Banjo & Ro’s Grand Island Hotel breathes new life into a tiny Hebridean island
The designer duo battle storms and decay to bring a community-owned mansion back to life in their new BBC show.
Banjo Beale, his husband Rohan Christopher and their dog Grampa have all made it from their home on the island of Ulva in the Hebrides to Glasgow after a journey that typifies their resourceful ‘go for it’ attitude.
As Storm Bram raged the interior designer and the chef/cheese maker/distiller/turn-his-hand-to-anything mansion renovator set off in their little boat to cross the choppy Sound of Ulva bound for Mull thence Oban and onwards, and foundered on Ulva’s rocks.
Ro jumped off the boat to push them off, then he and Banjo swapped places so Ro could free the propeller, and “the next minute, Grampa's on the boat by himself! So he's fretting and Ro jumps back on. It was so embarrassing. We were just hoping Rhuri, the ferryman wasn't watching,” Banjo recounts as they warm up in Glasgow over a coffee.
Rhuri was, and rescued them from what Banjo downplays as ‘their pickle’, and once the weather abated, landed them on Mull and the trip was back on.
It’s the same spirit that they show in taking on the derelict Ulva House on the tiny community-owned island of Ulva, west of Mull, as they transform it into a six/seven room boutique hotel in their new BBC Scotland show Banjo & Ro’s Grand Island Hotel which starts from Monday.
Over six half hour episodes, narrated by James Cosmo we see them begin the transformation of the abandoned building as they re-roof, install electricity, plumbing and water and restore rooms to create a reception, kitchen, whisky library, bedroom and orangery. There are plans for the garden to be tidied and a phased opening that will see visitors welcome for Sunday brunch, with overnight guests sometime this year.
Specialising in remote properties and limited budgets, blending unique vintage and rummaged finds with clever design, Banjo (39) and Ro (41) first had the idea of taking on Ulva House when Banjo was filming his BBC series Designing the Hebrides and madeover the island bothy.
“We'd worked really hard on the bothy and there had been a named storm so seven of us were trapped in it. But it was such a beautiful place and I fell in love with Ulva. After we finished we were walking back, exhausted but euphoric and passed Ulva House. I asked Phil [Bertin] the farmer ‘what’s happening with the big house?’ and he said there were no plans so we asked for a look around and I just was blown away. I couldn't believe that this beautiful building was just sitting there, so Ro and I said we have to do something.”
Ulva House, situated on the 7.5 miles long and 2.5 mile wide island, formerly home to 600 people, now 16, was falling into disrepair before it was bought by the community in 2018, after the Scottish government approved and largely funded a £4.6m community buyout of the island, but with quotes of £2million to restore the house the board’s plans had stalled.
Built in the 1950s, it replaced a former mansion linked to Ulva-born Lachlan MacQuarrie who went on to become Governor of New South Wales in Australia in the early 19th century, coincidentally founding Beale’s hometown of Bathurst, a fact which only comes to light during the show.
“We asked the board if they would consider us taking it on and the community were open to the idea so we hatched out the rent and repair lease. Ro and I said this is our shot and we’ve got to do it. We thought we could make a go of it and turn it into something and save the building. Why? I suppose there was a little bit of naivety - we're both dreamers, which is dangerous.”
Dangerous perhaps but they have an ability to realise their dreams, having met in a bar in Australia and within weeks setting off backpacking then arriving in Mull a decade ago where Ro became a cheesemaker and Banjo set up his interior design business, Studio Banjo. A TV career was born after Banjo won BBC’s Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr in 2022 and hosted his own BAFTA-winning BBC series, Designing the Hebrides, and became a judge on Scotland’s Home of the Year, as well as authoring Wild Isle Style and A Place in Scotland.
With a budget of their own £150,000 Banjo and Ro are on a shoestring which chimes with the designer’s love of recycling and re-using, with the added complication that treasures and tradespeople have to be ferried over and carted up to the big house.
“For the first couple of years it’s a small rent then a profit share with the board where whatever we make we give a percentage back to the trust, to go into community projects, hopefully improving the water supply, fixing roads and building things,” says Banjo.
It was important to the couple that as well as being home to them, their dog, pigs and chickens, the whole island community benefits.
