Inside Scottish castle restored by US tequila tycoon as holiday home for super rich

Taymouth Castle sits at the head of Loch Tay in Perthshire. More than £100m has been spent on returning the pile to its past Victorian splendour. | Represent

Once home to a strand of one of Scotland’s most powerful families, Taymouth Castle had long faded along with the fortunes of its owners.

The pile, which was sold off by the last of the Campbells of Breadalbane owners in 1922 due to gambling debts, later served as a Polish war-time hospital, a civil defence training camp and a hotel before passing through the hands of several owners whose hopes and vision were overwhelmed by the demands of the deteriorating neo-Gothic castle.

The Chinese Room at Taymouth Castle. | Represent

The Banner Hall at Taymouth Castle | Represent

Now, Taymouth is nearing the end of a restoration led by US property and tequila tycoon Michael Meldman, co-founder of Casamigos tequila along with George Clooney, who has poured more than £100m into the castle. Taymouth now joins his Discovery Land Company portfolio of exclusive holiday villages, which can be found from Hawai to Costa Rica, California, Canada and Dubai.

The company’s 2019 arrival at Taymouth, once the private home of feudal elites, has not been without its controversies as it moves into a new chapter of privileged access, mainly by an American market.

Glen Lyon estate, where food for the castle is produced and guests will be sent hunting and shooting, was also bought by DLC in 2022.

But with around 100 jobs created so far at the castle, with the company claiming another 100 posts will come, DLC is making gains at Taymouth where others have not.

As Taymouth revives, its past also emerges. Historical detail and features have been honoured following deep-dive research into both the familly lines which surround the castle and the interiors and decorations which set it apart during its early 19th Century heyday.

Built by John Campbell, 1st Marquess of Breadalbane to rival Inveraray Castle, the seat of Clan Campbell, much of Taymouth’s finery was added ahead of Queen Victoria’s highly-celebrated visit in 1842 when she received a “rapturous welcome...with fireworks banging and blazing in the night sky” and 700 people - and a herd of bison - gathered on the lawn to greet her.

Artisans and tradespeople, many of them based in Scotland, have spent three years working on the castle, where the drip-catching buckets and boarded-up windows of the recent past have disappeared as serious money flows into the Grade-A listed building.

Brian McEwan, Director of Member Services & Experience at Taymouth Castle, said: “I suppose when you are taking on a building like this, you have to do it right and you want to do the building justice.

“Discovery Land Company have been so keen that the restoration has been done by experts in their fields so we are restoring it to what it woud have looked like in 1842 at the time when Queen Victoria came to visit.”

Perhaps the star of the restoration is the grand hallway which rises up more than 80 feet as you enter. It has been restored, using 30 gallons of light cream paint, by John Nevin, master decorator of Mackay Decorators of Perth, which specialises in historic properties. The grand hallway took 10 months to paint, minus the heavy stripping job.

Mr McEwan said: “When you look up there, it almost reminds you of a cathedral. When Discovery Land Company took custodianship that was black and mouldy and the paint was chipping off the walls and falling in.

“There was so much water ingress in the ceilings, the roofs and the floorboards. It was pretty tired and drab.”

Brian McEwan, of Taymouth Castle. | Brian McEwan, of Taymouth Castle.

A badly damaged handpainted ceiling in the drawing room which features knights and nobles of the clan, also restored by John Nevin, has been secured for the future, Mr McEwan added.

John Nevin, of MacKay Decorators in Perth. | contributed

“There was so much damage in that room that we were able to repair and the whole ceiling has been replaced. Who could say, but it could have been another couple of winters with more water coming into the room and the ceiling could have collapsed.”

In the Banner Room, Prestwick-based Rainbow Glass Studios has conserved 16th Century Renaissance panels, extremely rare in Scotland due to the Reformation, in a job which company director and conservator Moira Malcolm described as a “wonderful journey of discovery”. Ms Malcolm and her team were able to confirm the panels originaly came from a workshop in Germany before being displayed in a church in Austria.

Moira Malcolm, of Rainbow Glass Studio, with the restored 16th Century window. | Moira Malcolm, of Rainbow Glass Studio, with the restored 16th Century window.

Outside, repairs to the castle exterior were completed by using stone found in Mull of Kintrye to match the original locally sourced green mica schist, which is no longer found in the hills to the south of the castle.

There are nine new suites in the castle, where a maximium of 18 guests can stay on any one night.

Around 145 holiday homes are planned for land surround the castle and the upgraded James Braid-designed golf course, with DLC pursuing amendments to planning permission for properties that was granted to a previous owner. Both the homes and golf course will be accessible only to high-rolling DLC members, who will use the castle as the club house where a tavern, library, games room and lavish spaces to relax and eat can be found.

More than 160,000 people signed a petition, led by campaign group Protect Loch Tay, against the plans for the homes around the estate and the “private resort for the mega-rich”.

Meanwhile, Kenmore and District Community Council, said it had a “good working relationship” with Taymouth and, along with four other community councils, were “content” that things were moving in the right direction. Access to core paths has been a concern.

In Kenmore village, DLC has also bought up the Kenmore Hotel and several holiday homes for staff accommodation.

A recent community open day welcomed around 400 people to view the restoration work.

Mr McEwan said: “I was one of the tour guides on the day and it was amazing seeing people’s reactions to a building that some of them had been in before, saw the bad state that the castle was in and then saw it again as what it would have been like back in the day.”

He added: “DLC want to bring the castle back to life and it is the right thing to do.

“For the castle’s future having ownership across a membership base secures it for the next hundreds of years.

“If I was a billionaire and wanting to buy a castle in Scotland, by the time it got to my grandkids they wouldn’t be able to afford the running of the estate . Having this shared ownership to look after and guard a building like this means that it can look after itself.”