A Highland tourism business which includes four hotels and a medieval castle is to be sold as the founder retires almost 40 years after starting out with a single property.
Former merchant seaman Ian Cleaver started Highland Heritage Limited in the mid-seventies when he bought the Royal Hotel in Tyndrum, and built it into a £8 million turnover company which uses its own fleet of 16 liveried coaches to bus tourists in to the hotels in Tyndrum, Dalmally and Oban.
Along the way, he also acquired Kilchurn Castle, the 15th century redoubt of the Clan Cambell on the banks of Loch Awe where buyers may have a ‘self-styled Laird’s title’. An impressive ruin and important historic monument, it is currently managed by Historic Scotland.
Now the entire business, including Kilchurn, the coaches and the freehold on four properties with more than 400 bedrooms in total, has been put on the market, with Colliers International the selling agent.
Rare opportunity
Alistair Letham, a director in the UK hotels agency team at Colliers International, said the sale represented an extremely rare opportunity to acquire a large, self-sustaining business in the Highlands.
“With a number of high quality properties that are in tune with their spectacular surroundings, a fleet of coaches and a huge database of satisfied customers, Highland Heritage is an extremely highly regarded and successful business. To sell it with an iconic Highland landmark such as Kilchurn Castle is the icing on the cake.
“The hotels’ clientele is almost entirely self-generated from the tour company, and all the properties are offered on a freehold basis. Mr Cleaver is a somewhat legendary business figure in Argyll, who built the company up from scratch, so the buyer will be following in illustrious footsteps.”
The business being sold includes the 96-room Royal Hotel and the 132-room purpose-built Ben Doran Hotel (pictured top), both in Tyndrum, as well as the 99-room Dalmally Hotel and the 66-bedroom Alexandra Hotel (above) in Oban. All the hotels have a range of facilities, as well as staff accommodation, and the Alexandra has planning consent for an additional 26 bedrooms.
Also included are 16 modern Volvo coaches, and Kilchurn Castle. Kilchurn was built in the mid-1400s by Sir Colin Campbell, 1st Lord of Glenorchy. His descendants, the Campbells of Glenorchy, were the most powerful of the numerous cadets of Clan Campbell and at times almost rivalled the clan chiefs. Kilchurn remained their powerbase for 150 years, until it was abandoned in the 1700s.
Highland Heritage Limited is offered for sale by way of the entire share capital of the owning company. A sale of the assets, as a whole or on an individual basis, would also be considered. Colliers International is inviting offers and has not named a price.
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