This is nothing new.
THIS is not the first time that an ultra-wealthy absentee landlord has sought to market Taymouth and the village of Kenmore for a cadre of…
www.thenational.scot
From the picture in that article. If things had gone to plan, I would have grown-up living in the accommodation at the very far right in the service range - I think it was the chief housekeepers house/servants hall, which would have been one hell of a big house in its own right. My Gran identified that as the quarters she wanted for us. As far away from everyone else as she could get! Other people identified their potential quarters in other parts of the service range and the Old Boy wanted to be in the main block of the castle itself, of course..!
Alternatively, it would have been more like we lived and worked our arses-off there for a few years before the entire family were made destitute by his scheme.
Broadly, he had made a good bit of money trucking in Australia for many years - not filthy rich but quite comfortably-off. Coming back to Aberdeen and buying a house just before the arrival of oil sent house prices skyrocketing, whilst Taymouth had failed to sell for years so was now being offered for an absolute pittance.
His plan was to renovate rooms in the castle - West Wing (block on the left) as B&B/guesthouse accommodation, which my Gran would run and buildings in the Army Camp as chalets/holiday homes. There was IIRC talk of renovating the 2-story building in the middle of the camp as a pub/club of some sort. He wanted to get the whole extended family in on it and move-down en-masse. My Gran was vital, because before she got her post office, she had worked at the DOE School and had a lot of experience of catering/domestic management, other members of the family were wanted for their building/trades skills to make the scheme happen and keep the place in good order.
I think my gran liked the idea and wanted to go in with it if the rest of the family had done so. My mother was a bit rootless following the recent breakdown of her marriage and could have handled the Admin/book-keeping but the rest of them gave it the once-over and weren't to be persuaded. The Old Boy was always known as the family wide-o from way-back, so I don't think they trusted him.
Other factors against it included the looming 70s energy crisis, which raised running costs from hugely expensive to staggering and the change in peoples holiday habits - In the face of cheap foreign holidays, Highland Perthshire was fast losing its position as one of the main places Glasgow and Edinburgh took their holidays and other visitor numbers were still low.
When I was going through the family papers after my mother's passing, I found all the letters/sale brochure and other stuff from that time, she'd carefully filed them all away.
What-if indeed..?
www.forbes.com
www.thecourier.co.uk
