Undiscovered Scotland

 

Ascog is a largely residential linear village on the east coast of the Isle of Bute, located about a mile and a half south-east of Rothesay. Although the local geography makes it feel very distinct from Rothesay, it is in some ways simply a slightly removed suburb of it.

In the middle of the village, a kink in the shoreline produces the small north-facing Ascog Bay, whose beach does much to add to the charm of the village. The landward side of the road that skirts the bay carries a line of extremely desirable and upmarket houses and villas.

Overlooking the north end of the bay is Chandlers, a hotel and conference centre on a site raised well above the road and giving superb views to the east. Originally known as Agnes Patrick House, the building now occupied by Chandlers was built as a girls' school in 1900.

The slight headland formed by the south end of the bay is home to Ascog Church. This was the work of the architect David Hamilton (or possibly his youngest son, James) in the early 1800s and successfully gives the appearance of an Italian country church. The church is sadly disused.

The southern end of Ascog comprises a series of large houses mostly well hidden behind the walls that dominate the landward side of the coast road here. These include Ascog Hall and its remarkable Victorian Fernery and Gardens. The story of the hall began in 1844 when the Rev James Monteith moved to Bute from Dalkeith. Nearby are Ascog House, whose origins date back to 1678 and Ascog Lodge, which was built in 1820.

A mile south of Ascog is Kerrycroy. This is a picture postcard settlement comprising an arc of very un-Scottish houses and cottages facing a bay, at one end of which is a pier. Kerrycroy came about in the years from 1803 as the estate housing for Mount Stuart, whose northern gatehouse lies at the south end of the settlement. The pier here was originally used to land material for the building of the first Mount Stuart in the years from 1716, then again when the second Mount Stuart was being built at the end of the 1800s.