“Ulva House is part of the community and not closed door, so everyone benefits from it, and if more people come to Ulva it helps Rhuri the ferryman, Phil the farmer, and everyone can feel a bit of the love,” says Banjo.
“There are people that have been visiting Ulva for decades and lots of people have a connection to the house and island and they’d watched it fall into decay and feel passionate about it,” says Ro.
As if restoring the house wasn’t enough, with simple tasks like taking a shower requiring a ferry trip to Mull until the plumbing was fixed, and materials having to be dragged on a cart through cow fields and along rough tracks with low hanging oak trees, Banjo and Ro also took over the lease of The Boathouse restaurant on the shore with chef Sam Yates. That was given a makeover too, with Ro working in the kitchen in between racing up to the ‘big house’ to fit a kitchen or remove a window so a vast green marble-topped bar Banjo had ferried over could be lifted into the new whisky bar/library.
“I was trying to do lunch service at The Boathouse but had to stop to help. When I saw that bar on the other side of the water I thought this is dumb. It’s too big and we’ve wasted our time. Then I had to eat my words. It is just perfect.”
As the work progresses the challenges come thick and fast, but what was the biggest?
“Apart from the logistics of an island with no cars, we had to rewire, replumb, fix the roof, so I think, the scale of it,” says Banjo. “I think we were naive about the hidden stuff before we got to the good stuff.
“There was a massive storm, the ceiling caves in, it's a torrent of water and I'm rushing around while Ro’s on the roof trying to dig it out and I fell down a manhole and smashed my arm. Then all I could find was a Chinese takeaway container to throw up to him to shovel water out. It was windy, dark, with no power, and gallons of water coming in. That was an absolute nightmare.”
Every cloud, however, and the flat copper roof now clads the kitchen wall, its verdigris patina a stunning backdrop for Ro’s new kitchen, in keeping with their ethos of re-using and cherishing the beauty of the building’s origins.
“The biggest challenge was the house was kind of decrepit with mould on the walls,” says Banjo, “so it was about repairing, fixing, making it look new then old again. Faded grandeur was the vibe. So we peeled back walls we'd just prepared to age and crackle glaze them.”
As keen travellers themselves, the couple are full of ideas for what makes a hotel special and what they want to create in Ulva House, principally that it’s more ‘home’ than ‘hotel’ with a style they’ve christened ‘rough luxury’.
“When Ro and I first met I was always a little bit bougie,” says Banjo, “and Ro was working in a fruit and veg shop and kept things simple. Then I came to the dark side when we bought a one-way ticket to Sri Lanka and were backpacking so I acclimatised and over the years I've kind of enjoyed roughing it. I don't mind roughing, as long as you can get Belgian linen and delicious soaps. So we landed on the idea of rough luxury. It's for people that are intrepid, don't mind slogging the 15-minute walk up to the house through mud, but when they get there, they've got a gorgeous cocktail.
“It's not for everyone, because there are no roads, no shops. We don't want people coming that think they're gonna get a five-star valet experience. You have to be an adventurous kind of person.”
Banjo and Ro have long been a team, but this is the first time they’ve worked on a project together with themselves as clients and lived in the building they’re restoring, so were there any differences in approach? For example, how important is it to tie the design into the surroundings and location?
“Super important for me,” says Beale, “and this is where we differ, because in the new lobby Ro wanted it to feel kind of tropical, but I said why have we got a tropical mural in a Scottish island? So I reverse engineered it and said maybe it could represent Lachlan MacQuarrie's journey to Australia and ours here. I like a yarn to spin in a space. It’s important because people have come to be on a Scottish island. I want it to feel of its place and bring in the landscape and history.”
“Also we had a poet create a folk tale for the island which inspired the bedroom, and Gaelic historians and local people told us their stories so we tried to imbue it in things. Reusing materials from the house, like the copper roof, makes it feel of its place too.”
With the elegant orangery, stylish working kitchen, reception mural, a bedroom and book-lined whisky bar all ready for business, it would be a mistake to assume anything is ever finished. When ‘trial guests’, their builder Eoghann [Maclean] and wife Rebecca, checked into the finished bedroom, her feedback was music to Banjo’s ears.
“She said ‘the only thing missing is the bath’.”
