A 13th-century Highland castle could become a luxury retreat for the world’s rich and famous.
However, the trust behind the ambitious project to restore Mingary Castle, on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, to its former glory has only managed to raise just over £250,000 of the £700,000 it has cost so far. And the building work only began yesterday.
The restoration was originally expected to cost around £2million. This figure has since risen to £2.3million and the Mingary Preservation Trust is now planning to launch a major fundraising drive to finance the scheme.
The castle, which stands near Kilchoan on the most westerly point of the British mainland, has not been occupied for more than 150 years and had become a ruin.
But its owner, Donald Houston of Ardnamurchan Estate, has been granted permission for the trust to turn it into a residential property, and he yesterday said it was likely to become a catered holiday let.
He admitted that it would be expensive to rent the impressive property during the summer and it would probably only be the very wealthy who could afford to do this, but he stressed that it would be considerably cheaper off season. Mr Houston explained that turning the castle into a holiday let was the best idea they had come up with so far to ensure that the castle would be self-financing and prevent it falling back into a state of disrepair.
He added that they wanted to make the castle as accessible as possible to the general public, if they could find a cost-effective way of so doing.
The “consolidation work”, which includes most of the work to stabilise the bedrock, and the archaeological excavations has now been completed.
Detailed archaeological drawings are being prepared and the laborious task of repointing the castle’s stone walls started yesterday.
Mr Houston said: “The archaeological work has taken about two months longer and has cost two to three times more than expected. The rest of the work has been gone like clockwork.
“We recently launched a campaign encouraging people to sponsor a stone in the castle, we are considering producing publications on the restoration work and we are looking for additional ways to raise money. We are still hoping to have the external work completed by the end of this year, but the internal work will take a bit longer.”