My poor we eyes are getting tired staring at these recently unearthed pics, and trying to understand them, so anyone that wants to chip in with suggestions is welcome.
Three views, all claiming to be of the Keil Hotel at Southend at the bottom of the Kintyre peninsula, but the closer I look, the more convinced I become that only one of them actually shows the hotel, and the other two are of a nearby building.
For reference, the Keil Hotel is described as a five storey Art-Deco building, which was painted white. This led to it being a wartime landmark when the lighthouses were extinguished for the duration.
First pic, I believe is clearly the hotel, taken from across the water, on Sanda Island, but not, I suspect, from the marked jetty, it's too big/broad:
The next two are marked as being the hotel, but as you look at them, it becomes clear (I think) that while they are both of the same building and location, they are not of the hotel. I think, looking back at the first pic above, this other building may just be discernable on the shoreline above and a little to the right of the head of the chappie standing on the little jetty.
Having stared at the above pic, my opinion is that the two pics below relate to a smaller, wider building that lies to the left of the hotel, and is also located on a considerably lower part of the shore, nearer to sea level. To me, the hotel is clearly on a higher piece of land. This seems even more likely if you look at the amount of rocky outcrop visible in the three images.
A closer view:
And finally, closer still:
And for your bonus question, how would you like you like to stick a pin on the following aerial view, and work out, using the pics given above, exactly where the hotel sits (we need to know for its page on the main site)?
Unfortunately, you'll have to identify your preferred spot in words, as Multimap only allows you to mark points that are about 500 yards apart, unlike the pinpointing that Google etc allows, but they don't have aerial views in deserted areas such as this, so it's all we've got.
First impressions are that the buildings in pic 2 are actually to the left of the prominent white structure in pic 1 - presumably that makes them a bit bit further south. If you look at pic 1 again you'll see something there and if you look at pic 2 again you'll see that the thick woodlands are almost upon the buildings and foreshore, the buildings to the right of the white structure as quoted in your message have a different background - a less steep hill. The confusing thing is the white structure in pic 1 to the right of the subject, its not in any of the other images. Pic 3 can be discounted I think as it may be a painting enhanced to look like a photo.
Interesting thought on pic 3, though probably likely to be a print related effect causing the appearance, since the photo archive 'owner' would probably not have included a doctored painting, not without comment at least.
However...
I actually thought your comment was going to be the other way round, and along the lines that the structure might have been retouched to enhance it.
And...
No, I don't really know what broken part of my head I was using when I typed 'east' instead of 'left', so I just went and fixed it
Apollo, the first picture, like you say, is a picture of the Keil Hotel, a splendid one too, I must say...captures its remoteness. I believe the other two pictures are of the ruins of Keil School. The hotel is further round the coast road; that is, to the left of the ruins as shown in your Pictures #2 and #3, or if you prefer, the ruins of the school are to the right of the hotel in the original picture.
I tried to read your map Apollo, spent a good ten minutes on it, but alas, in vain. It's too technical for me...geez, a wis all over the Mull!
Keil Hotel is somewhere close to 55*18' 34.7"N 5*39' 36.3"W - I know it is not digital but it is the best I can do with the existing mapping choices.
As one who has been there I should point out that although Keil Hotel is art deco it has a Victorian Gatehouse. Clue here perhaps? I think the building in tha later pictures is the one that preceeded the hotel.
I do not think the pictures were taken from Sanda but from the point where the ruined lifeboat station is.
I could not make anything of your maping suggestion either. All I got was a view of waves and a blue rectangle I could steer about the picture.
Thanks, I woke up with renewed inspiration this morning, and have 'solved' the mystery and got accurate locations.
The pic description provided were indeed a load of 'old crock', and the buildings features as you collectively described.
In fact, Keil Hotel was an entirely separate structure from that shown in the second pair. It looks like sloppy writing and record-keeping is leading to a blurring of Keil Hotel and Keil House.
Keil house is the ruined 'pile of rubble' visible in those other two pics.
It, not Keil Hotel, opened on the 29th November 1915 as Kintyre Technical College, and was later destroyed by fire, after which the college moved to Denny's Helenslee House in Dumbarton, in 1925.
Unfortunately, there's still precious little online about the actual hotel, and I've just rubbished some of what was supposed to be its history. Oh well
BLUE waves???
Try starting with this link, which jumps to the plain map instead of the aerial photo, in case there's a problem. Also don't forget to zoom as well as pan:
I've looked at these pictures a few more times and the more I look at them the more confused I become. I went back to one of those technical maps I used a while back on Campbeltown and pushed it all the way along the B842 road to Southend. Just a waste of time, I couldn't find the Keil Hotel or the Keil School.
