When we departed our Glasgow hotel this morning our destination was a visit the Isle of Bute. The island is located out in the Firth of Clyde, and is 33-miles from the Wemyss Bay ferry terminal, so we needed to travel out here via a CalMac ferry from the mainland, arriving into the principal town of Rothesay.
The Isle of Bute's Mount Stuart House estate built in approximately 1877
Let me tell you folks you just have to Google this place it is truly breathtaking, it has left me completely speechless, any photographer would be in their element here in Scotland, it is absolutely beautiful & to make things better the weather is unbelievable at 26°C.
This island contains some of the grandest Victorian buildings and glorious gardens anywhere in the UK. And believe it not, it is known for its remote and protected sandy beaches.
Photo overlooking the River Clyde from a little town called Lyle Hill.
We are sitting having lunch inside the island's striking 19th Century neo-gothic mansion, the Mount Stuart House estate. Built in approximately 1877 was once owned by the richest person in the world, the Marquis of Bute that made his fortune out of Welsh Coal.
This was the first house in the world to have an indoor swimming pool. Richard Attenborough once had his estate on this island. Henry 'Birdie' Bowers was on the Polar Party with explorer Scott on his fatal Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic in 1911, also lived here on the island & perished with Scott on that ill-fated trip.
The rise of the Stuarts of Bute: 1300-1700. From 1900 to the present day.
The present head and heir of the Bute family is Johnny Bute, who after a successful career in motor racing, he was British Formula 3 Champion in 1984, drove in Formula 1 in the 1986 season (wait for this) & won the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1988.
Johnny is taking Mount Stuart, the Bute Estate and the other family business interests forward into the 21st Century.
The marble in this joint is all from Italy the same source of supply that Michelangelo used in all his sculptures, just look at this stair case, & the roof over the marble stair case.
(Photo above) Check out their library, complete with a billboard sized wall hanging tapestry, the work is about 25-30 ft long, the intricate detail would blow your socks off.
I was talking to our Tour Guide, John, on the way over here this morning on the ferry.
I asked him about the weather that we can expect into the future, he said that maybe our tour will be one of the lucky one’s as far as the weather is concerned, he said that it should not be too bad. So keep your fingers crossed for us.
We are not even 24-hours into this tour & already it has surpassed all my early expectations. There are thirty punters on the tour, six short of the maximum numbers, which makes it fantastic because we have so much more room on the Coach.
There are two other Aussie’s in the group, one lady from Adelaide & the other lady from Chipping Norton near Liverpool in Sydney. The other members on the tour are from Canada & America which I think is a great mix.
There are two other Aussie’s in the group, one lady from Adelaide & the other lady from Chipping Norton near Liverpool in Sydney. The other members on the tour are from Canada & America which I think is a great mix.
The ornate Wemyss Bay railway station is 26-miles from Glasgow Central
Reception is very bad in this part of the world & John advises us that it will become worse the further north we travel.
The journey continues... next stop Loch Lomond.
Warbo
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