Palace/ CastleMount Stuart > External review
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Mount Stuart
Travel guide extract in Rough Guide Guide about Mount Stuart from Apr 2006Overall rating:
100 out of 100
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This guide describes Mount Stuart as a "fantasy Gothic house" surrounded by "acres of lush woodland gardens". The author reminds us that it was the "setting for the glamorous wedding of Sir Paul McCartney". The "marvelously eccentric" creator of the castle was one Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, architect and third marquess of Bute. There was "little regard for expense" in this project and "tons of Italian marble" had to be shipped in and a railway line had to be built to transport it. It is now inhabited by his descendant, the seventh marquess who was once a "Formula One racing driver". Access is relatively easy with a bus "every forty-five minutes" stopping at the very gates of the palace followed by a "pleasant fifteen-minute" stroll. A shuttle service is provided to the castle, "worth taking" if it is raining. The visitor centre is "unexpectedly sleek", housing a gallery, a shop and a café-restaurant ("excellent") within an "award-winning piece of contemporary architecture". The visit is by guided tour and the "columned" Marble Hall is the "showpiece", it's zodiac-themed decor being a reflection of "the marquess's taste for mysticism". Elsewhere, it's "animal and plant imagery" that dominates, and the reviewer points out an "unusual heraldic plaster ceiling". Upstairs is deemed "less interesting" apart from the Horoscope Room which has a "fine astrological ceiling". And if this "sumptuous interior" is not your taste, there are still the "wonderfully mature gardens". All in all, this place is "one very good reason" for a trip to Bute.
This review is an interpretation of the above mentioned author
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