I'm no longer so sure that the object in Picture #2, which I identified as the Keil School ruins, is in fact these ruins. It's certainly in the correct location, but I don't recall the building being as high as it appears in Picture #2, it seems too high. And the object in Picture #3, which I identified as the Keil School ruins, just doesn't fit my mind's eye at all...geez, it looks more like Crookston Castle, than the Keil ruins, when'd they move it?
I too, think Picture #3 is a painting of a picture similar to Picture #2.
You were spot on with your first thoughts, and the hotel is in fact at High Keil, and appears on the map as you described the photograph - taken further round the coast, and also as the Fox noted, clearly taken from the old lifeboat station. Teamwork
Can't see why you're unsure about the old school/house ruins, do remember there's been 80 years of coastal weather at work on them, and you never know who's been there 'reclaiming' stuff, not to mention any fiddling that's been done on the pics by photographers.
While I still can't go along with any of the images being paintings, I don't preclude a keen photographers engaging in a bit of retouching to emphasis the subject.
I think I spoke to soon...
The locations given should have been within about 10 m of the site locations, but the reality is that they don't land in realistic spot, although they are generally closer than we had before. I suspect the problem lies in a typo, but, no way to be sure, though I will go hunt down some more obscure digital maps. They might have the buildings marked as little squares, and I can scrape the location off them.
I do not know that it was lifeboat station for a fact but it is the same design as used by the RNLI. It looked to be in quite a ruinous state last summer.
Have you tried the Kintyre chat room ( url forgotten) it had a thread on the history of the hotal and some pictures a I recall.
Ok, my brain is shutting down now, but having looked at a government sponsored mapping resource using OS data, it looks as if the points given for the hotel and house (or lodge, as it appears in some references) are indeed correct, AND tie in with the the first of the three pics posted above.
This may also explain the location of the items, and how the flat perspective of a photograph can be misleading as it robs the viewer of any real perspective - you have to make assumption, and that means mistakes, so...
Taking the white structure of the hotel as a given reference point, the pile of rubble originally thought to be visible to it left, is in fact 126 m due south of the hotel, on the foreshore, and is indeed the remains of the house, or school. The smudge to the right is another three plot of smaller buildings. These buildings, and the house, all lay on the north side of a road leading to them from the right/east, and apparent in the pic, provided you know it's there.
Acually, looking at pic 2, taken at a more acute angle and from further away than pic 3, you can see the aforementioned smaller building on the right of the shot. Pic 3 shows its closeness by having the sandy beach, rather than the rocks to the east, in its foreground,
There was a connection road, or track, that led due north to the hotel from the house, also visible on the map I found, and which also shows the road looping around the hotel building, which you can see in the colour pic above, at the same angle to the building.
After finding a few extra strands of info about the buildings at Keil I've been able to fix them properly on the map to within a few feet, so you can now see the proper layoot of the buildings, including the Lodge.
The Victorian Lodge referred to by The Fox in fact belongs (belonged?) to Keil House, but the hotel shared the same access road, hence its appearance as belonging to the hotel and being 'out of period'.
More bad new about this once classic building, as the Buildings at Risk folk visited it towards the end of 2009, and their summing was even more gloomy than might have been expected, but also no surprise after 20 years of dereliction:
November 2009: External inspection finds the building‘s condition continues to deteriorate towards a ruinous state. Some of the upper floors have collapsed and the building is now completely exposed to the weather.
The Wiki page has had a bit of an update too, thanks to some info received and bit more searching, so we know a little bit more about its past, and maybe (if the info is factual) about its demise.
Brave owners too, and you can find out why they stood to lose £10 from all their bookings on fairly regular basis, if you check the updated story.
Pity, I used to go up around the side of the hotel to visit one of the company sites. It always looked very sad with many broken windows. (There was also a HIFIX 6 site at the back of the hotel)
Keil House Built 1872-5 Fire 1924
Keil Hotel Built 1938-9
Pevsner describes as Bold and once lighthouse-white against the hillside; close to, however, the walls are drab, the Moderne affection gauche rather than smart. Abandoned.
Unfortunately, they play with the urls when you try and visit the Argyll & Bute page given below, so you are redirected to their nasty framed site, but if you select The Guides from the list on the left of the page, the second attempt will get you a clickable map, and a third click on the map will get you to Scotland, then a fourth click on Argyll & Bute will get you where the link below would have liked to, had it been allowed to, and saved you those extra clicks (yes, I hate bad web site design, and four clicks where one would have done the job is bad design).
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