It’s five years since Discovery Land Company purchased Taymouth Castle and embarked on a multimillion-pound restoration of the 200-year-old Perthshire landmark.
But the US real estate company’s plans for a luxury housing development on the Taymouth estate near Kenmore have come under intense scrutiny in the last few weeks.
A new protest group, Protect Loch Tay, has called on the Scottish Government to block any further expansion by “a group of American billionaires who specialise in exclusive gated ‘worlds’ for the super rich”.
Its online petition has attracted more than 22,000 signatures.
Yet others living locally, including Kenmore Community Council, have been more supportive of the development.
They say they welcome the prospect of jobs and prosperity for this part of highland Perthshire, as well as the restoration of the castle, which had fallen into serious disrepair.
Hundreds of people packed into Aberfeldy Town Hall to attend a public meeting held by John Swinney MSP and Pete Wishart MP last Thursday evening.
The veteran SNP politicians said they couldn’t remember a planning application that had generated a greater volume of correspondence.
And the pair said they had been given assurances by Discovery Land Company that it would improve its communications.
Now Tom Collopy, Discovery Land Company’s chief project officer at Taymouth Castle, has spoken exclusively to The Courier.
He addressed some of the concerns raised by protestors, and discussed the progress of the development.
Do you accept there has been a lack of transparency around the Taymouth Castle project?
Our biggest takeaway from this has been that our communication needs to be improved greatly.
We have been in regular communication with Kenmore Community Council, and understood that to be our portal to the wider community.
But I think the reality is we probably weren’t telling our story clearly enough. Or we weren’t putting enough information online.
And that has created some speculation, which has unfortunately led to some miscommunication.
Our plan now is to work through the facts over the coming weeks and months and hopefully gain everybody’s trust.
We have held a series of meeting recently, because clearly there are some people out there who don’t know exactly where we stand in terms of action, vision and planning, and we are trying to catch people up as much as we possibly can.
• Kenmore Community Council will discuss Discovery Land Company’s Taymouth Castle development at its next meeting on August 31 at the Old Comrades Hut, Acharn, from 7pm.
Why has Discovery Land Company bought so many properties in Kenmore?
We are working on a revitalisation of Kenmore, including improvements to the beach.
And everything we do there will be open to the public.
When we bought Taymouth Castle five years ago and announced we were going to be bringing its planning consent to life, we assumed people would step in and make other improvements to Kenmore. And we just didn’t see it happening.
We saw things, frankly, getting worse economically, not better.
So we ended up in a conversation with one of the landowners who owned the Kenmore Hotel and several other commercial assets. And we came to terms, really out of no other choice.
Once we went in and did a full detailed inspection of the hotel building it was apparent that it needed much more investment and construction to bring it up to code and to make it viable. So that’s in the works.
We are also moving forward with reopening the shop as quickly as possible.
We are working through designs for the Taymouth Trading Company, to create a new restaurant.
The Paper Boat building (formerly a cafe), by the loch will be another restaurant.
We will be working closely with Kenmore Community Council on all of these projects to ensure that what we are planning is what they want.
• Discovery Land Company owns the Kenmore Hotel (due to reopen spring 2025) and the shop and post office (due to re-open early in 2024). It also owns Taymouth Trading, Paper Boat, the old police house and a number of cottages. The Glenlyon estate was purchased as a sporting estate in 2022.
Will you be using Loch Tay for noisy and disruptive water sports?
We have a very small piece of access on to the loch, where we have a slipway next to the Paper Boat building.
We have no plans for a marina, jet skis, or any kind of expansion or addition to the loch.
The Loch Tay Association has a code of conduct which clearly outlines the rules and regulations for the loch. And we are completely committed to abiding by it.
The association had a members meeting (last Wednesday night), which they invited us to. And we were able to reiterate that message and put a lot of people’s concerns to rest.
The only way this project will work is by giving people who love Scotland and its pristine development an incredible experience. And so the last thing we want is to have any negative impact on the loch.
• The Loch Tay Association code of conduct places restrictions on fishing, speed limits and where certain types of activities are permitted. Canoeing, stand up paddleboarding, kayaking and light boating are all within the code of conduct.
Will Taymouth Castle estate be a gated community?
Discovery Land Company has never indicated or had any intention that the estate would be a ‘gated community’. We are fully committed to Scotland’s land reform regulations.
Perth and Kinross Council has given us the opportunity to amend some of the routes in order to work around construction.
But the Taymouth Estate is open to the public. And we are 100% fully committed to keeping the core paths intact and providing access to the property.
• Discovery Land Company says approximately 3.8km of public trail on the Taymouth Castle estate is currently open. Some temporary diversions are in place for health and safety reasons due to construction. Perth and Kinross Outdoor Access Forum has asked anyone who experiences an issue with access to report it to OutdoorAccess@pkc.gov.uk.
What’s been done to restore Taymouth Castle?
We are making incredible progress on the main tower and the west wing of the castle. It’s staggering to see the pieces coming together, from the state it was in to the way it is now.
We will start on the east wing when this phase is completed.
We are planning to hold open days for members of the community to see the work for themselves.
• The Taymouth Castle restoration has included extensive repairs to stained glass, historic paintings and ceilings. Exterior stone has been cleaned and replaced and roofs, walls and windows have been repaired in the east wing, which had lain unused for 60 years. The castle sewage treatment works have also been replaced. Further restoration is planned for historic buildings and structures across the estate.
What about the rest of the estate?
We aim to complete work on the castle in the next few months. Then we’ll make a start on roads and other infrastructure.
The golf course renovation is where we are seeing the most activity at the moment. We’re working on things like drainage and irrigation. That will be finished by fall 2024.
The plans for housing are still in the early stages. But we have reduced the number to 145, from the 167 in the original consent.
• Discovery Land Company also has consent for a new golf club house, equestrian centre, restaurant and two spas, as well as the restoration of park and woodlands and the James Braid-designed golf course. Renovations are planned for the deer park bridge and the east gate. A planning application for back of house support buildings at Newhall Woods is likely to be lodged later this year. This follows two public consultation events attended by around 250 people in total.
And how do you see your relationship with the community moving forward from this?
One of the things that drew us to Taymouth Castle estate was the opportunity to have a relationship with the local community. That is the only way this is going to work.
It is troubling at the moment to see the negative press around the project. But I hope we can show people that this is something the entire community is going to be proud of.
The economic impact is going to be significant for generations. A project of this size would normally bring about 200 full-time jobs.
Most people who know the project, and know the team and the vision for the project are highly encouraged and very supportive.
And hopefully the negative publicity is something we can turn around, as we talk to more people and improve our communication.
• Discovery Land Company says it will provide regular updates on the Welcome to Taymouth website.
