Mount Stuart

[anteros_lmc]

I'm just back from a couple of nights camping on the Isle of Bute and we went to visit Mount Stuart House, one of the homes belonging to the Marquis of Bute. Even among the ranks of the British aristocracy, the Butes have a reputation for extravagance and tax avoidance on a grand scale. The family recently "found" a Shakespeare First Folio in Mount Stuart's library and I have it on very good authority that while the folio is unquestionably genuine, the story of it's sudden discovery is bullshit. Mount Stuart was built between 1879-1900 and it is so far over the top it's ridiculous. How's this for Neo Gothic bling?




Mount Stuart House

Kyles of Bute	Mount Stuart House
Kitchen Garden	Kitchen Garden
The Marble Hall	The Marble Hall
Marble Hall Zodiac Windows	Zodian Ceiling
Zodiac Ceiling
Marble Chapel	Chapel Tower
The Drawing Room
The Marquis' Bedroom	Conservatory, (off the Marquis' Bedroom!)
	Upper Gallery
Lilly Pond	Lilly Pond

Comments

[katriona-s.livejournal.com]

Wow... these photos are gorgeous, but look rather too fantastic to be real, like the castle in Disney movie! But I love its garden and pond with water lily. And it's amazing that there is such a gorgeous mansion on a small Scottish island.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

It really does look like something from a Disney movie, though the ceilings with the zodiac constellations are more Hogwarts! What makes it even more ridiculous is that this is only one of the houses the Bute family owns.

[vespican.livejournal.com]

Spectacular! Hate to be the person that has to keep it clean and presentable!
Dave

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it! I certainly wouldn't fancy dusting all that nonsense!

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

Stone the crows! How spectacular.

xxx

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

It's so far over the top it's ridiculous!

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

Well who hasn't misplaced antiquarian books worth a small fortune? Why I lost a copy of the book of Kells in my most recent move.

No wait, my mistake, that was my Iron Man DVD.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Understandable. It's an easy mistake to make.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

So Victorian in extravagance. This is what our robber-barons over here were going for, they never quite got there. The kitchen garden looks as if it smells wonderful. The rest of it is glorious to see but my mind cannot classify it as a place for humans to live. Maybe these Butes have comfy human sized spaces somewhere? Or maybe Butes are 40 feet tall?

Also does it have a ha-ha? I bet they have a ha-ha...

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Oh the Butes were hand in glove with your robber barons. I believe they had dubious business interests all over and apparently the current marquis is a tax exile in Switzerland.

We saw one bedroom called the Henry VIII room because it has a Holbein portrait of Henry in it. It also has a 16th century bed which the Butes bought from William Randolph Hearst when he went bankrupt following the stock market collapse.

I didn't see a ha-ha, but we only saw a tiny part of the estate. I bet they've got one somewhere.

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

Fabulous! (The whole place and all photos, but the one with an ewer under a bright window kept my eye the longest.) And I must say I love XIX age going over the top. XD

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Much bling!

It makes my house look positively tame.