Argyll - The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands - page 59

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her home town of Guildford so much that he ordered elements of it to be replicated,
hence the semidetached houses - alternately mock-Tudor and whitewashed stone
- that form a crescent overlooking a pristine village green and, beyond, the sea.

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Mount Stuart T 01700 503877, W mountstuart.com.
Scattered around the estate are four stunning self-catering
properties, each one sleeping between four and six.
Furnished to impeccably high standards, they've got more
than ample space, with bright bedrooms and bathrooms,
superb kitchens, and cosy open-plan livin g spa ces complete
with attractive wood burners. One week £350
Mount

W mountstuart.com. Located on the second floor of the
sleek glass-and-timber visitor centre, Mount Stuart's
on-site restaurant is certainly worth making a trek to even
if you're not visiting the estate. The majority of ingredients
are sourced from the estate's kitchen garden, resulting in
scrumptious dishes like seared west-coast scallops with
salad leaves in a chilli and coriander dressing (£9.95).
Daily: May-Aug 10am-6pm; Sept & Oct 11am-4pm. Stuart restaurant T 01700 505276,

Kilchattan Bay and around
Six miles south of Rothesay, east-facing Kilchattan Bay has a lovely arc of sand
overlooked by a row of grand Victorian houses. The bay is also the starting point for
the wonderful West Island Way Walk , which runs the complete length of the island for
about thirty miles, taking in coastline, farmland, moors and forests.

St Blane's Chapel
Just after the road turns off left to Kilchattan Bay, another road (next to the Kingarth Hotel ) runs south to the chapel
St Blane's Chapel is a twelfth-century ruin beautifully situated in open countryside
amid the foundations of an earlier Christian settlement established in the sixth century
by St Catan, uncle to the local-born St Blane. From the car park, it's a short uphill walk
through farmland; over the brow of a hill you come upon a well-built churchyard wall
surrounded by mature trees. The ruined chapel sits amid a rather peculiar two-tier
graveyard, the upper area reserved for the men of the parish while the women were
consigned to the lower one.

Scalpsie Bay and around
Four miles up the coast from St Blane's is the sandy strand of Scalpsie Bay , which is
by far the best spot on the island for seal watching . From the small car park on the
main road, a footpath runs down to the beach, from where you walk west along the
increasingly rocky shore to a couple of excellent viewing points. The many sunken
timber posts dotted along the beach are the remains of World War II anti-glider
defences, as the area was particularly susceptible to German invasion. Indeed, Scalpsie's
military role continued right up until the end of the Cold War; the cottage near the car
park was used as a listening post for enemy submarines patrolling the Firth of Clyde.
Further on, beyond the village of Straad, lies St Ninian's Point , where the ruins of a
sixth-century chapel overlook another fine sandy strand and the uninhabited island of
Inchmarnock - to which, according to tradition, alcoholics were banished in the
nineteenth century. Here, too, a number of superb relics have been uncovered, many of
which are now on display in Bute Museum in Rothesay.

BUTE'S HIGHEST PEAKS
The two highest peaks on the island are Windy Hill (913ft) and Torran Turach (746ft), both in
the north; from the latter, there are fine views of the Kyles, but for a gentler overview of the
island you can simply walk up to the viewpoint , in the midst of the golf course, on Canada
Hill just east of Rothesay.