The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Last orders at Dundee hotel and bar
A Dundee hotel and bar is to close today after more than a century in business.
The Cambustay, on Dalhousie Road, is expected to be knocked down and turned into a multi-million-pound care home.
The owners, Reid Properties, announced the move last month and said increasing competition in the area had caused dwindling profits.
Although it was best known as a hotel for much of the 20th Century, it has operated solely as a pub and restaurant in recent times.
It was first opened as a pub in the 19th Century, with official records dating back to the 1850s.
Lorna Easton, whose parents Alexander and Nancy Ross owned the hotel between 1955 and 1964, said the closure was “the end of an era in many ways”.
The 75-year-old said: “I lived in the hotel for some of the time my parents owned it when I was still at school but moved out when I married.
“My husband and I worked in the bar at nights and I think we were actually one of the first places in Dundee to start putting on supper dances, which were really popular.
“My father, who was known as Mac, built an extension when they bought it, so it had what you’d describe in those days as a cocktail lounge and another bar called The Fountain.”
The home, if approved by planners, would specialise in care for up to 70 people with dementia.
Care UK and Reid Properties is planning to spend £10 million on the construction.
Ms Easton said the closure was hard to take but the building had changed “a huge amount” over the years.
She said: “Sadly future owners tore much of the extension down, so it’s not the same place now of course – so much has changed over the years.
“For all of us that went to school in Broughty Ferry at that time, the news is quite sad.”
A manager at the pub confirmed the business will welcome its last customers today with the staff putting on a leaving party afterwards.
He said the demolition date was still to be confirmed pending approval by city planners