Hunting lodge to get £1.5m facelift for future

Published on Friday 26 December 2008 20:34

A REMOTE Victorian hunting lodge built for a titled landlord and now a valuable asset for its community owners is to get a £1.5 million facelift .

Glencanisp Lodge was built in 1835 by the Duke of Sutherland and was recently owned by the Vestey family.

In 2005 it was part of the 44,400-acre Glencanisp and Drumrunie estates in Sutherland and Wester Ross bought by the community-run Assynt Foundation for 2.9 million. They include the iconic mountains Suilven, Canisp, Cul Mor and Cul Beag.

The building is now the foundation's main source of income. Its 14 rooms can be hired for self-catering holidays, conferences, weddings, corporate events and residential courses.

But it had been in danger of falling into disrepair with water coming in through skylights and damp in the dining room rafters.

A year ago the foundation was awarded a grant of 784,997 from the Big Lottery's growing community assets scheme to safeguard the lodge's future for at least 50 years.

The funding package involves another 785,000 of lottery money and 250,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Funding from HIE will be used towards both the renovation of the lodge and towards the funding of a project co-ordinator to provide support for the project and market the lodge when the restoration work is completed.