Taymouth Castle in Perthshire is Britain’s first “seven-star”
luxury hotel. Service is second to none at the £1,000 a night Highland hideaway which
rivals the only other seven-star hotel in the world – in
Dubai. Taymouth Castle is the ancestral
home of the Campbell’s of Breadalbane and Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert spent their honeymoon there. Part of the movie
“Mrs Brown” was filmed in the castle, with the 50-seater
table there doubling as the one at
Balmoral. The American Four Seasons Hotel Group which has
bought the property, say that they plan to restore and
repair the building to its
former
grandeur – and add to the facilities, including a helicopter
landing
pad,
swimming pool and spa. The existing golf course will be
enhanced and a new club house will be built.
Taymouth Castle, on the banks of the River Tay, with 450
acres of land, an 18-hole
golf course and 2.5 miles of salmon fishing on the river,
has been up
for sale since 1997 – at “offers over £5.5 million”.
Although the castle largely
dates from the 19th century, it incorporates parts of a
castle which
was built in 1580 for Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorchy. Queen
Victoria stayed
in the castle in 1842. When the Campbell Breadalbane Estates
were broken
up in the 1920’s, the castle was bought by a hotel company
but later became
a school for the families of US servicemen. It has been
unoccupied for
the last 20 years. There have been recent reports that Four
Seasons, the
Toronto-based luxury hotel and global resorts operator, has
started negotiations
with Perth and Kinross Council with a view to making an
£80 million
investment to transform the category A-listed property into
the world’s second seven-star hotel to rival Gleneagles. The
castle is beginning to show signs
of wear and
tear as it is only being looked after on a “care and
maintenance”
basis. Developers would need to preserve the
historical elements
of the building – including lavish ceiling paintings and
ornate plaster-work.
