IT is one of Scotland's most popular day-tripper destinations which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.
But the island of Cumbrae is facing a looming crisis through the potential closure of its six public toilets - despite being saved from the local authority axe nearly two years ago by a community group.
The Cumbrae Community Development Company (CCDC) has been forced to launch an appeal to raise enough money to cope with a shortfall in the running costs of the toilets for this year alone and have warned without support they will have to shut.
It comes after the Herald revealed that a third of Scotland's remaining public toilets face being sold off or closed as councils battle to balance the books.
The development adds fuel to campaigners' concerns about councils offloading responsibility for public toilets through new ownership.
A vlog by the Cludgie cleaner Suki McGregor celebrates the threatened toilets.
The group stepped in to save the Cumbrae Cludgies when North Ayrshire Council signalled their intent to close them as a cost-cutting measure.
A petition to save the Cumbrae toilets from closure was set up by hotelier Margaret Kennedy in 2016 and amassed over 1300 signatures, attracting comments from across the UK.
With Millport a busy tourist destination throughout the summer months, the closure of the toilets was seen as a controversial move.
But now there is concern that the group is just not getting enough in grants and donations from collection tins to keep the toilets going.
CCDC say they needed £25,000 a year over various fund-raising schemes to keep the toilets running but there was a shortfall and a newly launched JustGiving campaign hopes to raise a further - £10,000.
READ MORE: Crisis for Scotland's council-run toilets as one in three face being sold off or closed
Deborah Ferris, chairman of the CCDC said in launching the new fundraising campaign: “We desperately need more funding to keep all our public toilets open for the future of the island.
Michael Mertram, the chief executive said they had considered closing them down for the winner due to the "sheer cost of keeping them open"
He added: "We don't want to be here next year and be in a situation where the council were and close them down, or say we can afford to keep two open."
Some tourist guides suggest that the six public toilets are a bit of an attraction for visitors with Cludgie cleaner Suki McGregor, a former theatre manager, entertaining viewers worldwide with online bog vlogs from the loos.
A doll has been created in recognition of the cleaner
Ms McGregor, 56, gave up her job as general manager of Hopscotch Theatre Company, a position she had held for 23 years to become the island’s new lavatory landlord.
She is concerned about the future for the toilets, and said: "This was an asset transfer from the council to the only organisation on the island that could take them on board and there was only funding for so long. There is no revenue coming in to cover the costs.
"I understand there is only enough money for next season, and this is about going forward from there."
The group has also engaged the services of specialists to develop an online fundraising platform.
Collection tins are in place in most of the businesses in Millport and say they continue to ask that the general public give generously, "so we can continue to provide our public toilet service for many years to come".
Herald research shows that due to budget cuts other public toilets in North Ayrshire were not saved.
Despite being home to popular tourist destinations such as Arran and Great Cumbrae, it has experienced the biggest public toilet cuts in the past five years.Only nine of the 45 public toilets that were available in 2013 now remain under their control.
However communities across Arran also rallied to takeover and manage six of the nine public toilets shut down by the council in August, 2017 to save £35,000 a year.
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