Beach at Mount Stuart, Bute

There is not much sand on our nearest bit of sea loch beach so finding a sandy beach is a joy. This is on the west side of the Clyde Estuary. not far from us as the crow flies but actually quite a long drive by road.

Looking north(ish)

If you enlarge the northward pic you might be able to make out, very faintly, Ben Lomond just above the headland on the left. To the right of that are what we think of as "our hills", the ones north of Glen Fruin that we can see from our house.







My favourite rock. Nearly brought the wee one home!

Red Campion. Boggybrae's is nowhere near flowering yet.
#nanoclimate!

Danish Scurvy-grass and looking east across the Clyde Estuary
to Largs and Great Cumbrae

Last time we attempted to visit Mount Stuart, when Toadlet's Spanish exchange partner was visiting, it was a perishing, wind-chilled day in March, and the place was closed even though its website said it was open. As a result, when Toad contacted them about that, they gave us free tickets for a booked visit. Yesterday was it.

Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute

I will start with the stained glass windows. Their colours reflected around the house on a perfect spring day are perhaps what I loved most about our visit. The centre window in this photo shows the Stuart of Bute coat of arms. The ceiling of the drawing room shows all the other family interconnections in coats of arms. Our tour guide, Ken, who, by chance, Toad and I had to ourselves, was excellent and knew a lot. I have remembered very little of the detail but have determined to read some history of the place and the people. There follow some of the rainbow reflections we were lucky enough to see. Sunshine all day is a rare thing in Scotland; one has to make the most of it when it happens.

Chapel light first impression

The light in the chapel, which we saw near the end of our tour, was stunning. I had an "Oh!" moment as we walked in. The saints adorning the walls of the octagonal spire are all Celtic ones, apparently.

Chapel spire ceiling from directly below it

Chapel spire, lead clad

Mount Stuart: some of the house

Some chimneys

 The house is huge and the chimneys made me think about how much fuel it must have taken to heat it. Ken the guide told us about the Bute Stuarts owning large chunks of south Wales including the coal valleys so I guess they never went short of coal. The grounds, as is the way of these grand estates of the rich and mighty, were well wooded too. Much of the wood panelling and ceiling wood inside the house is walnut. I don't think we were told of its source.

I liked the story Ken told us about one of the tapestries in the central hall. Its first part was woven by two men before World War 1. They both joined up to fight and both were killed. The place they had got to in their weaving is marked in the bottom border with their initials and the years of their deaths.

Another interesting detail of the hunting scene tapestry (link to Pinterest photo by Cherry Jackson here) is that one of the hunters has his shoes on the wrong feet!

There is an awful lot to see at Mount Stuart. It's definitely worth a visit just to look around or to provoke an interest in stories of the Earls and Marquises of Bute–very powerful men in British history.

Our tour ended with a visit to the outside gallery built in mock Tudor style. It was breezy up there! From it one can go down a spiral helical stair (pedantic? who, me?) to the swimming pool that, according to Ken, when she swam in it the Celtic harpist Alison Kinnaird said was like swimming down the aisle of a church. There are three marble pillars in it.

There is a lot of marble, lots of different kinds and from different places. Some in the chapel is from the same place as the Michelangelo David marble. There is some purple marble in the aptly named Purple Library and, perhaps my favourite, is the black, fossil-filled marble at the edges of the main staircase and around the indoor gallery. This comes from north-east England.

English marble

Finally for this post (I'll do another one for the outside stuff), here is a corner of the mock Tudor gallery and, below, a view eastwards from the gallery to Largs and the coast of Ayrshire.