page_title: Firth of Clyde
section_title: Islands in the Clyde
hierarchical_section_title: Firth of Clyde / Geography / Islands in the Clyde
caption_attribution_description: English: The Largs Pencil stands just over a mile (1.8 km) south of the town centre, to commemorate the Battle of Largs. Looking south, the bulk ore terminal at Hunterston stands on the mainland, and in the Firth of Clyde the islands of Little Cumbrae and Great Cumbrae can be seen in front of the grey outline of the Isle of Arran.
context_page_description: The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde and the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran. Within the Firth of Clyde is another major island – the Isle of Bute. Given its strategic location, at the entrance to the middle/upper Clyde, Bute played a vitally important military role during World War II.
  The Firth's climate enjoys the benefit of the Gulf Stream, part of the North Atlantic Drift, originating in the Gulf of Mexico.
  At its entrance the firth is some 26 miles wide. Its upper reaches include an area where it is joined by Loch Long and the Gare Loch. This includes the large anchorage off Greenock known as the Tail of the Bank in reference to the sandbank and shoal which separates the firth from the estuary of the River Clyde. The Clyde is still almost 2 miles wide at the sandbank, and its upper tidal limit is at the tidal weir adjacent to Glasgow Green.
context_section_description: There are many islands in the firth.  The largest all have thriving communities and regular ferry services connecting them to the mainland.  They are:
  Arran
  Bute
  Cumbrae
caption: The Largs "Pencil" looking south towards the Hunterston terminal, with Cumbrae and the Isle of Arran to the west.
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