Unbeknown to her, Banjo has a cast iron Victorian bath he’d bought from Knockderry Castle on the mainland. Having got it to Mull, “Ro said no, Eoghann said no, it's a ridiculous idea” but Banjo persuaded a helicopter pilot engaged on flying materials over for work on Staffa to drop it off en route, and it now sits in the backyard.
“Ro and Eoghann outvoted me, and I couldn't put it in. It’s a gorgeous room, views of the water and Ben More, a big window, it's the most beautiful thing. Yeah. Holding out hope. The bath'll be there one day…”
Working as a team, Banjo and Ro have defined roles, which become apparent in the show, as they do in conversation.
B: “It's infuriating that he can do everything. Or he at least tries. I just know my lane.”
Ro: “Well, on the show, I’m the grafter, that's for sure.”
B: “Excuse me!”
Ro: “You're the designer. That's where your skill set is. And I’m also the interpreter because not everyone speaks Banjo, so I have to convey what he's trying to say. So I'm the grafter and interpreter. And cook. And cleaner. Because creative minds and practical minds operate differently. So yeah, to make sure you get the most out of your creative moment…”
B: “Oh, that’s nice…”
R: … “I’ve got to do some of the more practical stuff to free you up to do that. Then when we run the hotel, I don't know, it's going to be interesting.”
B: “I'll be director of First Impressions. I'll swan down the stairs in my kaftan and greet guests with a drink and Ro will be kind of just behind me, kind of sweeping up the...”
Ro: “Doing the practical practical stuff. Looking after the guests. I'm looking forward to that.”
And Grampa? Their eight-year-old wolfhound/greyhound cross who will be top dog at Ulva House. ‘Intelligent, but doesn’t waste his time on anything’, ‘energetic for ten minutes then lazy’, he is valued for his calm presence (sleeping in various locations) and the fact that his walk gives everyone a break and space to think, plus he loves people. And other dogs?
“He’s good with other dogs,” says Ro. “Except for French bulldogs. It’s like he doesn’t recognise them as dogs or something.”
“He doesn’t like our pigs,” says Banjo, “so I think he thinks French bulldogs are pigs.”
Ro: “Also his first dog show, he was bitten by a French bulldog, so maybe that has something to do with it.”
French bulldogs or not, the doors are due to open to guests this year, at first for Sunday lunches, barbecues and garden parties, so Ro’s thoughts can turn to catering.
“I'm excited about that because it's gonna be a unique style of accommodation and we'll provide breakfast and dinner. I'm really looking forward to preparing beautiful food in the evenings from local produce and during the day doing chores, but also tending the garden, getting chickens again, those sorts of things.
“Hotels can be a crazy busy life but if it's done right we get the choice to design our life and what this hotel will look like and how it will operate. We can still enjoy those moments of being out in the garden, looking after the pigs, collecting eggs. We've broken the back on the place and that was the hardest thing this year,” says Ro.
As well as discovering a new island hotel, viewers might be inspired to undertake their own projects says Banjo.
“It might be very good to see themselves in us, know that it's okay, it is hard and there are moments where it's a challenge, but in the end it's worth it. Hopefully people take a risk.
“Yes,” agrees Ro. “It was hard and there was naivety, but we forget you can do anything you want, and how equipped a lot of us are. You get afraid to try but if you give it a go once that ball starts rolling you've almost got no choice but to keep going. Once you're in it, you're in it. So don't be afraid. You get pushed into learning, which is what I like.”
“You don't realise how resilient you are until you're in that situation and that’s what you’re missing when you keep life really simple. You're never tested to the limit. And when you work hard for something, you really feel the rewards. Or, people might watch and think ‘absolutely not, I’m very happy with my comfortable life!
Whichever camp people fall into Ulva House is waiting.
“It’s unique and different and a bit, yeah, weird, and maybe it's not going to be for everyone, but I think it's beautiful,” says Banjo.
All six episodes of Banjo & Ro’s Grand Island Hotel are available on BBC iPlayer from Monday 5th January. The episodes will air weekly on the BBC Scotland channel on Mondays at 10pm
With thanks to The Spiritualist, 62 Miller Street, Glasgow G1 1DT, www.thespiritualistglasgow.com
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.