Scottish anchorages

Ellenabeich (Isle of Birches), the village on the Seil island side of the sound, is a tourist dump, at least the vast emporium with the charabancs is - the Highland Arts Centre. But it must be seen. Caverns of tartan tat. Spectacular. When a charabanc rolls into the car park an elderly gent shouts, in a Yorkshire accent "here comes a bus"! And a kilted youth stops putting a ball on the green, picks up his bagpipes and lets out a blast to welcome the tourist throng who are then disgorged into the emporium to emerge with Scotland tea towels and plastic models of Robert the Bruce.

But the cottages are charming, although presumably mostly holiday homes and lets.

The Oyster bar and restaurant is good - certainly I have had excellent mussels there, but maybe the bloke in charge is a bit grumpy (it changed hands in 2011 and hopefully matters have improved) (ph 01852 300121)

All those tourist ribs that you see dashing around the nearby islands are based here - Sea.fari seems a rather successful business.

There are some nice gardens - An Cala - just along the road out of the village but I have not yet seen them.

And finally, a lot of the film of Gavin Maxwell's otter book, Ring of Bright Water, was filmed around here.