The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Loch at that: Hotel with a view up for sale for £775,000
The Covid downturn has led a businessman to put a Highland Perthshire hotel on the market.
Loch Earn Brewery and Hotel is on sale for offers over £775,000.
The hotel sits on the shores of Loch Earn in the village of St Fillans.
It includes 39 bedrooms, three bars and restaurant areas, and a coffee shop.
Its grounds boast views across Loch Earn and feature 10 moorings, three piers, a private slipway and a waterside beer garden.
There is a separate building with owners’ accommodation to the rear of the hotel.
The hotel was bought by Arran Brewery in 2013.
It set up a cider shack which produces 1,000 litre batches of cider.
A beer brewery was added but has not yet been commissioned and it has the potential to brew 3,500 litres a day.
Plans are in place to add a further three buildings and open both a whisky shop and a local produce shop.
While the asking price may be less than that of a townhouse in St Andrews, any purchasers will need access to significant additional funds as the hotel is in need of extensive refurbishment.
Arran Brewery set about refurbishing the bedrooms in stages, but works were halted by a fire in 2016.
Arran Brewery managing director Gerald Michaluk said: “A bathroom fan went on fire and fell into the bathtub, causing it to burn. Because the decorators had been painting, the smoke alarm was covered with masking tape.
“Eventually the smoke fed through and set off an alarm but the night manager switched it off. Doing so might have saved his life, however. The bathroom was internal and the fire was only being fed through the fan duct. Had he opened the door the sudden rush of oxygen would have produced a backdraft that might have killed him.”
Insurers claimed the hotel was under-insured and only paid out 20% of the company’s claim.
“Making up the shortfall used up the funds we had earmarked for renovation and led to the works being halted,” Mr Michaluk said.
Arran Brewery recently acquired distribution firm Flying Firkin and is looking to expand aggressively into England.
“We are looking to move our focus into distribution and away from the hotel industry so we have decided to put the hotel on the market,” he added.
“It’s a beautiful building and it is the right thing to do by the hotel to have new owners come in and carry out the restoration work.”
Mr Michaluk estimates the renovation works will cost around £600,000.
The hotel is on sale with Christie & Co.