By Alison Campsie via SWNS
A castle has undergone a $127 million restoration – by a US tequila tycoon and friend of George Clooney.
Taymouth Castle on the shores of Loch Tay in Scotland has been renovated to how ”it looked 1842 when Queen Victoria came to visit.”
The project is the culmination of one of Britain’s most expensive ever restorations – led by Michael Meldman, who co-founded Casamigos tequila with Hollywood star Clooney.
Mr Meldman has now poured more than $100m into the castle in a bid to return it to its past glories.
Once home to a strand of one of Scotland’s most powerful families, the castle had long faded along with the fortunes of its owners.
The pile, which was sold off by the last of the Campbells of Breadalbane owners in 1922 due to gambling debts, later served as a Polish war-time hospital. It was also a civil defense training camp and a hotel.
It has since passed through the hands of several owners whose hopes and vision were overwhelmed by the demands of the deteriorating neo-Gothic castle.
Mr Meldman added Taymouth to his Discovery Land Company portfolio of exclusive holiday villages from across the world in 2019.
Brian McEwan, director of member services & experience at Taymouth Castle, said: “I suppose when you are taking on a building like this, you have to do it right and you want to do the building justice.
“Discovery Land Company have been so keen that the restoration has been done by experts in their fields so we are restoring it to what it would have looked like in 1842 at the time when Queen Victoria came to visit.”
Pictures released from inside show the restored grand hallway which rises up more than 80 feet as you enter.
It used 30 gallons of light cream paint and took 10 months to paint.
Mr McEwan said: “When you look up there, it almost reminds you of a cathedral. When Discovery Land Company took custodianship that was black and mouldy and the paint was chipping off the walls and falling in.
“There was so much water ingress in the ceilings, the roofs and the floorboards. It was pretty tired and drab.”
A badly damaged handpainted ceiling in the drawing room which features knights and nobles of the clan was also restored and has been secured for the future.
Mr McEwan added: “There was so much damage in that room that we were able to repair. Who could say, but it could have been another couple of winters with more water coming into the room and the ceiling could have collapsed.”
Built by John Campbell, 1st Marquess of Breadalbane to rival Inveraray Castle, the seat of Clan Campbell, much of Taymouth’s finery was added ahead of Queen Victoria’s highly-celebrated visit in 1842 when she received a “rapturous welcome.
Artisans and tradespeople have spent three years working on the castle, where the drip-catching buckets and boarded-up windows of the recent past have disappeared as serious money flowed into the Grade-A listed building.
In the Banner Room, the 16th century renaissance panels were preserved while outside, repairs to the castle exterior were done by matching the original locally sourced green mica schist, which is no longer found in the hills to the south of the castle.
There are now nine new suites in the castle, where a maximum of 18 guests can stay on any one night.
Around 145 holiday homes are planned for land surrounding the castle and the upgraded James Braid-designed golf course.
Mr McEwan added: “DLC want to bring the castle back to life and it is the right thing to do.
“For the castle’s future having ownership across a membership base secures it for the next hundreds of years.
“If I was a billionaire and wanting to buy a castle in Scotland, by the time it got to my grandkids they wouldn’t be able to afford the running of the estate.
“Having this shared ownership to look after and guard a building like this means that it can look after itself.”
