Millport

The Isle of Great Cumbrae has been a focal point in my family's history for generations. I grew up to stories of my mum and my aunt in younger days catching a lift with their beau's on a fishing boat having missed the last ferry back to Largs and my big cousin dousing her nappy in the waters of Kames Bay (and I have those grainy black and white shots to prove it).

My childhood was filled with trips to the island in September. Come hail, rain or shine, my mum and my aunt would pack their respective families in their cars to meet in Largs before heading across on the ferry to the island for the traditional family day out.Today we continued the tradition, one I haven't partaken in for a while now.

Arriving on the island the roads seemed a little narrower than I remembered, the few cars competing with the ever present cyclists and walkers making use of the perimeter tarmac trail. Unusually, the sun was shining and the wind had little of the biting chill that used to make us chitter through the picnic dispensed from the boots of the cars (I have grainy colour shots of those to prove it too). Our hands stained purple as we picked berries from the roadside before driving round to Millport. Another tradition is a visit to the Ritz Cafe for some local delicacies, walked off with a wander along the front from quayside to Crocodile Rock before heading back across the Clyde to Largs.

Nobody ever said this was a healthy day out (as kids I guess we probably burned off a lot of it through the day - today it just sits on hips immediately) but it always ended with a trip to the chippy. There was something comforting about eating fish'n'chip's from the poke in a steamed up car sitting on the seafront at Largs. Of course, with mum and dad living there now, we headed home and rested for a while before collecting them from the shop. Still in their wrapper but resting on a plate and eaten with fingers it was still as comforting today as it was back then.

Oh, the shot... The north Eilean traditionally stages a bonfire for the September weekend. The wooden pallets on the quay are being loaded onto a rib to be transported over to the small island in the bay which you can see in the background. No doubt eventually to be doused with sufficient amounts of flammable liquid to ensure a good burn in the wind and rain! An eponymous Cumbrae cyclist overlooks proceedings with some locals.