Hidden Scotland
Sign in
A bus on the shore road round the wide sandy bay, the village beyond.
Argyll and Bute

Kilchattan Bay

A Victorian village on a wide bay in the south of Bute, once a tile works and a steamer stop, where the West Island Way begins.

Welcome

Kilchattan Bay is a line of Victorian houses and villas along the south-west shore of a wide bay in the south of Bute, with sand the colour of the red sandstone around it.

In the mid-1840s the Marquess of Bute set up a tile works here, using the local clay, and by the late 1800s it was turning out a million and a quarter tiles and half a million bricks a year, most of them shipped from the pier in the bay.

The pier brought visitors too. Steamers from Largs and Millport called here from the late 1800s, and the St Blane's Hotel, built in the same Victorian years, still stands at the south end of the village; the steamers stopped in 1955. Today it is a quiet place, and the south end of the village is the start of the West Island Way, the footpath that runs most of the length of the island.

A short drive awaySt Blane's ChapelThe ruined church in a wooded hollow at the south end of Bute, on the site of St Blane's monastery of the 500s.7 min by roadSee itThe ruins of St Blane's under a blue sky.
Before you go

Kilchattan Bay is in the south of Bute, south of Rothesay.

The West Island Way starts at the south end of the village.

Where
The south of Bute.
Walk
The start of the West Island Way.
Where it is

The south of Bute.

Close byOn Bute.
  1. Mount Stuart's red sandstone front across the lawns.Mount StuartThe red sandstone Gothic mansion of the Marquesses of Bute, with a marble hall and chapel and 300 acres of gardens.4 miles10 min by road
  2. Scalpsie Bay's sand and the green fields behind, from above.Scalpsie BayA quiet red-sand bay on Bute's west coast, with a seal colony on its rocks and Arran across the water.5 miles9 min by road
  3. The roofless gable of St Mary's Chapel among the graves.St Mary’s ChapelThe roofless chancel of Rothesay's medieval church, with the canopied tombs of a Stewart knight and an unknown lady.7 miles12 min by road
  4. Display cases of birds and finds in Bute Museum's hall.Bute MuseumThe island's own museum on Stuart Street in Rothesay, by the castle, with the archaeology, history and wildlife of Bute.8 miles13 min by road
  5. Rothesay Castle's round walls behind its moat.Isle of ButeAn island in the Firth of Clyde, a train and a short ferry from Glasgow, with a round moated castle, Mount Stuart and sandy bays.9 miles14 min by road
Directions
The ruins of St Blane's under a blue sky.AttractionsSt Blane's Chapel1.0 miles over the water
Rothesay's seafront terraces rising above the bay.AttractionsRothesay Town8.0 miles
The castle walls reflected in the moat.AttractionsRothesay Castle8.0 miles
The Kettledrum café on its corner in Rothesay, a red shopfront with CAFE in white letters above the door.CafeKettledrum Café8.1 miles
The white shopfront of Musicker on Rothesay's High Street, its name on a green sign above the windows.CafeMusicker8.2 miles
The front of Ambience on Victoria Street, Rothesay, under its blue awning.RestaurantsAmbience Café8.2 miles
The wide sands of Ettrick Bay at low tide.AttractionsEttrick Bay14 miles
The low brick café at Ettrick Bay on a sunny day, with blue pillars and doors, benches and parasols along the front.CafeEttrick Bay Café14 miles
Stay nearby

Places to stay near the bay, and when each is next free.

The Hollies, Argyll and ButeThe Hollies
  • Sleeps 18
  • In Argyll and Bute
  • 13 miles from Kilchattan Bay
Check datesA white harled house with crow-stepped gables catches the sunset glow above a loch, yellow flowering shrubs in the foreground.Glenstriven House
  • To stay
  • In Argyll and Bute
  • 14 miles from Kilchattan Bay
Free 25–27 OctPlaces to stayEvery stay in Argyll and ButeAll our places to stay nearby, to search by date and by who is coming.See them all
Hidden Scotland, the magazine

Scotland, in print.

Every photograph commissioned, every word written by somebody who went. Printed twice a year, made in Scotland.

Get Issue 13Read it here
Find out more

For further reading, before you go.