Torosay

Now here is a hidden treat. You can sail up and down the Sound of Mull for a lifetime and never spot this place, I think because one is always trying to get somewhere else and because the anchorage is very much for fair weather. Of course you can anchor at Craignure, which is more sheltered, and either walk or take the Mull train. At Torosay there is an old slipway, a boathouse, a path through rhododendrons and you are there, nineteenth century Torosay castle and an amazing terraced garden (Robert Lorimer?) complete with real 18th century Italian statues. The attraction is not so much the plants - although the herbaceous border is pretty spectacular - but the setting, the design, the old stone walls, the gargoyles, the trees surrounding the water garden and those decaying statues - a hand off here, half a fish there but nonetheless an evocation of where the fruits of the land can be enjoyed in simple rural pleasure. There is even a man watering his garden. The house is very Scottish Baronial, 1856-8, designed by David Bryce who also did the old Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Fettes College (Scotland's answer to Eton and Tony Iraq War Blair's alma mater). There are rather wonderful Rupert Bear turrets and crow step gables and inside it has the feeling of a family home, which it is, with interesting items and charming descriptions of many of the pictures and their family relevance. It is particularly nice to be invited to sit on the chairs. There are tame chaffinches in the garden tea room, and definitely good stuff to eat. It is a lovely garden for kids to run around in, and roll down the slopes between the terraces, and there is a small adventure playground. The whole place has a very nice feel to it, posh for sure, but nice, and not too cocky. But shock horror, it was put up for sale in April 2010, we await the outcome.