The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Historic Perthshire hotel goes on the market for £1.7m
Dunkeld: Popular and award-winning Atholl Arms has hosted royalty and enjoys views over River Tay
An award-winning hotel has gone on the market for £1.7 million.
The Atholl Arms Hotel in Dunkeld is a stop-off for many major events in Perthshire, and recently won an award for its beer garden, which overlooks the River Tay.
It is a starting point for participants in the Tay Descent, which sees hundreds of canoeists, kayakers and paddle boarders make their way to Perth.
The hotel boasts views up to Thomas Telford’s famous five-arched bridge, opened to the public about 25 years before the Atholl Arms was built.
It also has links to royalty, as Queen Victoria dined there as a princess prior to ascending the throne in 1837.
Estate agents believe the hotel, which was built in 1832, has the prospect to go from strength to strength in the future.
Stuart Drysdale, associate director at Christie & Co, which is handling the sale, said: “The Atholl Arms Hotel is the most prominent building on Dunkeld’s main street with a fantastic outside bar and terrace which overlooks the River Tay.
“The Cairngorms National Park is located nearby and Dunkeld is a popular base for tourists and visitors to the area.
“This sale presents a great opportunity for an investor or experienced operator to acquire a business with the potential for further strong growth producing a high level of return.”
The 17-bed hotel contains a lounge bar and bistro, an outside bar and terrace which was awarded “Best Outdoor Area” at the 2016 Scottish Licensed Trade News awards, and the RiverView restaurant which won “Best in the Region for Informal Dining” at the 2014 Scottish Hotel Awards.
The current owners built the outdoor area in the gardens overlooking the River Tay along with the Pavilion Bar in 2016 and have also carried out other extensive renovations in recent years.
In 2013 the hotel played host to celebrity chef James Martin, who travelled to Perthshire to film an instalment of his TV show The Flying Chef.
Martin and his group enjoyed drinks in the hotel’s garden on the riverbank before dining in the RiverView restaurant.