In the original dustsheet. Navy leatherette binding with gilt title on the spine.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

This volume provides a survey of this region of Scotland stretching from the Atlantic islands and sea-lochs of Argyll to the softer landscape of Bute and the banks of the Clyde. The gazetteer introduces readers and visitors to a range of buildings.

Argyll and Bute is one of 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020). The administrative centre for the council area is in Lochgilphead at Kilmory Castle, a 19th-century Gothic Revival building and estate. The current council leader is Robin Currie, a councillor for Kintyre and the Islands. Argyll and Bute covers the second-largest administrative area of any Scottish council. The council area adjoins those of Highland, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.

                                                                    The A82, looking north

History: Buteshire and Argyll were two of the historic counties of Scotland, having originated as shires (the area controlled by a sheriff) in the Middle Ages. From 1890 until 1975 both counties had an elected county council. In 1975, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, Scotland’s counties, burghs and landward districts were abolished and replaced with upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts. The Strathclyde region was created covering a large part of western Scotland. Strathclyde was divided into nineteen districts, one of which the 1973 Act called “Argyll”, covering most of the former county of Argyll, but also including the Isle of Bute from Buteshire. The shadow authority elected in 1974 requested a change of name to “Argyll and Bute”, which was agreed by the government before the new district came into being on 16 May 1975. As created in 1975 the Argyll and Bute district covered the whole area of fourteen of Argyll’s sixteen districts and part of a fifteenth, plus two of Buteshire’s five districts, which were all abolished at the same time:

                                                                                Oban Ferry Terminal

The later scenes of the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love were filmed around the lochs and hills of Argyll and Bute. The area has also been indirectly immortalised in popular culture by the 1977 hit song “Mull of Kintyre” by Kintyre resident Paul McCartney’s band of the time, Wings.