Lying 2 miles (3 km) north of the settlement of Rothesay on the island of Bute, Argyll and Bute, Port Bannatyne is a popular holiday resort and retirement destination. Located on the eastern coast of the island, it lies to the south of Kames Bay, to the north of the headland of Ardbeg Point and settlement of Ardbeg and offers views over the Kyles of Bute and up Loch Striven. Originally named Kamesburgh after the estate on which it was established, it was created by the Bannatynes of Kames as a planned village in an attempt to rival Rothesay. Kames Castle lies on the western outskirts of the village.
The grand Kyles of Bute Hydropathic Hotel once dominated the skyline above the village, opening in 1879. The building was requisitioned by the Admiralty during World War II to become the headquarters for a flotilla of X-craft midget submarines operating from Port Bannatyne. It was here that the attack on the German battleship Tirpitz was planned. The hotel closed in the 1970s, a victim of the decline of Bute as a holiday destination for Glaswegians, and was later demolished.
The noted surgeon Sir William MacEwen was born nearby in 1848. The bus garage in the village was the depot of the Rothesay Tramway, which became the Rothesay and Ettrick Bay Light Railway in 1905, but closed in 1936.
