Trip to The Unexplored Isle of Bute

We bought really cheap tickets on the budget airline RyanAir from London Stansted to Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Just outside the airport the 585 bus leaves for Wemyss Bay twice an hour. (That's pronounced "weems bay".)The bus ride was just over an hour. At Wemyss Bay there is a luxury ferry over to The Isle of Bute every hour, and as foot passengers the fare was really cheap.(They sting the cars!) Once on Bute at the town of Rothesay first we had to visit the Victorian Public Lavatories right by the ferry terminal. An absolute shrine to taking taking a leak in marble and cast-iron! Then onto the little bus (every half hour) along the coast road to Port Bannatyne, a sleepy stone built village three or four centuries old surronding a pretty yacht haven. There's a Post Office, a charming cafe cum village shop, ^The Squat Lobster", and three pubs. One's an old man's dive, the second a local meeting place with pool and a beer garden,and the third is the village inn, The Port Royal Hotel, which has four guestrooms one of which I had booked over the phone for a very good price. Seals and oyster-catchers share the seashore, while wild deer graze the golf course to the rear. The place is run by a Russian family and their Russian Tavern served up excellent Russian dishes, and had bottled Russian beers, wines and vodkas. They also had barrels of local Real Ale up on the bar, and served it direct into our waiting glasses! Outside the fishermen landed their catch of flat fish, crabs and crayfish and we could choose exactly what to have for dinner. Breakfast was a buffet Russian style with bread and croissants baked in the kitchen. Living in London I'm used to experiencing good restaurant food, but this catering was faultless and at a very non-London price! The Russian family organised for us to hire bikes and tour around the island, hire a boat and catch trout on Loch Fad, go for a daylong trip across to other islands on an antique paddle-steamer, and hike The West Island Way, fifteen miles down the spine of the island. We saw seals and deer, wild goats and buzzards, Ospreys and Curlews, jumping porpoises and diving cormorants. Our last day on Bute we took the open top deck bus around the island past Kames castle, prehistoric standing stones, along deserted sandy beaches ending up at Mount Stuart House in the south of the island. This is the home of The Marquis of Bute, a magnificent gothic stately home complete with its own marble chapel and 300 acre park planted with numerous exotic species. I'm lost for better words. Go there and be amazed. We were the only visitors on that day.Back in the town of Rothesay where the ferry comes in, is a castle dating back 1200 years, an interesting if small museum (knock on the door!) and the old Post Office (now only open in the mornings,) has some interesting artifacts of the early Post Office, even before they had stamps! Every evening we were in The Russian Tavern trying something new from the menu, and while Olga cooked it up freshly from fresh local ingredients, we sampled the beers and had a chat about our day's experiences at the bar.

I've bothered to write this up because we truly had a good relaxing experience in stunning scenery, and we cared for by a family who were more interested in doing a good job than in the paycheck. Or so rare. So leave the car at home, and try The Isle of Bute to really chill out.

Seals and oyster-catchers share the seashore, while wild deer graze the golf course to the rear.