The regular car ferry at Brodick was nearby, but it was too big.

So we pointed the car north, past basking seals and a waking island, to the medium sized ferry at Locharanza. (Wait for it…)

The medium-sized ferry was good, but couldn’t get us all the way to lunch.

So we drove across the Kintyre peninsula to board the small ferry out to little Isle of Gigha.

It was just right! So was the fabulous lunch at the much-awarded Boathouse Restaurant. You probably haven’t lived a fully rich and rewarded life until you’ve had local Gigha smoked halibut followed by their Bramble and Whisky Ice Cream, with its complex peaty spirit infusing the berries and cream. [moans]

We lingered so long at the booth under JJ Cowan’s charming painting, we missed our connection to the ferry. Luckily.

That meant we had (almost) enough time to explore Skipness Castle, which (along with Lochranza Castle on Arran) has been guarding the Kintyre peninsula since the twelfth century.

Tim James at Skipness Castle showed us the spot where their 17th-century manor once stood. (It was pulled down the moment the ‘modern’ 18th-century house was finished…)

Medieval Communications center (dove cote), plus windows in great hall of Skipness Castle.

The quiet neighbors almost made us forget about the waiting (and last of the day) ferry.

So even if going out to lunch takes almost ten hours, it was absolutely perfect—especially when we came home at last to the perfect ending for a perfect lunch.