It sits, rotting and derelict, in the heart of one of Scotland’s most dramatically beautiful glens.
The Spittal of Glenshee Hotel was destroyed by fire in 2014, and it’s been lying in ruins ever since.
It’s a far cry from the hotel’s heyday – it was much-loved by locals and tourists alike, who came for the great food, drink, dances and ceilidhs as much as the banter.
Couples met and married there, long-lasting friendships were made, and it was an altogether fantastic stop-off point for anyone passing through the glen.
Today, the hotel is a crumbling mess – a hotspot for vandalism and anti-social behaviour – and it continues to fall further into disrepair.
Big plans for Spittal’s future
The site was bought by Allan Brownie and his partner Liz Angus at auction in May 2021.
The visionary couple had big plans involving a cafe, bar and restaurant with a stage for music, a campsite and camping pods – and even a watchtower for wildlife.
However, when Liz developed lung cancer and passed away in 2022, all plans were understandably put on hold.
“We hoped she’d get better,” Allan tells me.
“We’d started work on it and had plans drawn up. I’d still like to put something there and put Liz’s name behind it. I want to do it for Liz.
“She had such passion and excitement about it. She loved the hotel’s history.
Allan has a meeting in January with Cairngorm National Park Authority to discuss how to move forward.
“The Spittal is important to me,” he adds. “I scattered Liz’s ashes up there. It took a while to deal with her death. That’s why things are on hold.”
Hotel brought couple together
Alyth couple Jack and Madge McCowan met at the hotel in the early 1960s.
Jack, 84, was working at Glenshee Ski Centre and when he started there in 1963, he was given board and lodging at the Spittal Hotel.
“I worked at the ski area for more than 40 years,” he recalls
“The company that owned the chairlifts also owned the hotel at that time.
“I had accommodation and got all my meals there. That was great. And that was where I met Madge.
“She’d started working there the year before me, in 1962.
The 2014 fire wasn’t the first
“It was a few years after another fire which devastated the hotel in June 1957 and it had just been rebuilt.
“We were both very young. I was 23 and Madge was 18.”
The couple lived at the hotel until they got married in 1965 and moved further down the glen.
Jack has great memories of the hotel in its prime – and has amassed an archive of old postcards and images.
Spittal Hotel had fantastic atmosphere
“It was really busy and had a great atmosphere. There was skiing in winter and pony trekking in summer.
“And of course there was dancing most weekends at the hotel. The annual Tartan Ball was brilliant.”
Like many locals, Jack is sad about the Spittal’s demise.
“It was a good place to stop,” he says.
“If the roads were bad, folk could at least get accommodation or a meal at the Spittal.
“Now there’s nothing, which is a shame. But it would cost a fortune to do it up now.
“I don’t think it could ever be a hotel like it was before, but it would be good to see something.”
Jack says that while it was a “nice” hotel, it wasn’t made for those with mobility issues, with no lifts, and only stairs.
“It wasn’t for modern times,” he adds.
Madge, 79, has fond memories of working there as a waitress and housekeeper, and of some of the bands that played.
“What a wonderful time we had,” she muses.
“And in terms of music, the Jimmy Fairweather Dance Band from Alyth was great.
“Gaelic singer Alasdair Gillies and comedian George Duffus from Dundee also entertained there.
“Apart from that, everybody made their own entertainment.”
Ski centre manager’s memories
David Farquharson, managing director of Glenshee Ski Centre, used to frequent the hotel in its heyday.
While his late brother Roy took photos, he says there was “too much partying to be done” to take many pictures back then!
“It was the favourite stopping place for staff right through the 80s and then we moved on to the Blackwater down the road,” recalls David.
“Sunday nights were great. At that time I was at college or at my first job but worked weekends in the winter.
“All the weekend’s pay was generally spent there!”
David went to discos at the Spittal from the age of 14, around 1975.
He recalls a band, Juniper Green, that played regularly, and ‘race nights’ run by Braemar Mountain Rescue to raise funds.
Spittal was ‘the hub’
Donald Cameron, chair of Mount Blair Community Council, says there was “a lot going on” at the Spittal, especially in the 60s.
“It was well and truly the hub – everything revolved around the hotel,” he says.
“It had a big clientele. There were dances, ceilidhs, darts matches, quizzes, bingo, live bands and entertainers.
“Folk who worked on the ski lifts would pop in after a day on the slopes, cold and hungry.
“The folk who ran it at that time, Peter Cooper and Moira Stewart, were real go-ahead people. They did a really great job and were so well organised.
“The hotel had 40 or so rooms. But the rates and costs to heat it must’ve been high.”
Donald, whose daughter celebrated her 21st birthday at the Spittal, says as Glenshee Ski Centre grew, so did the the hotel.
Do you remember the mural?
He remembers a huge mural on the wall in the public bar – “maybe 7ft high by 10ft wide” – which surrounded a “massive” fireplace.
“It featured Highland guys in kilts with swords and was quite striking,” he recalls.
So what happened to the hotel? Some say it had already started to decline in the decade or so before the fire.
“The drink driving laws changed things a bit, and lack of snow didn’t help,” reflects Donald.
“In the days when there wasn’t so much TV and entertainment, people would flock to the Spittal. But then it changed hands twice and seemed to drift.”
While Donald thinks that to try to build back what was once there would be too big a stretch, it would make sense to “start small” and offer a snack bar to bring people in.
“There was character to the hotel,” he adds. “But you need characters behind it who know what people want.
“Provide food and drink and people will come. People would love to enjoy the Spittal again.”
We got married at the Spittal
Morag and David Houstoun hosted their wedding reception at the Spittal of Glenshee Hotel in 1989.
David, a farmer who’s lived in the glen for 41 years, recalls having a marquee outside and it being a “beautiful day.”
“It was a busy place at that time,” he says.
“Bus parties stopped throughout the day, and the hotel employed staff and students from all over the world. They all wore kilts.
“When Peter and Moira were in charge they really made it work.
“There were dances – and the Tartan ball, the Glen Ball, and the Snow Ball in spring.
“What a feed you got.
“There were two owners after that but it went downhill. I think it was abandoned when the fire happened. I was in the fire brigade at the time.
“Unfortunately, it was the old bit that got burned down. The new bit has been vandalised, with windows smashed and so on.
“There’s not really anything like the old Spittal in the area – it’s badly missed.”
10 years on from devastating fire
Blairgowrie councillor Caroline Shiers visited the hotel after the 2014 fire and recalls being “horrified” at the devastation.
“We were very hopeful when new owners bought the site with plans to bring it back to life,” she says.
“Short term, I’d like to see some form of screening around the site given its prominent location on the A93 tourist route.
“Discussions have been held with the Cairngorm National Park and Perth and Kinross Council about this and I hope to reopen those discussions.
There has been a hotel on the spot for centuries; it was a hostelry for drovers in the 1700s.
“The Spittal has provided refuge and hospitality for hundreds of years for travellers,” adds Caroline.
“Travellers in 2025 have very different requirements to those back in the days of drovers.
“However, the location of the Spittal never fails to take your breath away.”
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