Hopes new hotel can finally rise from the ashes of Seaforth site

Arbroath: More than a decade on and gateway could be reinvigorated

Even through the mists of time, the fuzz of beery memory and the fog of a pre-smoking ban, smog-filled function room, I remember it was a cracker of a night.

Lack of total recall means I can’t be 100% sure whether it was a local freelancer’s first, second or third retirement do where his repeated comebacks actually became a story in themselves.

But little excuse was needed for a gathering of the Angus press corps in an era when rivalries were set aside for an evening of quite exceptional craic.

The beer flowed and Broon’s blond locks were lovingly flicked up for a night of fun and hours of fourth estate banter.

If memory also serves, a plaque at the entrance door of Arbroath’s Seaforth Hotel highlighted its status as the weekly meeting venue of either the local Round Table or Rotary, signifying the whitewashed landmark’s position as one of the prime venues in a town which for decades boasted a plethora of popular watering holes to meet the halcyon day demand of the dinner dance.

From Dykehead, north of Kirrie, to the likes of the Seaforth on the south coast of the county, Angus was graced with places stowed out every weekend.

But, on an August morning in 2006, the Seaforth was destroyed by a blaze from which the plume of smoke could be seen in Fife and the sound of crackling old timbers heard by Red Lichties across the town as the flames ravaged its long-faded grandeur.

Hope the gateway site – branded an ulcer on Arbroath – might once again deliver hotel beds has failed to materialise in the intervening decade and more.

But now national chain Marston’s has come forward with a restaurant and 24-bed hotel plan, keen to dip another toe into the Angus water after a successful first foray with its Dunnichen Stone venture adjacent to the A90 at Forfar.

I share already expressed optimism that the project will be a goer and at last there’s a real prospect something new will spring from the barren Seaforth site.

Which is more than can be said for the balding Broon pate where once the ’80s quiff was combed in advance of a grand night out there!

Get in touch with your local office in Angus or send a letter to The Courier at letters@thecourier.co.uk

Flames and plumes of smoke fill the sky over Arbroath as the Seaforth Hotel burns.