R o t h e s a t .
C a s t l e .
capital; a fmall but well-built town, of frnall houfes, and aboiii
two hundred families ; and within thefe few years-much irnproved,
The females fpin yarn ; the men fupport themfelves by filhjJ
The town has a good pier, and lies at the bottom of a-fine 1»
whofe mouth exadtly opens oppofite to that o f Loch-Streven i
Cowal: here is a fine depth of water, a fecure retreat; and a reai
navigation down the Firth for an export trade : magazines fa
goods for foreign parts might moil advantageoufly be eftablilhcdi
here.
The caftle has been built at different times; the prefent entrant!
by Robert III. the reft is quite round, with round towers at the fids
and is o f unknown antiquity. Hujbec *, grandfon of Somerled, m
killed in the attack of a caftle in Bute, perhaps of this. Hm\\
took the caftle and wholeifland in-the year 1263. It was feizedm
Edward Baliol, in 1334, J when pofieffed by the high ftewardtf
Scotland, a friend of the Bruces-, and heir to. the crown. In the year 1
following, the whole ifland, as well as that of Arran, was ravaged
by the Englijh, under the- command of Lord Darcy, Lord J uftice oil
Ireland. Soon after; the natives of Arran and But ezrofe §, and, un*
armed, made an attack with ftones on Alan Lile, the Englijh. governed
put his party to flight, and recovered the fortrefs. It became W
after-times a royal refidence : Robert III. II lived there for a conli-
derable time; much attention, was bellowed on it, for in the reign of:
James V . we find, that one-of the articles of. accufation againft Sir
James Hamilton, was his not accounting for three thoufand crowns,
* Torfaust f Buchanan,. J Boethius, 317. .
§ Major, 229. |\ Boethius, 339.
d eftin rf
Leftined to reform the caftle and palace of Rofay. * In 1544, the Earl
L Lenox, affifted by the Englijh, made himfelf mailer of the place :
E n d in the beginning of the laft century (on what occafion I do not
[recoiled) it was burnt by the Marquifs of Argyle.
I Bute is faid to derive its name from Bothe, a cell, St. Brandan
[having once made it the place of his retreat; and for the fame rea-
ifon, the natives of this ifle, and alfo o f Arran, have been fometimes
S t y l e d Brandani. It was from very early times, part of the patri-
Inony of the Stuarts : large poffefiions in it were granted to Sir John
I -Stuart, natural fon of Robert II. by one of his miftreffes, but whether
I b y his’ beloved More or Moreham, or his beloved Mariota de Cardny,
■ is what I cannot determine, f
I Continue our ride along a hilly country, open, and under tillage.
I pad on the right, the caftle and bay of Carnes, long the property of
■the Bannentynes: turn to the Weft, defcend to the ihore, and find
I our boat ready to convey us to the veffel, which lay at anchor a mile
■diftant, under IncEmarnoc.
| An ifland fo called from St. Marnoc, where appear the ruins of a
I chapel, and where (according to Fordun *) had been a cell o f monks.
I The extent of this little ifle is about a mile, has a hundred and twenty
I acres of arable land, forty of bruih-wood, near three hundred o f
I moor, and has vaft ftrata of coral and ihells on the Weft fide. It is
■ inhabited by a gentleman on half-pay, who, with his family, occupies
■ the place under Lord Bute.
* L in d efa y , 16 5.
t Vide Sir James Dakymple'a CoHeSions. Edinburgh 1705, p. p. xxxviii. Ixxxiii.
J Lib. ii. c. 10.
I n ch -M a r n o c .
B b 2 W eigh