The best ferry day trips in Scotland: 14 Islands by foot or bike

1. Largs to the Isle of Cumbrae

Probably the easiest Scottish island day trip – and one of the best. Cumbrae is Scotland’s most accessible island – a ten-minute hop from the Ayrshire coast onto a small, flat, gloriously old-fashioned island where the seaside town of Millport has been a Glasgow summer destination since Victorian times.

Catch the train to Largs, south west of Glasgow, and then catch the ferry from Largs to Cumbrae, which takes just ten minutes. You’ll be met by a bus which takes you round to Millport. Or do what generations of Glaswegians have done and hire or take a bike, because the flat 10-mile loop around the island is one of Scotland’s best easy cycles – beaches, seals, the Crocodile Rock, and views to Arran all the way round.

After your cycle, head for fish and chips in Millport, then catch the wee ferry home. Head to Nardini’s in Largs for a knickerbocker glory before your train back.

2. Wemyss Bay to the Isle of Bute

Bute is the Clyde’s grand old resort island – Victorian villas along the promenade, a ruined castle in the middle of town, and one of Britain’s most extravagant stately homes hidden in the woods to the south.

This island day trip one starts before you even board the ferry – Wemyss Bay is probably the best railway station in Britain, a beautiful curved Victorian glasshouse that flows straight down a covered walkway onto the pier. The crossing to Rothesay on Bute is 35 minutes of beautiful Clyde scenery.

On Bute make sure you visit Rothesay’s magnificently restored Victorian toilets (genuinely – they’re famous), walk the promenade, then take the bus to Mount Stuart, one of the most astonishing houses in Scotland, or out to the sands of Ettrick Bay for lunch at the tearoom.

3. Ardrossan to the Isle of Arran

Arran earns its “Scotland in miniature” nickname with mountains and moorland to the north, farmland and beaches to the south, and the Highland Boundary Fault running right through the middle.

Catch the boat to Brodick, walk the Fisherman’s Walk along the bay to Brodick Castle and its gardens, or hop the bus to Lochranza for the distillery and the castle (and in autumn, the stags in the village).

The mountains are right there if you’re feeling energetic – the climb up Goatfell starts from Brodick – but honestly a slow wander, and Arran cheese and oatcakes for the boat home is the classic.

4. Gourock to Dunoon

Not technically an island – but the ferry to Dunoon is the fastest way to feel like you’ve left the mainland behind. Dunoon sits at the foot of the Cowal peninsula in the Argyll Forest Park, with sea lochs on one side and forested hills on the other.

Stroll the seafront to the Castle House Museum, walk up to the Highland Boundary at the Bishop’s Glen, or take the bus up to Benmore Botanic Garden and its avenue of giant redwoods – one of the most jaw-dropping garden entrances anywhere.

Time it right in late August for the Cowal Highland Gathering – one of the biggest Highland Games in the world.

5. Oban to the Isle of Kerrera

Kerrera is Oban’s doorstep island, a green, roadless sliver of hill and shoreline just across the bay, with a ruined castle, a scattering of crofts, and more sheep than people.

The little ferry to Kerrara hops across from Gallanach, just south of Oban. Walk the southern loop (about 6 miles) to the ruins of Gylen Castle perched above the sea, and stop at the Kerrera Tea Garden – a genuine surprise in the middle of nowhere, and worth the trip on its own.

Back in Oban, head for seafood at the green shack on the pier while you wait for your train.

6. Port Appin to to the Isle of Lismore

Lismore means “the great garden” in Gaelic, and it fits – a long, low, fertile island in Loch Linnhe with one quiet road running its length and mountain views in every direction – Mull one way, Ben Nevis the other.

Bring or hire a bike and pedal the length of the island, visit the Heritage Centre and its café, and look out for the lighthouse at the southern tip.

The Port Appin crossing is a charmer – a wee passenger boat from a pier with one of Scotland’s best-placed seafood restaurants (The Pierhouse) waiting for your return.

7. Tayinloan to the Isle of Gigha

Gigha (from the Norse for “God’s island”, and fair enough) is the Hebrides in miniature – one road, white sand at the Twin Beaches, and the palm trees and rhododendrons of Achamore Gardens, all owned by the islanders themselves since their famous community buyout.

Hire a bike at the ferry or just wander – nowhere on Gigha is far. The Boathouse by the ferry slip does langoustines and crab from the water in front of you. This is the day trip I recommend when people ask for “real Scotland without the drive to Skye”.

