Queen Victoria’s honeymoon retreat to become a hotel
● Neo-gothic building set for transformation
0 The A-listed Taymouth Castle is set to become a five-star hotel and spa with 37 luxury suites The Scottish castle that was a honeymoon retreat for Queen Victoria is to become a worldclass hotel.
Taymouth Castle, in Highland Perthshire, is set to become a five-star hotel and spa, with 37 luxury suites, after a number of false starts.
The A-listed four-storey neogothic building was used as a honeymoon base for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert after their wedding in 1840.
The latest announcement
ABERDEEN
gives renewed hope that the building can finally be developed into a luxury hotel, complete with spa.
Work had previously stalled under developers Barrasford and Bird. They had initially claimed they would spend £3 million on the site.
Taymouthcastleanditscontents were sold in 1922 and it became a hotel with a James Braid designed 18-hole golf course. The site operated as a Polish hospital during the Second World War and it was later leased to a civil defence school.
In recent years schemes to open it as a hotel and fractional ownership have been floated.
The building has already undergone a £23 million refur- bishment under its previous owners.
The ambitious plan to turn the castle near Kenmore into a five-star luxury resort has been resurrected and Perth and Kinross Council has approved its proposal under delegated powers.
The new owners’ details have not been revealed but architects Mckenzie Strickland Associates, acting as agents, state the latest submitted plans are “critical” in terms of the “new investor’s” business plan to ensure the castle renovation and operation is “financially viable”.
They claim this will lead to the “ultimate vision” for the estate which is to turn it into a world-class resort.
A supporting statement submitted by the architects says: “The proposals, which will replace the consented 14 hotel suites with a total of 23 smaller bedroom suites, are critical in terms of the new investor’s business plan to ensure the castle renovation and operation is financially viable.
“It will help deliver the phased restoration and revitalisation of the castle and the ultimate vision for Taymouth Castle estate as a whole.”
The majority of the scenic castle has been modernised but the latest plan will see new floorplan layouts in the second and third floors of the main tower along with reconfiguration of the west wing to build the 23 smaller bedrooms.