5 minute crossing from Cuan on the Isle of Seil to Luing operated by Argyll & Bute Council Ferry – N.B. Cuan is 28 miles north of Ardfern

Luing measures some six miles long by one-and-a-half wide, and lies north-south across the mouth of Loch Melfort on the Argyll coast. It is generally low lying, with a maximum height of about 300 feet, and it has a population of around 200. It is reached by a frequent ferry service across the two hundred yards of the Cuan Sound from the southern tip of Seil.

The largest centre of population is at Cullipool in the north west of the island. This attractive village of bright white cottages is set starkly against the slate that makes up its beach, and whose quarrying underpinned the economy of the island for many years. Slate was still being extracted from the quarries at the north end of Cullipool until 1965. At its height the industry employed 170 men on the island and extracted three quarters of a million slates each year.

Luing's only shop, the Luing Store, can be found beside the road as it heads into Cullipool, and the village is also the location of the only public toilets on the island. There are, however, more aesthetic reasons to visit Cullipool: it has a reputation for wonderful sunsets framed by the islands to the west, and with the slate revealing that when the light is right it has much more to offer the eye than a uniform dark grey.