Minister visits Rum as row erupts after collapsed sale of castle
Scotland’s biodiversity minister Lorna Slater visits Rum this week to hear islanders’ views on the future of the crumbling state-owned Edwardian pleasure palace Kinloch Castle, amid a row over a failed sale.
Multi-millionaire financier and former Tory donor Jeremy Hosking withdrew his bid to buy the “nationally significant” sporting lodge earlier this year, blaming Ms Slater, a Green MSP who put the sale on hold in November. It has sparked a dispute between the island’s community trust and castle conservationists.
“The sale of this ‘A’ Category listed and publicly-owned building by NatureScot on behalf of the nation, was compromised by a series of demands brought about by a minority of the Rum community,” wrote Kinloch Castle Friends Association (KCFA), in a letter to MPs and MSPs seeking support for the castle’s sale and restoration.
“Jeremy Hosking bid for the castle with the intention of full restoration, using it for visitor accommodation, putting it in the ownership of a charitable trust, and restoring the walled garden.
“At the last minute, a few members of the local community decided their own views overruled those of other members of the Rum community and claimed it to be against Land Reform for the sale. Now these same individuals are intent on claiming they will be able to find a sustainable future for the castle.
“With what? How? Do they have the necessary knowledge, interest or expertise? On a recent visit to Rum, KCFA found that a majority of the community (at least 12 of the 22 adults) were in favour of the Hosking sale but their voices have not been heard.
“Failure to find a solution brings both NatureScot and the Scottish Government into disrepute. We demand urgent action now to find a willing purchaser, restore the castle and put it to constructive use.”
The KCFA, in a newsletter published after its March visit, added: “We did wonder if any of the Isle of Rum Community Trust (IRCT) had thought through the pros and cons with any real understanding of what it may mean.
“It is still unclear what will happen as a result of the intervention into the sale by Lorna Slater MSP who appears to have only listened to the comments of a few of the Rum community, and taken it that they represented the whole.”
The Isle of Rum Community Trust said it read KCFA’s newsletter with “disappointment and frustration”. It said: “That KCFA continue to seek to undermine the fact that IRCT is the representative, democratic, land-owning community body for Kinloch village on Rum is unhelpful.
“That they also suggest that, based on their own anecdotal research with locals and visiting workmen on one brief visit they made to the island, that somehow a majority of residents appear to be in favour of any deal whatsoever that leads to full restoration of this particular building (and presumably at any social or environmental cost), is also inaccurate and less than constructive.
“We spent 10 months in negotiations to try to ascertain what this deal actually was, and how we, as a community, could help make it work for all parties. This prospective buyer walked away from those negotiations supplying little of the information required.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Biodiversity minister Lorna Slater will visit the Isle of Rum next week to hear from islanders first-hand their thoughts for the future of the castle.”