REGAL REVAMP
Dalnair Castle set to be transformed into 10 luxury apartments
Property developers have started work on a project to breathe new life into a listed building near Croftamie.
Dalnair Castle on the edge of the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park is being transformed by FM Group into a development of 10 apartments.
Dalnair House/Castle was built for Glasgow merchant Thomas Brown in 1884 and damaged in a fire in 1917. It passed to Glasgow Western Hospital Board in the 1940s and was a nurses home until Killearn Hospital closed in 1972. For much of the 1970s it was a training centre for British Steel then a nursing home.
The extensive work has included removing dry rot inside the building, installing new floors throughout and refurbishing the roof and external stonework.
The company is investing £10million in the Dalnair Castle project and in work on 19th century Ury House in Aberdeenshire which it plans to turn into a boutique hotel and spa.
Stiring Council’s planning panel granted permission in 2014 for the 10 apartments currently under construction.
Approval was also given for eight mews properties, four plots within a walled garden and a further ten plots set within the existing landscape.
Residents will have access to private, gated grounds featuring a tennis court and extensive lawns and walks.
Panel members in granting approval went against the recommendation of their own planners but attached “rigorous” conditions and a Section 75 legal agreement to the approval.
Officials believed the plans were contrary to policies on development in the countryside, and the proposed housing was within the grounds/gardens of a listed building.
They also had concerns the scale and design of the new build housing in the grounds would detract from the setting of Dalnair House and that the extent of tree removal would be harmful to the landscape.
This week, however, FM Group director Jonathon Milne said: “As a family-run Scottish business, we care deeply about our country’s heritage and this is reflected in many of our developments.
“We are passionate about building residential and commercial developments which preserve the best of heritage through the best of modern day construction techniques to build developments and communities of which we can be proud now and in the future.
“The refurbishment of listed buildings demands the detailed attention and involvement of our team.
“It also requires significant capital investment to safeguard the properties from ruin which, in turn, means we must take a longer term view on these developments.”