{{short description|Category A listed building on the Isle of Bute, Scotland}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox historic site | name = Mount Stuart House | image = Mount Stuart House 2018-08-25.jpg | alt = East front of Mount Stuart House | caption = East front of Mount Stuart House | locmapin = | map_caption = | location = Isle of Bute, Scotland | coordinates = {{coord|55|47|30|N|05|01|07|W|display=inline,title|region:GB}} | built = 1879–1900 | architect = Sir Robert Rowand Anderson | architecture = Gothic Revival | governing_body = Privately owned | designation1 = Category A Listed Building | designation1_offname = Mount Stuart House | designation1_date = 20 July 1971 | designation1_number = {{Historic Environment Scotland|num=LB12052|short=yes}} | designation2 = Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland | designation2_offname = Mount Stuart (Kirrieniven) | designation2_date = 30 June 1987 | designation2_number = {{Historic Environment Scotland|num=GDL00291|short=yes}} }}
'''Mount Stuart House''', on the east coast of the Isle of Bute, Scotland, is a country house built in the Gothic Revival style and the ancestral home of the Marquesses of Bute. It was designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute in the late 1870s,<ref name="DSA">{{cite web|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/building_full.php?id=200194|title=DSA Building/Design Report: Mount Stuart|publisher=Dictionary of Scottish Architects|access-date=23 December 2014}}</ref> replacing an earlier house by Alexander McGill, which burnt down in 1877. The house is a Category A listed building.<ref name=LB12052>{{Historic Environment Scotland|num=LB12052|desc=Mount Stuart House|cat=A|access-date=15 April 2019}}</ref>
==Background== The house is the seat of the Stuarts of Bute, derived from the hereditary office "Steward of Bute" held since 1157. The family are male-line descendants of John Stewart, the illegitimate son of King Robert II of Scotland, the first Stuart King, by his mistress, Moira Leitch. By virtue of this descent, they are also descendants of Robert the Bruce, whose daughter Marjorie was mother of Robert II by her marriage to Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland.
==History== The original house was built in 1719 for James Stuart, 2nd Earl of Bute, but was rebuilt for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute following a fire on 3 December 1877.<ref name="DSA"/> After his earlier creations of Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch in Cardiff, the Marquess used many of the builders and workman he had employed in South Wales, including William Burges and much of that architect's team. Burges built an oratory at the house.{{sfn|Crook|2013|p=412}} The main part of the present house is a flamboyant example of 19th-century Gothic Revival architecture, built in a reddish-brown stone. Mount Stuart's major features include the colonnaded Marble Hall at the centre of the main block and the Marble Chapel, which has an elaborate spired tower which is the tallest part of the building. Two earlier wings in a strikingly different style survive. They are much smaller in scale, have Georgian-style sash windows and are painted white.{{sfn|Walker|2000|pp=607–612}}
Much of the furniture was custom-designed for the house by Robert Weir Schultz in the early years of the 20th century. He also laid out many sections of the gardens.
Mount Stuart House claims to have the first ever heated swimming pool to be contained within a house;<ref name=LB12052/> it was also the first home in Scotland to be lit by electricity.{{sfn|Walker|2000|p=609}}
Mount Stuart was used as a Royal Naval Hospital during World War I. It was complete with an X-ray room and an operating theatre. A total of 2120 patients were admitted.<ref>{{Cite web |title=World War One Naval Hospital Mount Stuart House Isle of Bute |url=https://www.qaranc.co.uk/World-War-One-Naval-Hospital-Mount-Stuart-House-Isle-of-Bute.phphttps://www.qaranc.co.uk/World-War-One-Naval-Hospital-Mount-Stuart-House-Isle-of-Bute.php}}</ref>
The house holds the Bute Collection, a private collection of artwork and artefacts. The Collection also houses archives, books, furniture, and silverwork reflecting the interests of the Bute family's various generations, including 25,000 books on topics including theology, botany, agriculture and Scottish history and literature.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/a/A13531259|title=The Discovery Service|last=Archives|first=The National|website=discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-04-04}}</ref> In April 2016 it was announced that a Shakespeare First Folio had been discovered in the House's Library.<ref>{{cite news |last=Coughlan |first=Sean |date=7 April 2016 |title=Shakespeare First Folio discovered on Scottish island |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/education-35973094 |newspaper=BBC News |access-date=14 April 2016 }}</ref> The folio had belonged to Isaac Reed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-04-07-new-shakespeare-first-folio-discovered-400-years-after-his-death|title=New Shakespeare First Folio discovered 400 years after his death {{!}} University of Oxford|website=www.ox.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-04-04}}</ref>
The house is open to the public.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mount Stuart House|url=https://www.mountstuart.com/|access-date=30 June 2021}}</ref>
==Gallery== <gallery widths="180px" heights="180px"> Mount Stuart House, Isle of Bute - west view.jpg|West front, showing one of the wings surviving from the previous house Mount Stuart House marble hall 2018-08-25.jpg|Marble Hall Mount Stuart House horoscope room 2018-08-25.jpg|Horoscope Room Mount Stuart House swimming pool 2018-08-25 1.jpg|Swimming pool Mount Stuart House chapel 2018-08-25 3.jpg|alt=Chapel, Mount Stuart House|Chapel interior </gallery>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== * {{cite book |last=Walker|first=Frank Arniel |year=2000 |title=The Buildings of Scotland: Argyll and Bute |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aI7RAkj0mooC&q=The+Buildings+of+Scotland%3A+Argyll+and+Bute |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300096521 }} * {{cite book | last=Crook | first=J. Mordaunt | title=William Burges and the High Victorian Dream | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1JruwAACAAJ&q=William+Burges+and+the+High+Victorian+Dream | year=2013 | publisher=Francis Lincoln | isbn=978-0-7112-3349-2 }}
==Further reading== {{commons category}} * Stamp, Gavin (1981). ''Robert Weir Schultz, Architect, and His Work for the Marquesses of Bute: An Essay.''
==External links== * [http://www.mountstuart.com Mount Stuart House & Gardens website]
Category:Listed houses in Scotland Category:Robert Rowand Anderson buildings Category:Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Argyll and Bute + Category:Gardens in Argyll and Bute Category:Historic house museums in Argyll and Bute Category:Gothic Revival architecture in Scotland Category:Category A listed buildings in Argyll and Bute Category:Isle of Bute Category:Country houses in Argyll and Bute Category:Prime ministerial homes in the United Kingdom Category:Museums established in 1995