case.

Fact File

Start/finish: Train station, Port Glasgow

Public Transport: Train from Glasgow Central Station

Route: Out of the station we turned left up the hill, took a right on Kinross Avenue then a left on Barr’s Brae which the cycle route crosses. This is National Cycle Route 75 which we followed to Kilbirnie. We used the A760 from Kilbirnie to Largs – not recommended. On Cumbrae a road encircles the island and another climbs across the middle. Took the C41 out of Largs to Loch Thom. Made a wee detour to Cornalees Bridge, a nice spot with a visitor centre for the Greenock Cut and a café. Cycled along east shore of Loch Thom then a forest track along the south shore of Gryfe Reservoirs which joined a lovely wee farm road that took us to the B788. We turned left then right to rejoin the cycle path back into Port Glasgow.

Info: Great coffee shops in Lochwinnoch (The Junction) and Quarriers Village (Three Sisters Bakery). Quarriers Village is well worth the detour. It’s a very pretty village founded in 1876 as The Orphan Homes of Scotland by shoemaker and philanthropist William Quarrier.