Stuart Robb

The company owns and operated the Glenburn Hotel, a prominent grand hotel based in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute originally built as Scotland’s first ‘Hydropathic’ hotel.

Originally built in 1843 and sited on a prominent hilltop location overlooking Rothesay, the Glenburn Hotel opened as a classic grand seaside hotel in 1892 aimed at an affluent client base which was offered a lavish holiday experience.

The Glenburn Hotel was extensively refurbished in 2016 and features around 121 guest rooms, ballroom, restaurants, bars, terrace, conference facilities and extensive terraced gardens.

The hotel, which overlooks Rothesay Bay, was popular with package holiday businesses and independent travellers, many of whom would return regularly. There are also three cottages located within the grounds of the hotel.

The hotel had traded briefly since the start of the first lockdown in early 2020 and has been closed since November 2020 with staff initially being placed on furlough. The administration has been caused by significant operating costs, coupled with the fall in revenue due to the COVID 19 pandemic leading to unsustainable cash flow problems.

The joint administrators will begin the process of marketing the hotel for sale and are urging any interested parties to contact FRP Advisory as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, all remaining staff will be made redundant with immediate effect and the Joint Administrators will now commence liaising with employees, the Redundancy Payments Office (RPO) and other agencies to minimise the impact on the staff and to ensure their claims for redundancy and other entitlements due to them are processed as quickly as possible.

Stuart Robb, partner with FRP Advisory, said: “The Glenburn Hotel is a landmark hotel with a long history stretching back to its opening as a grand seaside hotel in 1892. Unfortunately, having explored all its options, the Hotel was unable to survive the significant fall in revenue caused by the COVID 19 pandemic whilst still having to meet significant maintenance and running costs.

“We will now focus our efforts on assisting employees, many of whom have worked at the hotel for many years, to submit their claims for redundancy and other sums due to them whilst preparing to market and sell the hotel.

“Whilst this is a sad day in the Hotel’s history, this is an outstanding opportunity to acquire an iconic hotel on one of Scotland’s most accessible islands, and we would encourage any interested parties to contact Kris Tosh at Kris.tosh@frpadvisory.com.”