Aboyne’s Huntly Arms Hotel was once a popular gathering place for families, and a regular stay for Deeside tourists.
But its lain empty, cold and crumbling since being closed in 2019.
At the start of the year, it was used as a cannabis farm as crime gangs took advantage of the long-abandoned building.
Now campaigners fear they are in a race against time to save it – before the ceiling caves in or vandals leave it damaged beyond repair.
Our in-depth article recounts the Deeside hotel’s fall from grace and reveals fresh hopes for its revival.
- We hear from a local group on how the rug was pulled from their feet in a shock sale during Covid
- And they describe their fears the 52-bedroom building could be torched by youths before salvation comes
- But now Aberdeenshire Council is taking enforcement action, could there be progress on the horizon?
How hotel visited by Victoria ended its days being booted on Tripadvisor
The Huntly Arms dates back to 1432 and has been at the heart of the Aboyne community for generations.
Standing on the edge of Charlestown Road, it’s the most obvious landmark passersby see as they travel through Aboyne on the busy A93 Aberdeen to Braemar route.
It acted as a stopping point for the Earl of Mar during the first Jacobite uprising, and prominent royals including Queen Victoria visited on the way to Balmoral.
The cherished institution was latterly owned by Midlands-based firm Talash Hotels, who picked it up for £750,000 in 2016.
While locals say it had been declining for years, this is when things got really bad.
By the time it closed, some visitors were describing it as the “worst hotel they had ever stayed in”.
Others blasted a “musty smell”, mouldy walls, broken toilets and staff who didn’t seem to even care.
One aghast guest shared a series of grotty images on Youtube, bemoaning flaking paintwork, a damaged mirror and a bed that was “falling apart”.
You can watch it here:
And a Yelp critic claimed: “Compared to this place, Fawlty Towers is The Ritz.”
But some admitted to having a soft spot for the “lingering atmosphere of Victorian grandeur that somehow manages to cling to the place”.
As hotel nosedived, locals formed action plan…
Even before the hotel closed, locals who held it dear to their hearts could see the writing on the wall.
And in its dying days, those concerned residents decided to take matters into their own hands: The Huntly Arms Regeneration Project (Harp) was born.
We meet Harp leaders Dave Marshall and Claire Fraser outside the hotel.
Dave tells us: “We could see the way it was starting to go… It needed some TLC.
“We pulled together a local group who actually met initially in the hotel bar, with the support of Talash, to look into some sort of community buyout.”
By that time it was just being used by tour companies, with individual holidaymakers opting to stay elsewhere.
The retired engineer adds: “They weren’t getting business because of the reviews, so they weren’t putting enough money into it.”
Latterly only the bar was open, and the pandemic soon put paid to that.
The group had already carried out studies showing the venue could have a future and was buoyed by huge public support.
Their vision was a simple one: Harp would raise the money for repairs, estimated to cost about £5-6 million, through a string of charitable grants.
Then, the hotel returned to pristine condition, any number of hospitality firms could be eager to take it on.
So they were left reeling when the building was suddenly put up for auction.
It had a guide price of £450,000, and its bungling owners managed to describe it as a “stone’s throw from the River Dean”.
Auction shock put Huntly Arms Hotel campaigners on the backfoot
The timing was catastrophic for the volunteers, who felt they had been “tip-toeing towards some sort of result”.
But surely, they comforted themselves, nobody “in their right mind” would fork out for a ramshackle ruin said to be worse than Fawlty Towers.
Dave reminisces: “We really didn’t think for a moment that anybody would buy it.”
Enter London-based millionaire Ashok Sood.
Mr Sood, it is understood, snapped up the building for £500,000 in December 2020 – sight unseen…
‘He didn’t realise what he’d bought’
Claire Fraser is cradling a cup of Earl Grey in an effort to warm up having decamped to the Spider on a Bicycle cafe, a short stroll from the mothballed hotel.
When she was a child, Claire and her parents would travel from Insch to the Huntly Arms just for its legendary Sunday carveries.
Now living in Aboyne, she is determined to keep the scene of those happy memories alive.
She picks up where Dave left off, explaining: “Mr Sood didn’t realise what he’d bought.
“It went up for auction with photos making it all look perfect…”
The businessman was in for a nasty shock when he and his wife headed north to inspect the purchase.
Dave adds: “He told me, ‘this is not what I thought I bought’.”
If it hadn’t been in a bad enough way before that, Talash had stripped the building of its valuables while it was lying empty.
