Declined and ready to fall.

This is the hotel at St Cathrines on Loch Fyne. It is perhaps a dozen years or so since, on a night of a very heavy frost, I had a memorably good dinner just where the window has fallen out !

Shortly afterwards the business changed hands and - a few years later - finally closed its doors. The building was then sold to a local property developer who, ever since, seems to have been in dispute with Argyll & Bute Council about his plans. Meanwhile the ravages of time take their toll - the small tree that is visible in the picture is actually growing from the paving directly outside the front door and I was only able to get this close because the security fencing was blown down in the last storm.

The village of St Catherines has a long history - indeed this is the more likely location for the tale of "half hung Archie" , though the books and websites place it further along the shore at the Creggans Inn in Strachur. But there was a small ferry from here across to Inveraray and the crossing would be faster and less rough than one to Strachur.

The old inn, around which the hotel was built, is also of some vintage as the plaque above the door relates. It is tragic it has come to this state, and become such an eyesore , sitting as it does right on the main road. Surely the developer or the Council can do something before the inevitable happens and it is declared unsafe and bulldozed?