As a regular visitor to Millport, I visited the "new" Garrison this August. A beautiful building, both inside and out, (even without the old tennis courts !), but I was left a little disappointed after my visit.

If this magnificent building is primarily for use by residents for the functions it contains, I imagine it serves its purpose well. However if the intention is to encourage tourists to use it also, I feel that more is needed to be done to attract them into the building and once inside, to give them a visit to remember!

1. Why close the old entrance? Surely an entrance from the main road is a much easier access for visitors. Especially welcoming through the restored ponds & garden. Congratulations on that by the way. (Long overdue). But why brick up the old entrance, -and with different coloured stone? Perhaps this is a temporary measure until the old entrance is restored ?!

2. I feel that inside, apart from the cafe, a lot more is needed to keep visitors interested. The few artefacts are not enough for you to tell your friends that they really should visit the Garrison.
With the theme "Millport Old & New", here are a very few suggestions:

- A 3D relief map of the Cumbraes and surrounds, similar to the one that used to be at the Marine Station. Perhaps with push-button lights for children to play with, showing the buoys around the island.

- A 360 degree film taken from the top of the island, showing and listing everything you can see from there.

- Articles: eg the story of the Pier (the pontoon, the rebuild etc), or who paints the Crocodile Rock / Indians Head, and when.
- Highlight annual events, eg C&W Weekend, Illuminations, with pictures and/or film.

- The local school could make a model of the WW2 mine dredged up this summer!

- Old photographs, eg: Waves crashing over Stuart Street, Puffers at the pier, the diving platform anchored off Newton Beach, etc etc.

3. Finally, would anyone notice if the "Garrison House" sign was removed from the front wall? I'm not sure that dark letters on grey stone add anything to the building.

Regards, and congratulations on the work so far. - Stuart Gorrie, Wirral.
(I've not visited since August so if anything has changed since then, apologies).