Little Cumbrae is privately owned, with day trips and glamping bookable directly with the island; there is no public ferry, and the only way across is a private boat crossing, either arranged through the island itself or with a charter operator out of Largs or Millport. On the east side, Little Cumbrae Castle stands on a tidal islet, a 16th-century keep built for the Earls of Eglinton on the site of an older castle where King Robert II is said to have stayed while hunting in the 1370s; it is a ruin now, and not open inside. An earlier lighthouse here, built in 1757, was one of the first in Scotland; a taller tower replaced it in 1793 and had one of the country’s first foghorns, until it too was retired in 1997. Grey seals haul out on rocks to the east, sometimes visible from boats passing on the way to Great Cumbrae or Millport.
