The Mount Stuart Trust has today, 18th February, announced an £8 million three-year investment project aimed at transforming residences across the Isle of Bute.
Bute Estate is to undertake a major initiative on the island that will recover and translate historic and unused buildings and offer residential homes and self-catering holiday accommodation. This is part of one of the most extensive developments of recent years.
The three-year project is potentially one of the largest rural regeneration projects on a private Scottish estate. It comes at a time when Bute badly needs the regenerative kick start to its vital organs that this sort of committed investment can bring.
The once lovely, elegant and gracious main town of Rothesay – on the approaches to Mount Stuart House, has been long neglected and worse by commercial property owners and bowdlerised by local authority interventions. Physically it is the heart of the island, once its Clydeside tourism engine and although there are initiatives going on to pull its condition back from the brink, the energy, the employment and the business that this extensive project will create, spread across the island, will boost morale and strengthen the collective will.
Key elements of the project include:
- Regeneration of multiple sites on Bute.
- Innovative renovation of farm steadings.
- Provision of homes to rent.
- Self-catering holiday accommodation.
Connie Lovel, chief executive of the Mount Stuart Trust, says: ‘This is a tremendously exciting initiative by Bute Estate and demonstrates our deep commitment to the social, economic and environmental fabric of the island.
‘The project will provide homes of a high standard for existing residents and newcomers as well as enhancing self-catering holiday accommodation.
‘The first phase of this project will involve the development of six sites with an additional five sites identified for the second phase (including the Mansion House in Rothesay) developing 11 sites in total.’
The project will include the renovation of existing buildings and the creation of hybrid units – combining the renovation of existing buildings with the addition of new contemporary elements. Where these options are unsuitable, new build homes will be developed.
New dwellings included in the development plans will be designed as energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly contemporary homes of vernacular architecture maintaining the heritage and character of the island. This will involve the use of locally sourced timber cladding and the recycling of original stone and slate wherever possible.
The proposals are consistent with Argyll and Bute’s development policy and the Local Development Plan. The sites will be developed to suit the landscape of the island.
The regeneration proposals will be showcased at a public exhibition at Mount Stuart soon and further details will be available online here.
The sites identified for development include:
- Ambrismore – an existing stone byre to be converted to a four-bedroom family home, with three new build homes forming a cluster of energy efficient dwellings for rent.
- Woodend - a B-listed Georgian house to be restored to provide unique self-catering holiday let accommodation for larger groups.
- Quochag – retaining part of the existing steading, to be complemented by new extensions providing self-catering holiday lets.
- Lubas Steading – creating a renovated unit for residential let.
The project will run in conjunction with the estate’s Accelerated Refurbishment Programme which upgrades estate-owned properties. More than £600,000 was spent on the first phase of this programme which was completed in 2012; and a similar sum is to be committed to this second phase.
Properties developed in Phase 1 of the Accelerated Refurbishment Programme included Lubas Farmhouse, the historic Brick Cottages, and Smith House at Straad.
Connie Lovel says: ‘Due to the age and condition of the properties when they return to the estate following lengthy lease periods, there is often a need for significant upgrading and we look forward to making great progress in restoring as many of these properties as possible.’
Mount Stuart Masterplan Phase 1
The new project builds on the success of the first phase of the Mount Stuart Masterplan Phase I initiative which ran from 2009-2011 and was an investment of £1.7 million. This included the renovation of two historic buildings and the development of a new build self-catering holiday home using timber from the estate and featuring a woodchip bio-mass system again using estate wood for fuel.
The Mount Stuart Trust
The Mount Stuart Trust is a Charitable Trust founded in 1985, which works to fulfil the vision of the late John, Marquess of Bute. He believed that the public should be able to enjoy Mount Stuart and its gardens and surrounding grounds, and benefit from its collections and archives.
John Bute generously endowed The Mount Stuart Trust with Bute Estate to provide the support which enables this remarkable house to be preserved and opened to visitors. The Trust owns and administers Mount Stuart and Bute Estate.
The aims of the Trust are to conserve, preserve and maintain the house, gardens and surrounding grounds for future generations, whilst facilitating public interest, understanding and appreciation of fine and decorative art, architecture and the rural environment, and to promote access, education and research.
Note: The photographs above show the Kennels, before and after their restoration and translation during Phase 1 of the Bute Estate Masterplan.