Mount Stuart, Bute

Mount Stuart is a former Presbyterian church, likely designed by Alexander McGill and built between 1728 and 1730, with a later vaulted mortuary chamber added in 1901 by Robert Weir Schultz. It is a single-storey building with a near-symmetrical six-bay T-plan, incorporating a projecting two-storey wing at the rear. The church is constructed of red sandstone ashlar, with harled and harl-pointed rubble sandstone to other elevations, and red sandstone dressings. It sits on a raised red sandstone base course with slightly swept eaves. Prominent quoins mark the corners, and the front elevation features Y-traceried, round-arched bipartite windows with sandstone mullions, while other openings have plain polished surrounds. A red sandstone staircase leads to the former laird’s loft within the projecting rear wing.

The south elevation (the primary entrance) has boarded timber doors in the two bays flanking the center, with Y-traceried bipartite windows in the remaining bays. The east side elevation has a boarded timber door with a round-arched fanlight, and blocked doorways in outer bays. A “bullseye” window sits within the pedimented gable, with round-arched louvred openings in the square-plan bellcote above, topped by a ball-shaped finial. The rear (north) elevation includes a projecting wing with a ball-finialed staircase leading to a boarded timber door at the first floor, which served as the former laird’s loft. A single ground-floor opening is set to the right of center. Blind bays are recessed on either side.

The building has predominantly small-pane timber glazing and a piended roof covered in graded grey slate, with raised red sandstone skews to the gables, and replacement cast-iron rainwater goods.

The interior suffered extensive flood damage around 1994. A timber-panelled balcony overlooks a red sandstone ashlar vaulted mortuary chamber, decorated with heraldic panels. Within the mortuary chamber are white marble sarcophagi containing the 3rd Marquess of Bute and his wife. The church also features a classically-detailed timber panelled pulpit, a boarded timber dado, and a classical reredos made of variegated marbles and alabaster, with engaged Corinthian columns and a heavy cornice.

Outside, a graveyard extends to the front of the building, containing various burial stones, including a free-standing, carved Celtic-style cross, and a figurative statue of Christ.