Today we were intent on exploring the Isle of Arran, but when we arrived at the ferry, we discovered we should have booked ahead. So plan B…..we took the ferry slightly further north to the Isle of Bute.
Mount Stuart is the seat of the Stuarts of Bute, direct descendants of King Robert of Bruce. The family has been on the Isle of Bute for over 700 years and on the present site for 300. The first house was built in 1719, and rebuilt after a fire destroyed the central section in 1877.
Britain’s most spectacular Victorian Gothic house is the architectural fantasy of the 3rd Marquess of Bute and his architect Sir Robert Rowand Anderson.
The mysterious interiors reflect the romantic and scholarly Marquess’ passion for art, heraldry, astrology, mythology and religion – including the stunning White Marble Chapel and magnificent Marble Hall complete with kaleidoscopic stained glass. The architecture is stately, opulent and imaginative. I loved the wood carvings at the end of the bed – a fox playing pan flute and badger playing bagpipes; the astrology circle in the ceiling; the Bute coat of arms for Earls and Marquess’. Mount Stuart sits in 300 acres of landscape and woodlands.
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