Claire continues: “We were shocked.
“Even our consultants told us nobody in their right mind would buy it, but Mr Sood thought he had bought a hotel that he could immediately reopen or sell on.
“He thought it was a bargain.”
Though nothing happened with the hotel under his stewardship, he wasn’t overly responsive to the idea of selling it to locals.
Claire explains: “I had many conversations with him, and I never was quite sure what his plan was for it… He wanted his money back, though.”
At this point, the hotel entered a period of limbo that persists to this day.
While empty its roof has begun leaking, the ceilings are caving in, and vandals have started to target it.
Harp now believes much of the interior is “trashed”, and a listed gazebo outside has been fenced off after being set alight.
Claire anxiously adds: “Some vandalism started to occur…
“Youths from the village were entering it and there were concerns about fire and further damage.
“Following police intervention, the windows were boarded up.”
What’s the impact of the ongoing closure on Aboyne?
“Tourists visiting Royal Deeside no longer tend to stop in Aboyne,” Claire tells me.
“They see this huge eyesore in the centre and carry on to Ballater and Braemar.
“We have this huge building, with such stature and history on a primary tourist route… And it’s just going to waste.”
There’s now just 16 rooms, at the Boat Inn, when it comes to hotel accommodation in the village.
Claire continues: “If there’s a wedding, christening or funeral then people can come from far and wide.
“Then there’s also the Highland Games, which brings thousands of people to the park just outside the hotel…
“But with this shortage of rooms to support the village, people go elsewhere.”
New owner emerges… But same old story for campaigners
Things took another twist last December when Mr Sood sold it to another London-based businessman.
Enter Jutinder Singh.
The deal – said to be worth £395,000 – left Harp hopeful some progress could be made.
On a cold Sunday this December, Mr Singh made that same trip his predecessor had.
Flanked by two company directors and an architect, he met Dave and Claire as he stared up at the Huntly Arms Hotel.
His plans for it, if any, remain unknown.
And growing impatient at its prolonged hiatus, the volunteers are becoming more determined to fight for action.
Dave says: “We know from being in the building previously that it’s leaking, with collapsed ceilings.
“We just want to see the old girl saved.”
The longer it lies empty, the more worried Claire and Dave become about it falling victim to potentially disastrous vandalism.
If the building ends up torched, they acknowledge, then it might well have to be knocked down.
Could Boxing Day prove a pivotal date in Huntly Arms Hotel campaign?
But now, after some prodding, Aberdeenshire Council has got involved.
In an effort to force some action, the local authority is issuing Mr Singh with a “formal amenity notice”.
Under the justification that the hotel is “adversely affecting amenity” in Aboyne, he has 90 days from December 26 to “undertake a list of works” to bring it up to scratch.
That means, if the work isn’t carried out, then the council has the right to do it and send him the bill.
And after that officers could pursue a compulsory purchase order, legally obligating Mr Singh to sell it to the Aberdeenshire authority.
A protracted wrangle doesn’t really appeal to Claire and Dave though.
Sad to see the historic Huntly Arms Hotel in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire now closed. The Earl of Mar visited the hotel in on the way to raise the standard for the 1715 Jacobite Uprising. pic.twitter.com/vHFmzWvN4f
— John Murray Buchanan (@JMurrayBuchanan) October 2, 2020
‘It is just spiralling’
It all makes Claire look back at what might have been.
She says: “Had it not been sold, and we had got the funding we need, it could all be so different…
“But now it is just spiralling. If that roof goes, or if the kids go in and set fire to it, I dread to think what could happen.
“It would be a damn shame.”
Yorkshireman Dave says the hotel had been in decline for 20 years before Talash hammered the final nail into its coffin.
And he adds: “To rebuild it to the standard required is going to take time and a lot of money.
“It’s a huge task but what we’d like to see is somebody with deep pockets and resources take it on – with or without our assistance.
“We feel we have got to keep going to try and save the place… Just HOW is the huge question mark…
“But nothing is impossible.”
Jutinder Singh resigned as director of Huntly Arms Hotel Ltd in October and was replaced by Harmohan Singh Gulati.
Talash, Mr Sood, Mr Singh and Mr Gulati were all approached for comment.
You can read more about the drugs find here.
Read about how a Newburgh family are reviving the village’s derelict Udny Arms Hotel:
Family next door saved Newburgh hotel from demolition – and now they’re restoring it to former glory
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