Highlands and Islands Enterprise has today announced that a total of £7.4 million is set to be invested in redeveloping two Argyll hotels to provide high quality accommodation and facilities.
They are:
- The Ugadale Hotel in Machrihanish
- The Royal Hotel in Campbeltown
Both are set to be restored by Southworth Development LLC of Boston, Massachusetts, through its subsidiary Kintyre Development.
Funding of £1.12 million towards the project has been approved by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) with a further £744,000 committed from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The rest of the money is coming from private investment – and is the best possible testimony to a prosperous future ahead for Kintyre if this fantastic place believes in itself and releases its ambition.
This development is another spin off from the imaginative and exciting development of the Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club, the first to be built in Scotland in a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
Southworth Development is the management company for the Machrihanish Dunes course – and in fact, a look at their website (linked above) shows the Royal Hotel on Campbeltown’s lochside front right in the centre of the company’s property portfolio.
It is obviously very much in the interests of both Machrihanish Dunes and Kintyre that these two hotels come into the 21st century, bringing their history with them in a marriage with the best of today’s facilities.
This developed infrastructure will make Kintyre and its facilities, including its now fabulous golfing resources, infinitely more marketable. Relative remoteness becomes an advantage when there is a lot to go to a place to experience.
Good to see the Scottish Government backing investment in Kintyre, an area that has in the past suffered from appalling neglect from successive administrations.
With Skykon well established as a company at the forefront of wind turbine technology and the exciting golf development at Machrihanish Dunes to complement the existing Machrihanish and Dunaverty courses the steps are now being taken to put Campbeltown and surrounding Kintyre onto a far surer economic footing. Offshore experimental work in wave energy generation off the west coast should also bring longer term benefits.
Development of a new Creamery facility will give a surer basis for the dairy industry and ensure a sound manufacturing base for the top class Kintyre Cheese.
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I expect kintyre1 will be in shortly lauding this advance to the skies. Not
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Nice to see money going back into Kintyre. Hopefully this will secure employment in the area.
Wild horses couldn’t drag me back but if it keeps the town buoyant I’m all for this investment.
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I AM VERY PLEASED to see the investment by southworth development and that european money and a grant from hie’s greatly reduced budget are also to be received .
campbeltowns economic problems stem to a large extent from the run down of RAF machrihansh and the removal of the usa forces .
development of a new creamery will do nothing to secure the future of the dairy industry if farmers continue to receive a milk price below the cost of production . it is likely that the new facility will employ considerably fewer workers than the old. further contracion of the dairy industry appears inevitable so it is doubly welcome that tourism is receiving a boost
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Great news for the area! However, don’t think it is £7.4 million in funding or is it?????
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For Hughie – it is really good news for Campbeltown and Kintyre – the total investment going into these two hotels is £7.4 million. The rest is private sector investment. The information is rock solid. It has come from official Government sources. The amounts we quoted were the public sector contributions to the development – from HIE and from ERDF.
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Thanks newsroom. The whole story along with others is superb news for the area. It just reads as if it is £7.4 million of funding has been awarded when it is just under £2 million with the rest coming from the company themselves.
PS – Kintyre1 doesn’t represent everyone in Kintyre views
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Good point Hughie. We’ll amend the original piece now to make that clear.
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Hughie,
Of course we know that! My concern is that anyone thinks that way.
The contributions are relentlessly negative and there is no indication at any point of an alternative point of view that would attract support.
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I don’t believe kintyre1 comes from anywhere near Kintyre though he appears to be familiar with the public toilet arrangements in that area.
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