A couple who are spending millions of pounds restoring a Perthshire castle are to star in a new Channel 4 TV show.
Tracey Horton and her partner Rob Beaton have poured more than £1.5 million into the renovations at Culdees Castle since they bought it in 2019.
The couple initially stumbled upon the project, but are now planning their wedding at the venue next August.
They have ambitious plans for the site, which lay derelict for half a century before they took it on.
Now they are to feature in Channel 4 show Renovation Nation, which follows restoration projects across the UK.
Tracey said: “We’ve had television crews here since about February.
“We’ve got some tight deadlines and tight budgets, so it was easy for us to go back to them and give them a list of what they might want to film.
“But it has been quite challenging at times.”
The couple are reslating the roof of the chapel where they plan to marry next August.
“We’ve got new floors and ceilings all the way to the second floor on the east wing,” Tracey added.
“Our wedding will be the first time the chapel has ever been used for a wedding in the history of the castle.
“We’ve only ever had funerals before.”
Perthshire castle owners ‘apprehensive’
While she’s delighted to be featured on the programme, Tracey admits there are some nerves about appearing on national television.
She said her friends and family are organising get togethers to watch the first programme, which airs at 4pm today (October 3), together.
“We’ve not seen any of it so we are bit apprehensive,” she added.
“I think we’ll be watching a lot of it from behind the sofa.”
And she revealed there have been discussions about the Perthshire project being featured in its own standalone programme.
“We’re in the first four programmes of this series, and I don’t know how many episodes there are.
“We’ve been signed up to do this series, which will also be shown on US network Peacock.
“They’ve also asked us if we’d be interested in possibly being in our own series, and we’ve said yes to that, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Culdees Castle was built in 1810 for Charles Drummond, whose clan was rewarded for fighting with Robert the Bruce.
But abandoned and unloved for more than half a century, the 18-bedroom four-storey property fell into serious disrepair.
The first episode of Renovation Nation is on Channel 4 at 4pm today (October 3).
