The Colquhoun Arms.
Notice to quit hotel after 40 years…
A family which had run a hotel in the Loch lomon-side village for 40 years has been given notice to quit.
Mr Alan Colquhoun, of the Colquhoun Arms, has been told by Sir Ivar and Lady Colquhoun that his lease will not be renewed and he will have to get out in May. 1970.
Mr Alan Colquhoun, whose widowed mother, Mrs Cecile Colquhoun, took over the hotel in the 1930s, said they had been ordered out with no compensation despite that they had extended the Colquhoun Arms from a four to a 20 bedroom hotel at a cost of over £35,000. His mother retired to Kilcreggan in 1967.
The two families are not related. Sir Ivar is chief of the Clan Colquhoun. Mr Alan Colquhoun said: ‘We have been offered £2,000 for the goodwill of the hotel, but my mother and I regard this as an utter insult.’ Meanwhile he has bought another hotel in Renfrewshire.
Mr Charles Swain, factor for Luss Estate, of which Sir Ivar is a director and Lady Colquhoun the managing director, said that the Luss hotel company would take over the hotel. Lady Colquhoun is managing director of the company.
Said Mr Swain: ‘I’m sure there is nothing personal in the refusal to renew this lease. The decision was made purely on practical ground. These are difficult times for landowners with such heavy taxation and they must make full use of every available asset. ‘Mr Colquhoun’s father had the hotel in his lifetime and his mother had it for a great many of hers.’