Benchmarking Scottish beauty spots...

The grounds of Mount Stuart House in Rothesay are, as you would expect of such a fine house, delightful, with formal gardens and natural paths leading down to the shorefront. 

A Scottish palm tree!

Richard appears to be proposing to Francoise here but he was actually showing the results of his foraging. 

On the way up to the house we stopped at the 'village' of Kerrycroy.

Mount Stuart House...an overindulgance?

Our visit over to Rothesay was to take in a visit to Mount Stuart House a late 19th-century mansion with private chapel built for the 3rd Marquess of Bute by Robert Anderson. 

The 'house' has the external appearance of a Venetian palace but in red sandstone and no expense was spared in fitting it out with the finest Italian marble and other extravagant embellishments. For the time the cost was astronomical, the equivalent of over £50 million today. 

The guided tour by a lady who had worked in the house alongside the butler was very informative but it was difficult,for me anyway, to see beyond the overindulgence of the place when at the time the money was being spent there would have been a lot of poverty in the country. 

Doon the watter...

Image: visitscotland

On Monday, along with Richard and Francoise, we headed up to Wemyss Bay to catch the ferry over to Rothesay on the Isle of Bute. The town has been a popular destination with families from the west of Scotland since rail and ferry links opened up in the late 19th century giving ordinary people the opportunity to head 'doon the watter' on steamers from the Glasgow and from this little harbour to enjoy a seaside holiday.

The interior of the railway station serving the port is a delight and must rank highly in the award for 'prettiest station'. In its heyday it would be crammed with working class folks taking advantage of their recently granted annual holidays heading for the ferry to make the crossing to enjoy their summer break. 

The 35 minute ferry trip is a pleasant experience with great 365 degree views of the Firth of Clyde as you make your way over to Rothesay. The last time I made this trip was as a boy on one of our annual 'school trips' and that was not yesterday!

Once back on dry land we would head for what was our intended destination, Mount Stuart House, an outrageous country pile built in the Gothic Revival style and the ancestral home of the Marquesses of Bute but I'll save that for another post. 

Sunday walk...

Richard and Francoise flew up from Marseilles to Prestwick on Sunday to join us or a small family gettogether here in Ayr. The lovely weather of the previous couple of days continued so we took them on what is our favourite walk along the coast and over to the the Auld Brig o' Doon.

Richard took a few 'moments' to remind himself of just how pretty it is here in Ayrshire.

Auld Brig o' Doon

Red Arrows flyby...

 

Second day of the Air Show proved to be very busy with the obvious attraction of the Red Arrows, we went down to the seafront again but decided that we would be better off in the comfort of Eileen's garden. 

Ayr, airshow...

We arrived in Ayr yesterday to the start of the Airshow - walking along the shorefront to Eileen's house the crowds were already gathering for the evening's show.

We had booked a table at Ayr India for 8.00pm but joined the crowd for the first hour of the show...which was a little underwhelming before taking our seats.

Things improved a bit and we witnessed some aerial acrobatics from the restaurant windows, We also had a noisy fly-pass by a jet which was too quick (obviously)to capture!

Enjoyed our meal although the service was a little hectic with all that was going on. Tomorrow its Spitfires and Red arrows!

At least some things are enjoying the very hot weather...

 

The geraniums in our courtyard here in La Guerche.

La Guerche brocante...

 

On Sunday the village held its annual brocante, so we gathered up loads of  'stuff' and offered it for sale to the treasure hunters, John (his pics) and Maureen tagged on a table as well to add to the mix for the day. On such a very hot day we were pleased to see we had been allocated an excellent spot which offered us shade for most of our time under the sun.