Argyll - The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands - page 58

EATING AND DRINKING
Musicker 11 High St T 01700 502287. Funky café-cum-
music-retailer just across from the castle, with delicious
coffee, decent snacks and even better music, courtesy of
the rather ace jukebox and occasional live performances.
Friday jam sessions at 3pm. Mon-Sat 10am-5pm.
No. 29 29 Gallowgate T 01700 500685, W no29bute
.com. Seared loin of tuna with tomato compote, samphire
grass and citrus foam (£17.95) gives you some idea of
what to expect from Rothesay's most refined restaurant,

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complete with a smart, all-grey interior and impeccably
mannered staff. Mon-Sat 6-10pm, Sun 1-10pm.
Squat Lobster The Harbour T 07748 552761. Housed
in a mid-nineteenth-century hut that used to be a refuge
for horse cabbies, this super chippie next to the putting
green doles out freshly caught fish of the day as well
as mussels, whelks, langoustines, and the eponymous
squat lobster, served with garlic butter (£5.95). Daily
noon-8pm.

Mount Stuart
Mount Stuart, 4 miles south of Rothesay • House April-Oct; phone for times • £11 Grounds Daily 10am-6pm • £6.50 • T 01700 503877,
W mountstuart.com
Bute's most compelling sight is Mount Stuart , a huge, fantasy Gothic mansion set
amid acres of lush woodland gardens overlooking the Firth of Clyde, and ancestral
home of the seventh marquess of Bute, John Crichton-Stuart (or, as he was known
in his Formula 1 racing days, Johnny Dumfries). The building was created by the
marvellously eccentric, and architecturally brilliant, third marquess Robert Rowand
Anderson after a fire in 1877 destroyed the family seat. With little regard for expense,
the marquess shipped in tonnes of Italian marble, built a railway line to transport it
down the coast and employed craftsmen who had worked with William Burges on the
marquess's other medieval concoction, Cardiff Castle. With 127 rooms spread out over
five floors, it's on quite some scale.
he pièce de résistance is the columned Marble Hall , its vaulted ceiling and stained-
glass windows decorated with the signs of the zodiac, reflecting the marquess's taste
for mysticism. He was equally fond of animal and plant imagery; hence you'll find
birds feeding on berries in the dining-room frieze, and monkeys reading (and tearing
up) books and scrolls in the library. Look out also for the unusual heraldic ceiling in
the drawing room, which is otherwise notable for its astonishing collection of art;
casually dotted along the walls, you'll find paintings by Tintoretto, Titian and
Veronese, among others. After all the heavy furnishings, seek aesthetic relief in the
vast Marble Chapel , built entirely out of dazzling white Carrara marble, with a
magnificent Cosmati floor pattern. Upstairs, along with three impressive bathrooms,
check out the Horoscope Room , where you can see a fine astrological ceiling and
adjacent observatory/conservatory.

The grounds
There are a number of fine walks to be had within the vast grounds , ranging from a
45-minute stroll down through the woods to the seashore, to a more vigorous,
two-hour walk taking in the Wee Garden and Calvary Pond , the latter located at the
head of a small burn. Before you leave Mount Stuart, take a look at the planned village
of Kerrycroy , just beyond the main exit. It was built by the second Marquess in the
early nineteenth century, allegedly for his wife, Lady Maria North, who was missing

JOHNNY DUMFRIES
As unlikely as it seems, the current Marquess of Bute was once a hugely successful motor
racing driver . Racing as one Johnny Dumfries (he was, at that time, the Earl of Dumfries),
the marquess began racing in the 1980s, starting out in Formula 3 before graduating to
Formula 1 in 1986, racing for the JPS Lotus team as second driver to the legendary Ayrton
Senna - he raced fifteen times, compiling three points. Dumfries' greatest achievement,
however, came in 1988, when he won the Le Mans 24 Hours as part of the Jaguar team.