Crap. Fallen in love with an old Scotish castle that is fecked. Am i crazy?

[plumviolet]

Living in Scotland with dh and 2 dds, been here for around 10 years and love it.

I left my job to have the kids and am planning on going back to work in the next few months. Whilst searching for a job online, i got sidetracked and started searching for hotels and b&b's for sale. No experience with that kind of thing, but its always been a bit of a dream of mine and although i know it's majorly hard work and difficult to get right, I feel like it is just the kind of project for me to get my teeth stuck into.

Well....near where we got married (an area we know and absolutely adore) an old Scottish lairds mansion has come on the market at the top of our budget and hour away from my husbands work. It has been a hotel before and it has 12 bedrooms. Its not been one for a few years now though. It was built in the 1800's and has some nice history that comes along with it.

It is in the most gorgeous area, think of the movie Brave and that's basically it. Major tourist area, loch side, cute local village you name it.

Roof is fecked. Lots of damp, turrets and towers to deal with too. Wet rot for sure, possibly worse (no survey yet). Sizable tree growing out of one of the chimneys. Guess that is why it is in our price range. We won't have much money to initially plow in and will have to do a lot of the work ourselves over time. We're both fairly hands on so that's ok, me and dh don't mind getting our hands dirty and would look on it as a long term project and a house for our kids to grow up in. Husband would still have to work, well, until it started to make money. Would run it as a b&b kind of thing and possibly hold weddings there in the future.

Oh, its also grade II listed.

I am totally crazy to even consider this aren't I?

Crikey! not the derelict crumbling edifice I imagined. Looks lovely. Delete the link and go put an offer in ..

Hasn't been used as B&B/commercial accommodation of late, meaning all its licenses are expired, I'd guess because the cost and hassle of repairing it are too great.

We live on the borders of that very national park, I could spin your head with the nightmares people who've bought regular houses have had here with the park service.

Only 5 photos, too. I could venture a guess as to why.

I can't imagine the national park objecting to someone fixing up a crappy hotel, it's not like the mute swans are going to object

'I can't imagine the national park objecting to someone fixing up a crappy hotel, it's not like the mute swans are going to object'

LOL! Seriously, they are a well-known PITA around here.

Looked at a lodge around here. Luckily, another owner came out. She works for the park service. Fecking lodge is sitting on park land. She started her litany of restrictions and my eyes glazed over. No wonder the thing's been on sale for over a year!

The agent manages to include a big smug photo of himself but hasnt bothered to calculate gross floor area or provide a floor plan.

Email them to ask the floor area. Then multiply that figure by a minimum of £2500/sqm!! Probably more like 3000-3500 for a boutique hotel type thing. Then add on 15% professional fees and top with Vat (although some work on listed buildings is zero rated but not all so you have to pay a qs wads of cash to work out which bits).

Im guessing that your budget might not even reach the immediate say 80k for the roof??

Ach well... The midges around there are hideous anyway.......

Lovely looking house and I can see the attraction but really houses like this need an awful lot of money to look after.

They were built by wealthy people and they need a wealthy person to look after them.

I say you should twist Matthew's arm to use the money Lavinia's father left him and you could save Downton Balquhidder, Killin.

Sorry I hadn't realised it's in National park - that's serious hard-work. Paperwork, restrictions + NIMBYs make it less attractive.

Looks lovely, I'd go for it, however that is tempered by the knowledge that my friend is in to the tune of several millions on his Scottish castle, and he has only got planning permission so far!!!!!

Yer nuts!

I'm from that neck of the woods. It's coming down with b&b though could probably accumulate more.

My mum bought a fairly derelict property and did it up into a 5* b&b and they did great business. But 4 bed was at - and beyond - the limit of her doing it herself. You'd need staff too.

If you're serious, get in touch with VisitScotland. They'll do a no fee chat about the practicalities (registration, inspection etc). We run 2 s/c properties in the outer Hebrides. Feel free to pm me if you want more info. VS is strict but very helpful.

Actually, now that you've provided the link, I realise that my friend viewed this about six months or so ago. I think she went as far as contacting the national park about what they would and wouldn't allow. She didn't buy it (obviously)... I'm sure it was that one.

Its beautiful.

It's gorgeous, and I love love the area. It's really on the main trail up to the Highlands so you would get a lot of traffic.

However there is already lots of accommodation in Killin for tourists. The Killin Hotel has loads of rooms and serves decent gastropub food, and there are tons of B&Bs in the village. I've never had a problem finding somewhere to stay in Killin. There might be a niche for a high end boutique hotel though, but it would be expensive to get it to that standard.

This is the kind of place that I'd to stay in for a dirty weekend, once done up to the Mr and Mrs Smith standard, but not own and run. Someone has to run it though! Guess it depends on how hardy your temperament is?

What does the home report say abou the property?

Who did the report?

Gorgeous building and part of the country. Scots Baronial architecture is beautiful, all the crow stepped gables, stone work and turrets . But expat is right - dealing with the National Park and Historic Scotland is no joke, although they are there to safeguard heritage. Is it B Listed? It's priced to reflect the state it's in and difficulties in restoring it.

Living in Central London, for that price you get a 1 bed room flat in a new build development around here. 14 bedrooms - you'll need to find staff!

Surely for that money you could find something a lot smaller and more manageable but still a possible B&B?
And if you haven't got experience of running a hotel isn't it best to start small or with an existing business rather than try to build a big one from scratch? In a listed wreck?
I think your dream of rescuing a historic property and making it into a B&B is a good one but you need to make sure you are being realistic about it or you could fall flat on your face.

It's gorgeous. I reckon it needs about 2 million and two years (if all done by a very professional team) to get it up to boutique hotel standard. Could you borrow that much?

If you want to do the work yourselves that's great and should save you a bunch of money, but bear in mind that you cannot get any revenue until it's finished, and it will probably take about 10 years to get it done. Can you fund your lives and the building materials in the meantime?

All those high ceilings, it will be a very cold house full of draughts and cost your roof budget to heat every year.

Wow that looks amazing....and sooooo cheap. (compared to the town I live anyway). It is such a beautiful area. Stunning and dramatic.

You have to sit down and do the maths. Either you can afford it or you can't. An hour commute for your DH is not great. What about schools for the DC. You need to think about when they are older.

I think you would need some more DC's to fill it up a bit.

It is a humongous house, think of the bills!

I love it!!! You'd have to have a hell of a lot of money and patience. I'm on the edge of a national park in England and I have friends who have a huge list of rules to stick to.

Offers over 395 means approximately eleventy million, though doesn't it?

possibly hasn't completely mastered Scottish house buying system

A house that size would cost about another million to do up. Say you can do half the work yourself, you are looking at half a million, ball park.

So I suspect you need a budget of at least a million . It's a pity, it's lovely, and in much better condition than I expected.