From Kintyre to Bute

This morning, my illusions were brutally stripped from me by a conversation with the people who run the hotel I've been staying at in the tiny settlement of Carradale, about 45 mins north of Campbeltown, on a very narrow, winding road, which apparently was the inspiration for the Beatles' final single "The Long and Winding Road".

*whimper*


My face when I learned I'd been living a lie. No, I didn't have a stroke, I'm just that ugly.


The view out my hotel room. Very bucolic.


Anywho, the music video was shot at the even tinier settlement of Saddell, almost an hour north of the actual Mull of Kintyre and the castlelike building you see in the background of the video is Saddell Castle, which originally was the palace of the Bishop of Argyle. Sadly, it is almost impossible to get a good shot of the beach from the road.


Further north, the scenery is more open.


I took the ferry from Tarbert over to Portavadie in Argyll. Video from the sailing:


I then drove the coastline of The Kyles of Bute, before taking a ferry across the tiny stretch of water separating the mainland of Argyll from the pretty Isle of Bute.


That's Argyll to the left and Bute to the right. Not much water to separate them, is there? One would think maybe a bridge would be appropriate?


This is Rothesay Castle, in the middle of the small, but quite handsome toon of Rothesay.


It has an honest to God moat:




Inside the Great Hall (which has been expanded throughout the years):


The fireplace.


The inner area as seen through a hole in the wall:


The chapel.


Outside, they even flew a Norwegian flag alongside the Scottish. The Isle of Bute were among the areas under Norwegian control up until the Treaty of Perth in 1266. When we left, the Scots promised to pay us an annual tribute to keep us away but being miserly bastards, they stopped paying after a few years. The guy behind the ticket counter told me had calculated the sum into current money and that he figured Scotland should pay about 50 thousand pounds to us every year. I told him I could bring the money back home with me, but sadly no bueno.


Norwegian connections indeed.


In the evening I went and had a good meal at the Harry Haw's, a restaurant right opposite the castle. Then had a sinfully good brownie with caramel fudge and ice cream for dessert. I am going to diabetes hell.