A fresh bid has been made to breathe new life into a historic hotel on the banks of the River Dee which has lain empty for nearly two years.
The Potarch Hotel at Ballogie, near Banchory, could be transformed into a holiday lodge and cafe under fresh plans to revive the building.
Owners Ballogie Estate Enterprises has lodged the change of use application with Aberdeenshire Council.
The Potarch Hotel was closed by the estate after years of dwindling business.
But now property manager for Ballogie Estate, Lewis Gray, is hopeful that if everything goes to plan, visitors could soon flock back to the area.
Mr Gray, said: “The idea is to have a sort of leisure-style lodge/river house which is going to have seven bedrooms for self-catering, and the remaining part of the building we are going to transform that into a cafe, kitchen and toilets.
“It would be split into two separate businesses. We’d be running the self-catering part and we are just away to start looking at somebody interested in running the cafe.
“It is a fantastic building and we wanted to make sure we continue to use it for leisure and tourism.
“This was the model we came up with which meets the needs of the market.
“When the decision was made to close it two years past October, it was really because the business wasn’t a successful business model and was struggling to get by.”
There has been a hostelry at the spot neighbouring the historic Potarch Bridge since at least 1740.
Plans were originally unveiled to turn the once-bustling watering hole into a four-star, 40-bedroom venue with a bistro, restaurant and bar but they were withdrawn last September.
Mr Gray added: “We looked at a much bigger investment but there was too much uncertainty and it seemed to be too much of a high risk.
“The building will not really change, it will look as it does at the moment but a lot nicer and polished.
“We think it is going to be really popular with the fishermen.”