HUNDREDS of residents lined the shoreline in Millport last week to witness the antics of two very special guests.

A pair of Northern Bottlenose Whales stayed in Kames Bay for several hours and were seen playfully breaching to the surface every few minutes.

Seals are sometimes spotted in local waters, however whales of this kind are an extreme rarity around the island.

David Nairn, from Fairlie Coastal, witnessed the experience first-hand from his boat and says it was a wonderful site for those gathered.

He said: “The whole experience was absolutely fantastic for everyone who was watching. The water was flat and calm and the whales put on a show.

“They seemed to be really relaxed the whole time and were coming up for air every five or six minutes, they were doing little circuits and didn’t seemed to be too stressed.

“We got some really nice footage of the whales breaching out of the water which was truly a fantastic site to see.

“There must have been well over 100 people along the rocks at the bay just watching the whales for hours on end.”

Despite the whales leaving the waters around Kames Bay safely, David says it is a concern to see them so far out of their natural environment.

He explained: “Those guys were up in Loch Long for a few weeks and have been spotted elsewhere around the Clyde.

“It is worrying because they normally live around the continental shelf near the west coast of Ireland.

“Having these whales this far inshore is a bit of a concern, they may just have been separated from a larger group.

“There have been a lot of reports of whales of this kind in the Clyde over the years, but it is not often they would be seen this close to shore.”

Residents took to social media to share their pictures and videos of the experience and comment on how 'magical' it was.

Local man Eddie Williams said: “It was an amazing experience and such a privilege to see them so close to my home."

Northern Bottlenose Whales can grow up to ten metres in length and can dive as deep as 1,400 metres for up to two hours.

A spokesperson for Millport’s Field Studies Centre said: “It was wonderful to see these magnificent creatures and watch them in our bays, but we hope that this pair have safely found their way back to the deep Atlantic.”