8. Mallaig to the Isle of Skye

Everyone drives to Skye over the bridge and sits in traffic. Instead, take the West Highland Line to Mallaig – over the Glenfinnan Viaduct, no Jacobite ticket required – then walk onto the ferry to Armadale. You arrive in the gardens of Sleat, with Armadale Castle and the Museum of the Isles a ten-minute stroll from the pier.

9. Sconser to the Isle of Raasay

Raasay is Skye’s quiet neighbour: fourteen miles of woodland, ruins and old mine tracks with a flat-topped hill in the middle, a young distillery, and barely 160 residents.

If you’re on Skye and the crowds are getting to you, then Raasay is everything Skye isn’t – quiet, wooded, and blissfully free of coach parties. Tour Raasay Distillery, walk Calum’s Road – the road one man built by hand over ten years because the council wouldn’t – and if you’re fit, climb flat-topped Dun Caan for one of the best viewpoints in the Hebrides.

10. Oban to the Isle of Mull

The grandest of the foot-passenger day trips. Mull is an island of sea eagles, single-track roads and empty white beaches.

The Oban-Mull crossing past Duart Castle is one of CalMac’s most scenic, and from Craignure the bus connects to Tobermory’s famous painted harbour front – or in summer, tour operators run day trips onwards to Iona and even Staffa if you’re ambitious.

Keep an eye out from the deck: this crossing is a good one for porpoises.

11. Mull to the Isle of Ulva

Ulva is a community-owned island of basalt cliffs and birchwood off Mull’s west coast, once home to 800 people and now to a handful, cleared in the 1800s, and slowly coming back to life.

The trip to Ulva is on my favourite little ferry in Scotland – there’s no timetable at Ulva – you slide open the red panel on the signal board on the pier, and the Ulva ferry comes across to get you.

You’ll spot with otters and eagles if you’re lucky – and The Boathouse by the slip serves seafood landed in front of you.

12. Mull to the Isle of Iona

Iona is a mile-and-a-half of white shell sand and machair where St Columba landed in 563, the cradle of Scottish Christianity, and still one of the most quietly powerful places in the country.

The tiny crossing to Iona is the most famous short ferry in Scotland – and the island is entirely a foot-passenger place (visitor cars aren’t allowed).

The Abbey, the white sands at the north end, and a pace of life that resets something in you. If you can, stay a night after the day-trippers leave – but even a few hours is worth the journey.

13. Orkney – Stromness to Hoy

Hoy is the odd one out in Orkney, instead of low green farmland it rears up into red sandstone hills and the highest sea cliffs in Britain, with the Old Man standing off the western shore.

The passenger boat from Stromness lands you at Moaness, and from Rackwick – a walk or minibus across the hills – it’s the classic moorland path to the clifftop facing the Old Man of Hoy, Britain’s most famous sea stack.

A proper full day, take sandwiches and make sure you check the last boat back before you set off (yes, I’m saying it again).

14. Orkney – Kirkwall to Shapinsay

Shapinsay is classic Orkney: flat, fertile and neatly farmed, with a Victorian baronial castle at the pier, an Iron Age broch on the shore, and seals hauled out along the coast road.

This is the gentlest island day out in Orkney – 25 minutes from Kirkwall. Head to the Development Trust to hire an e-bikes to pedal the quiet loop past Balfour Castle’s turrets, a broch and the seals. You’ll be back in Kirkwall in time for a dram at Highland Park.

How do you do an island day trip in Scotland?

• The best ferry day trips in Scotland as a foot passenger are short crossings of 5 to 35 minutes where you turn up, pay a few pounds, and walk on. Bikes also go free on most routes.
• You can catch a train to many of the ferry piers – Largs, Wemyss Bay, Gourock, Oban and Mallaig all have stations at or beside the pier.
• Trains from Glasgow Central run roughly hourly to the Clyde coast piers, and the timetables are built around the sailings – these routes have been carrying Glaswegians “doon the watter” for over a century.
• Two things to check before you go: the ferry timetable (winter schedules start in late October, and Sundays can be quieter) and always, always know when the last ferry back leaves. Being stranded on an island is only romantic in books.

Foot passenger tips

• Bikes go free on CalMac – the Cumbrae loop and Gigha are the best bike days.
• Check the last ferry home before you do anything else on arrival. Take a photo of the timetable at the pier.
• Winter timetables start in late October – all of these trips are at their easiest between Easter and October.
• Dogs travel free and are welcome on deck – most of these islands are brilliant dog days out.
• No booking needed for foot passengers on these routes – but on a sunny Saturday, arrive early for Cumbrae; the queue for the bike hire is the only queue you’ll meet.

At a glance: 14 ferry day trips in Scotland as a foot passenger

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Love from, Scotland x

Read more: How to visit Scotland’s islands.