Island Wintering
Posted: Saturday, 26 November 2005 |
I was brought up in Glasgow and moved to an island by choice. It was only during my first winter that I began to appreciate some of the realities of island life. When the visitors and tourists leave then you begin to get to know who the locals are, and they begin to get to know who you are too. Despite the poorer weather, the scenery is just as striking and beautiful. And there is that selfish feeling that the island is MINE. :)
Anybody thinking about living on an island should spend (at least) a week or two there during the winter.
Anybody thinking about living on an island should spend (at least) a week or two there during the winter.
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CommentsTotally agree with you, I was bought up in the city(not Glasgow though...) and moved to Bute a few years ago, I wish i had of moved here sooner! beautiful views all round, fresher air, a better community life, you wont find me moving back to city life in any hurry, no way.
Daily from Bute
I lived on millport since i was 2 until i was 20 and I can say millport is a great place to grow up. It is spectacuarly quiet in the winter, you can walk the street at night and you wouldn't meet another soul. The sounds of the island are fantastic, if you sit at Kame Bay Shelter you can hear the waves roll in, very theauraputic (spelling). Anyway I had to move for employment reasons but I may find my way back there in the future. Largs can't hold a candle to Millport I can personally vouch for that.
Stephen from Largs
Good place
vincent from vancouver
I agree totally about the peace and quiet in millport ,I was born there Left in 1970 to join Royal AIr Force and 35years later still dream of the tranquility
MOIRA BERRY from FIFE
Loved the pics. Holidayed everyear at Millport staying assorted single ends on the front.
Christie from San Fransisco
I grew up in a town further up the west coast, but my family moved to the island recently. Like you said, it's amazing how selfish and possessive over the place you can become. And sometimes when it feels a little claustraphobic, you look at the view out towards Arran and think..."wow". It's so breath taking that you forget about everything. Somehow makes living in such a small place more than worth it.
Andrew from Millport
Millport is brilliant! I want to sing it's praises but like you say it's so lovely in the winter once the tourists are away, I don't want to make it sound too good or we'll never get it to ourselves!
Helen from Millport
I spent all of my childhood holidays on Cumbrae which I love and adore. My parents have a house in West Bay where I take my children for every holiday they get. I will live there one day once my passion for London subsides. My lovely gal, Sandra McIntyre, grew up on Figgatoch Farm, and would be back there tomorrow.
fraser kelly from City of London
I live in Glasgow but dream about living in Millport one day.....can't come soon enough. Spent just about every summer there as a child and my parents now have a house there. One day, we, including my big brother, Fraser, will make it our home. It's a pity that day can't be today. For the time being, it remains a fantasy, and somewhere wonderful to dream of.
claire kelly from glasgow, strathclyde
I was born in Glasgow and lived there for more than 30 years then I moved to Sheffield to go to university. I still have vivid and fond memories of Cumbrae. My mother would never go to the island during the Glasgow Fair because she said it would be too busy. So, we used to go for a month every October. I was able to get time off school provided I did some work while I was away. We always stayed in the same flat at 48 Stuart Street, Millport Town (top flat, above the dairy). The island was blissfully quiet at that time of year and we got to know some of the islanders quite well. I still remember sitting behind the livingroom curtains at night watching for the lights of PS Talisman to come round the point and into the bay where she would eventually tie up ta the pier for the night. I remember hiring a bicycle for a month and slipping out early every morning to go for a peddle along to the Marine Station and back. I remember rolls and sausage for breakfast and stewed brambles with custard after dinner - we had picked the brambles that day near Fintry Bay. I remember some wild, stormy nights when we had to close the shutters and finding seaweed in back court and the smell of seawater everywhere. It was a little piece of paradise and I know that those memories will stay with me. Yes, Cumbrae is a fine place to visit in the summer, but it really comes into its own when the hustle and bustle has died down and the island can breath again.
Paul Benson from Sheffield
I moved to Millport at age one. Emigrated to Canada at age five. Millport's absolute serenity and beauty is what still makes it home to me. My Gran used to run the Angus on Barend Street. Despite moving to Canada I have returned to Millport 27 times over the years. Used to love watching the Talisman come around the point, renting boats from Charlie Wilson, drinking hot orange on rainy days in Rebecci's Cafe in Kames Bay. Renting bikes and cycling around the island, stopping at Fintry Bay to have a bottle of Fintry Bay lemonade. Midnight horror flicks in the summer. Drinking from the steel cup at the wishing well just past Lion rock. You had to find a white pebble and put it in the cup, fill it with the spring water and while drinking make a wish. I will be coming home again next summer. Wish I owned a house in Kames Bay, maybe I will retire there. Ken Dobbie
Ken Dobbie from Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Enjoyed this site.My sister Marie and her husbadd Billy have a caravan at Westbourne.Our father Captain John Anderson was a Clyde skipper and I think he was probably on Talisman when she tied up, at some stage.
Maureen Anderson from Skelmorlie North Ayrshire
my mother and her four sisters grew up Millport Jean,Patrisia,Mauren,Margo and Janice my Grandad Joseph Shields used to collect the sea coal from beach with two shire horses.I also have had a many a good holiday on the island renting bikes,fishing just great family holidays,will go back very soon cant wait to be a kid again.
PAUL GRANT from WORTHING
I love the island. Most of my family are from Strath Earn but have some ancestry in Argyll. Shame about the amount of English that have bought houses there though. They price the Scots out of the market. I hope I am not being offensive, I merely speak from experience.
