Cameron House
Cameron House, located on Loch Lomond near Balloch, Scotland, was first built in the mid-1700s, and later purchased by Sir James Smollett. The modern Baronial stone castle was built by William Spence in 1830 (rebuilt after a fire in 1865), with peaked gables and decorative turrets.[1]
The House is a Category B listed building.[2]
For three centuries, the land was part of the Smollett estate, now reduced to 44 hectares of wooded land that juts into the loch.[3] Over the centuries the Smollets hosted James Boswell and Samuel Johnson, the Empress Eugenie of France, Princess Margaret and Lord Louis Mountbatten, and Winston Churchill.[1]
In 1985 Laird Patrick Telfer Smollett sold the House and land to De Vere Hotels.[1]
De Vere sold the hotel in November 2014 to Sankaty Advisors and Canyon Capital Advisors, the owners of QHotels. Shortly afterwards in 2015 Cameron House was sold again, this time to KSL Capital Partners, an American firm. [4]
Today it operates within the Cameron House resort, which comprises 44 hectares of land around the hotel and The Cameron Club (formerly the Carrick Estate), situated 2 miles north of the hotel, and has two golf courses and an award-winning spa. The resort also has 115 self-catering properties operating under the Cameron Lodges brand.[5]
2017 hotel fire
A fire at the hotel on 18 December 2017 killed two people[6] and injured three. [4][7][8] A restoration is underway, with a reopening planned for early 2020.[9]
References
- Loverseed, Helga (19 September 1998). "On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond: At the Scottish loch the scenery is glorious no matter what the weather. And with a stately hotel, who could ask for more". Vancouver Sun. ProQuest 242834836.
- Historic Environment Scotland. "Cameron House with terrace walls (Category B Listed Building) (LB1121)". Retrieved 15 April 2019.
- "A history of Cameron House hotel". The Scotsman. 18 December 2017. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
- "Two guests die in Loch Lomond hotel fire". 18 December 2017 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
- "Cameron House Lodges in Loch Lomond, Scotland - Luxury Holidays & Self Catering Accommodation - Cottages". Retrieved 2019-05-22.
- Horne, Marc (20 December 2017). "Journalist Simon Midgley and TV producer Richard Dyson killed in Cameron House fire". The Times. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
- Rawlinson, Kevin (18 December 2017). "Two people die and three in hospital after Loch Lomond hotel fire" – via www.theguardian.com.
- "Two dead in luxury hotel fire on banks of Loch Lomond".
- "Main Page of Cameron House Website, detailing the restoration project". Cameron House Website.