DunoonArgyll and Bute

The Cowal Highland Gathering (the world's largest Highland Games), the Clyde ferry from Gourock, the Cowal Peninsula, and an Argyll resort town that transforms every August for the world's greatest pipe band championship

The Cowal Highland Gathering, held every August Bank Holiday, is the world's largest Highland Games — attracting competitors and spectators from across the globe. The pipe band championship is the most prestigious in the world. Dunoon was a fashionable Victorian resort — the 'Madeira of the Clyde' — reached by paddle steamer from Glasgow.

The Cowal Highland Gathering is genuinely extraordinary — the massed pipe bands playing on the stadium grass is one of Scotland's great spectacles. The Cowal Way walking route. The ferry from Gourock for the Clyde crossing. Benmore Botanic Garden for the giant redwoods.