D貌mhnall MacCuaig from Camas Sgeanail
Anybody who lived in Millport in the 60s will remeber the the Sinclairs of Trohork and laterley Cumbrae drive i myself being one came from a family of ten , and had a great upbrining on cumbrae adventure and mischief ,playing up the hills with ready made swings and making dens out of dry stone dykes and hessian begged from Shields the butchers and of course Lawrence still owns the butchers , Myself Terrance Kerr delivering milk in the summer was a hoot we got up to all sorts of tricks i still remember chocy digestives and a fresh pint of milk woaaaaa- Dirty dick Broon Coo and Dusty miller Brigadier Eals Tommy Gollan ,Hector Mckinnon ,Mr Rebecca were just some of the old dudes i remember One of my favourite hobbies was after the summer season combing the beach searching the nooks and cranies of the rocks finding coins left dropped by the holidaymakers or ginger bottles worth threepence a time i made a small fortune then .I still visit Millport occasionally as i still have family there great wee island especially for bringing up the kids
alln sinclair from linwood renfrewshire
I will probably never get there, but would love to! I was born and raised in Toronto and moved to Stratford with my wife 26 years ago,and I agreed with the Kingston Ont comment. You only know who the real residents are when the festival season is over. In the winter it takes 4 minutes to travel from one side of town to the other and in the summer 20 minutes. In the winter or off season one can wander around town and see only your friends. Visit your favorite restaurants, sitting for hours and even getting a free meal once and a while. In the summer, forget it. The nice thing is that London Ontario is 50 minutes away. My wife and I went to Scotland this fall (2007) and loved it. Sorry to took so long to write but it just found this site. Take care. Charlie from Stratford, Ont,
Charlie Fox from Stratford, Ontario,Canada
This island is amazing!!! Me, my dad and my brothers come here for a holday, roughly 4 timees a year!! My grandparents own a little bungalow on West Bay Road!! One day, my children will go there to. I love this island, it is amazing..x
Amy from Kelly
Is the painted Indian? still on one of the cliffs when you cycle around the island? I was only ten when my family went there on holiday. My mum and dad went on a bus tour around the island, so my friend and I decided to do the same on bikes.. she gave up (clever girl), however I continued for I do not know how long until I saw the Face! Everyone was out looking for me and the overdue bike. It was very late b4 I turned up to face my very worried mother and father. The memory or the Face on the cliff is still with me.
Ms Margaret Sarah ferguson from Australia
I spent some time on Cumbrae as a guest of Ian Catterson. I would like to be contacted by any others who would like to compare notes about your experiences. Thanks and God Bless.
penningtonspages@yahoo.com from cyberspace
i was born on millport april 1943 , and moved off 2 yrs later , and i long to go back , maybe later this year !!!
tony smith from stockport cheshire
Spent every holiday growing up in Millport, we used to get picked up from school on the last day and then head straight down, and stay there all summer. Great place, my mum and dad still have the wee chalet on the Kirkton caravan site they've always had and still go back as much as they can, and now my sister has kids they go down there often and her kids love it too. We practically lived on the golf course, me and my brothers and mates, and shooting about on adventures on our bikes (raleigh choppers and bmxs), the ritz cafe for knickerbocker glories, it's just a cracking, cracking place!
Dom Quigley from Glasgow
I was born in Millport 58 years ago and find myself working in India and thinking about that little place in heaven, that when you visit, it is like going back in time, the picture on this site is exactly as i remember it but the view from the town over the islands is just fantastic,
David Osborne Stevenson from India
born 43 stuart st 1943 would love to be liveing there now only been home once since we left but rember it well
john lee stewart from saltspring isl canada
why do we have rembernce day mat tell me xxx
sam from 11 witdale
I remember it well! My grandparents rented a wee place for many years. I spent some of the war years in Millie, leaving late 1943 when my grandpa sick. My Aunt and Uncle owned one of the attic houses above the icecream shop in your photo here, around late fifties. my grandparents lived at 7 clyde street, I
moira solis (nee taylor) from Vancouver, BC Canada
I love Millport so much, when I get off the ferry I feel like doing what the pope does and go down on my knees and kiss the ground I'm so fortunate to have landed on. My wife hates it. I'm going to drag her behind the next ferry I'm on and then she'll be glad to get to Millport. Can somebody no huv a talk tae the wummin and then we could go and live there. I've got the removal van on standby. If all the folk who want to live there suddenly decided to go at the same time , there would be no room for the brambles to grow. Someday my dream will come true
Rab C Richardson from Rutherglen
I was born and raised on the island and my childhood was bliss . On a rescent trip back to see my father I was sad to see how rundown the town had become a coat of paint here and there would not go amiss.
Neil Mcphail from United Kingdom
Great to hear so many positive and happy stories about Millport. My dad was Alastair McMillan (Port Bannatyne)skipper of the Keppel and had worked on various Clyde steamers since 1953, after a sea-going life that took him around the world. I'm sure many of you will remember him as he loved the Big Cumbrae so much and knew it's history and kin so well.
marion mcmillan from glasgow
My grandfather, Findley Kerr, was born in Millport and went to South Africa to fight in the Boer War. My mother, Ruby May Kerr, was born in Bulawayo, Rhodesia, and lived in Millport for some years as a child. Her cousin, Minnie Kerr, was born and died in Millport. Would love to communicate with someone who might remember my family. Morag McDonald (Morag_tritt@sbcglobal.net)
Morag McDonald from San Diego, California
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