Crieff’s Drummond Arms Hotel demolition could cost council £3m

Crieff’s Drummond Arms Hotel looks set to be bulldozed after a last-ditch community bid to save it ended in ruin.

Councillors agreed to take ownership of the run-down landmark at a meeting this week.

Perth and Kinross Council will now seek a building warrant to demolish it, at a cost of up to £3 million.

It comes after a Dangerous Buildings Notice was served on the hotel at the end of October – and the community group which had been working to restore it ran out of money.

Crieff residents are being warned the demolition process will take many months to complete.

It’s not known what will happen to the prominent town centre site next.

One likely option is affordable housing.

Crieff councillor Stewart Donaldson is convener of the finance and resources committee which sealed the Drummond Arms’ fate.

He said it was “a sad day indeed” for the community.

“The Drummond Arms has been part of the social fabric of the town for 150 years,” he said.

“It’s deeply tragic what has happened, to see how it has deteriorated.

“But there is, without doubt, a real threat to public safety.”

Drummond Arms’ central Crieff location calls for urgent action

Wednesday’s meeting heard the Drummond Arms’ roof is “largely beyond repair”.

There are fears that its collapse could impact on the whole structure.

The council says it will also examine what went wrong.

It’s hoped lessons can be learned to help safeguard other vulnerable properties in Perthshire.

Councillors were told another 100 buildings across Perth and Kinross are considered to be at risk.

Of those, around 30 are nearing the stage where action needs to be taken to make them safe.

But the Drummond Arms is particularly dangerous given its location in the very centre of Crieff.

Troubled history meant group was doomed to failure

The once-grand hotel has been empty since 2006 and was added to the Buildings at
Risk Register for Scotland in 2012.

It was built on the site where Bonnie Prince Charlie held his last council of war before Culloden.

But it fell increasingly into disrepair amid legal battles over its upkeep.

And it was already dilapidated when Crieff Community Trust acquired it in October 2019.

DARL, a subsidiary of the trust, has spent more than £1m, obtained from various sources, on preserving the property and exploring future options.

But the final straw was last month’s Dangerous Buildings Notice, requiring the roof structure, chimneys and high street-facing dormer windows to be made safe.

The directors of DARL say they will have exhausted their cash reserves by March
2025 and have decided to voluntarily wind-up the company at that time.

Council officers urged councillors to act now, since it would be much more complex to take ownership of the building and make it safe after DARL ceases to exist.

As recently as last year, a DARL spokesperson was suggesting the Drummond Arms  could re-open as a £5m boutique hotel.

But this week’s meeting heard there had been no credible interest in it since before the pandemic.