7 nights including 2 Gala Dinners
Guest speaker Sir John Ure
Enjoy the Palladian style of Ardgowan House, a Georgian gem designed by Hugh Cairncross, assistant to Robert Adam at Culzean.
Onwards to the spectacular vision of Kelburn Castle, ancestral home of the Earls of Glasgow, overlooking the Firth of Clyde. Cruising Loch Fyne to white-washed Inveraray, past the Flag Borders and fine conifers, explore Inveraray Castle Gardens, the perfect complement to the Baronial castle, seat of the Dukes of Argyll.
Through the narrow Kyles of Bute, Victorian Neo-Gothic Mount Stuart House was extravagantly built by the 3rd Marquess and never fully completed. South to Arran; the centuries-long seat of the Dukes of Hamilton at Brodick Castle is unique as Britain's only island country park.
The seclusion of Holy Isle, where St Molaise sought refuge as a hermit, and now a Buddhist retreat, is palpable in the afternoon. Enter an 18th century time-capsule at Dumfries House, magnificently built on 2,000 acres for the 3rd Earl by brothers John and Robert Adam, and inherited in 1803 by John Stuart, Marquess of Bute. Coastal Culzean Castle, formerly owned by the Kennedys, is yet another gem, grandiosely transformed in the 1770s by the great Robert Adam.
In our grand finale, cruise Loch Long and Loch Goil to the attractive resort of Helensburgh and its jewel, Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Hill House, the epitome of his finest domestic Art Nouveau style.
7 nights including 2 Gala Dinners. Guest speaker Sir John Ure
