NatureScot are looking for a beneficial owner for the castle. Please contact the Hon Secretary if you wish to see the information booklet as the file is too large to add to the website.
KCFA have been working with NatureScot since the failure of our asset transfer bid to facilitate a beneficial owner, to create a viable and sustainable business based at the castle. NatureScot has insisted that we find the funding for the restoration before they will consider transfer of ownership. However, no funder will consider funding a project for which the proposer has no ownership. Catch 22.
NB the valuation of £1.00 was by the local valuation officer and is not necessarily the price which NatureScot wish to accept and does not necessarily include the contents. They also insist that any future owner shows that they have funding in place to restore the building. We consider £7 million should make the building secure for 25 years and be ready for a viable and sustainable business, which would be achieving a profit within a very few years. NatureScot however, say £20 million.
Some media interest was initially generated, mainly from the local press.
And then it all really started to take off and there has been much publicity about this impending change.
Saturday 3rd August KCFA Chair, Professor Ewan Macdonald OBE was interviewed for GB News by Neil Oliver. However we have no recording of this interview.
But for the sheer number of errors in one article, this next one takes the prize! Read it for entertainment value.
And the articles continue:
BBC Alba had a piece in their news programme on 11th August 2021 in which KCFA Hon Secretary Catherine Duckworth, Angus Macdonald and Cllr Denis Rixson all took part. It was followed by a piece on their website.