Rothesay, capital of the Isle of Bute, has a jaunty seaside air as you approach on the ferry from Wemyss Bay. Like Rothesay, the Ascog estate lies on the sheltered east side of the island and botanical specimens grow lushly in its mild climate (here Charles Rennie Mackintosh drew his fuschias). Bute has been gently developing as a superior destination for holidays since the 1840s, with a scattering of respectable houses above the bay. Meikle Ascog, one such house, stands secluded, in the grounds of the other, Ascog House, which belongs to earlier times. The rest of the island offers good and varied walking, and long sandy beaches where seals loll and the rich birdlife soars above the warmth of the gulf stream.

Ascog House once belonged to a branch of the Stewarts and is a typical seventeenth-century laird’s house. Our restoration rescued if from dereliction, removing clumsy Victorian additions to reveal the true proportions and dignified character of stair turret, dormer windows and crow-stepped gables. An impressive Edwardian stair turret has been kept as a free-standing structure, to house a romantic extra bedroom and bathroom. Inside, the arrangement of the rooms may be new but there are old fireplaces and a sense of age. Modern visitors will appreciate the views of the grounds, through windows helpfully enlarged in the eighteenth century, with the best view of all from the cap house, a perfect little bedroom tucked at the top of the stair turret. Seen from the front, the house’s main rooms are on the first floor, reached by a wide turnpike stair. Go round behind and the rise of the ground brings them level with the garden. Inside, the arrangement of the rooms is new but there are old fireplaces, including in the kitchen a noble fragment of a magnificent carved chimney piece from an early stage in the building’s history.

Sleeps: 7+2