Saddell Bay looks out across the Kilbrannan Sound to the Isle of Arran on the east coast of Kintyre. Here, there was once an ancient abbey, and around 1500 the spot was chosen by the Bishop of Argyll for a new castle, planted boldly near the shore at the mouth of a small river. The whole of Saddell Bay with its long white strand and rocky point now belongs to Landmark, including the castle, a later mansion and four cottages. Each building stands alone and those who stay in them have the freedom of the whole bay in all its wild and unspoilt beauty.

Cul na Shee (or Cul na Sythe) means ‘nook of peace’ in Gaelic, which in this case refers to a minute bay, backed by steep woods, a few hundred yards beyond the castle. Here in the 1920s a schoolteacher, the daughter of a local minister, built herself a simple home for her retirement, on the grass behind a rocky beach.

It would be hard to find a more tranquil place, reached by a path along the beach, overlooked by no other building and with just the sea and Arran to look at. It has, moreover, been a pleasure to preserve a building of a kind so very unfashionable now, to show how suitable it can look and how snug and cheerful its pine-boarded rooms can be.

Sleeps: 4