Once the beach resort of choice for fashionable Glaswegians, the Isle of Bute lies in the Firth of Clyde, a short distance from Scotland’s biggest city. This year, it became more famous as the place refugees from Syria said they wanted to leave. Focusing on a run-down economy familiar to many British seaside resorts, the UK press painted Bute as a place with no future.
But Bute turned the corner years ago, and many of the Syrian refugees have talked about their love for the island. When we visited this summer, the seafront squares in Rothesay, the port town, had just been renovated. The art deco Pavilion will reopen next summer, after a £3m makeover, as an international arts venue. Old Victorian shops have been turned into stylish boutiques and upcycled furniture emporiums. There’s a vegetarian cafe (Musicker) that sells guitars and books, and a bookshop that sells coffee (Print Point, West Princes Street), as well as old-style pubs and ice-cream makers.
The council’s decision to house refugees in unused accommodation here has mainly gone down well: most of the Syrians say they like life on this little island, and most of the locals have welcomed them with open arms. Dropping into the Rothesay shops to pick up groceries, I overheard an elderly Buteman greeting one of the dads with a broad smile. “As-salaam-alaikum,” said the Buteman, over the boxes of Scottish Blend teabags and tablet. “Hey,” said the Syrian dad.
On a long weekend in Bute, my boyfriend and I stayed in a self-catering converted stable on the Mont Stuart estate – a chic and cosy place with slate floors, tweed sofas and a woodburning stove.
Mount Stuart was the ancestral home of Bute’s landowners, built by a Marquess of Bute who also happened to be the richest man in Britain at the time. More of a palace, the Victorian Gothic house was designed by Robert Rowand Anderson, and stacks arch upon marble arch, so entering its main hall feels like stepping into a cathedral, flecked with light and colour. The decor revolves around religion and the stars. Perhaps when a person has immense wealth, they need to be assured that their good fortune is part of the order of the universe. At any rate, constellations rush across the ceiling, while signs of the zodiac bloom on the stained-glass windows. The stars are clear prisms casting balls of rainbow light on the floor below. In other rooms, Tintorettos, Titians and Veroneses fill the walls.
Academics come from the universities of Oxford and Yale to work on the collections in Mount Stuart’s libraries. This year, an original Shakespeare folio turned up there: it’s on display upstairs. But I got just as much pleasure from the house itself. I found a rose engraved on the hinge-plate of a door, and bees carved into a pillar wreathed in oak leaves and acorns. Every nook is crammed with hand-worked detail. It’s like exploring Rivendell, with pieces of history thrown in – Bonnie Prince Charlie’s pistols, family portraits of the Tudors.
Those staying on the estate get a free pass to visit the house. When the house is closed to visitors, they can wander down through its quiet lawns and tree-lined walks to the rocky shore. We loved watching the seals bask in the evening sunshine here.
Bute has a rare blend of worldliness and wilderness. Beyond the up-and-coming town of Rothesay are peaceful, windswept Hebridean vistas. The West Island Way runs the length of the island, providing good, waymarked footpaths through the hills. At Kingarth, near the southernmost tip of Bute, I passed the ruined monastery of Saint Blane, hidden in a green fold in the hills: among stone arches sit the graves of monks slaughtered by Viking raiders. Forking down to the road, I stopped for a picnic on a bench under a wind-blown tree. The ridges of a prehistoric hill fort jutted against the sea, with the mountains of Arran rising mistily in the distance.
We spent another day touring the island’s beaches. There’s Ettrick, the most popular, with its busy tea-room, where we bought lovely ice-cream cones; St Ninians, where I picked rose quartz pebbles from the beach – there’s also a small campsite here; Scalpsie, a broad bay shimmering with wildflowers; and Kilchattan, with its steep hill and friendly pub at Kingarth.
The island is big on renewables, and self-sufficiency. Local charity Fyne Futures runs a large organic market garden in Rothesay, where knowledgeable young men cultivate several local heritage vegetables, plenty of kale and raspberries, and even a healthy looking kiwi vine. I took a bag of produce home, but boxes can be ordered for delivery during your stay.
We also bought island lamb from Macqueens butchers on Bishop Street in Rothesay. Nearby, Ritchie’s smokehouse sells smoked fish and cheese, and the Bute Brew Company provides a range of beers. It was fun to prepare meals in the kitchen of our converted stable on the estate. Because half of the stables are in use, our meals were punctuated by visits from the chickens, and a gentle soundtrack of snorting pigs.
There are some good eating out options, too. Sunday lunch (£16) at the Mount Stuart restaurant was superb: smoked salmon mousse with apple jelly, roast chicken with veg, and a cranachan millefeuille with lemon curd. All the dishes used local produce and were served in a modernist glass room that felt like a treehouse, situated above the new visitor centre at the entrance to the estate. Some of the island’s younger residents arrived from Syria work here.
In Rothesay, my favourite place was Liz’s Diner, by the seafront. It’s an American-style diner with tasty burgers (£3), apple pie milkshakes (£3), and great service.
I’ll look forward to coming back to Bute again, and seeing how it’s changed. For all its ancient monuments and rich Victorian heritage, it seems like a place that’s happy to face 21st-century challenges with a smile.
Way to go
The Isle of Bute is reached by ferry from Wemyss Bay, which is a 40-minute drive by hire car from Glasgow airport.
Trains from Glasgow Central to Wemyss cost £12.90 return with scotrail.co.uk. Ferries with Caledonian MacBrayne (calmac.co.uk) from Wemyss Bay to Rothesay cost from £6.10 return and run hourly until 10pm in summer (7pm after 24 October). The crossing takes 30 minutes (keep an eye open for porpoises).
More information on visiting Bute from visitscotland.com. Mount Stuart self-catering cottages (01244 356666, mountstuart.com) sleep between four and 12 and cost from £450 a week, shorter breaks available. For bookings at Mount Stuart Restaurant, call 01700 503877
