Now converted to flats and known as Beattie Court, this substantial B-listed building was constructed as the Royal Aquarium in 1875-76, designed by a local architect. Located on the corner of Battery Place and Glenburn Road in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, it occupies the site of a small artillery battery which was built by Cromwellian troops and continued to be used by the Bute Artillery Volunteer Corps into the 19th C. Looking out onto Rothesay Bay, this was the first public aquarium in Scotland. It also included a camera obscura and an enclosure for seals. Tanks in the basement held 181,843 litres (40,000 gallons) of fresh water and 454,609 litres (100,000) gallons of salt water. The aquarium closed in the 1920s and the building found a new use as swimming baths from 1938. Converted to housing in the 1990s, it has also served as a music-hall and museum.
