242. Glencallum Bay

This is a superb walk and the highlight of my day on the Isle of Bute. I’ve pieced together an eight-mile, three-beach hike around the far southern coast of the island, starting and ending in the tiny village of Kilchattan Bay. It’s a beautiful day and I’m really looking forward to this. I park up at the end of a road and head down the eroded coastal path south of the village to the pretty Rubh’an Eun lighthouse. From there, I skirt around beautiful Glencallum Bay and follow the West Island Way for a section, before veering off west past the island’s airstrip and golf course. On this fresh spring morning, the grey volcanic sandy bay at Glencallum is picture-perfect. The remains of an old inn behind the bay tell of busier times, when the bay here was a stopping point for a mainland ferry.