Kings House Hotel
The Kings House Hotel (also Kingshouse Hotel or King's House Hotel ) is a hotel in Scotland . It is on the A82 between the east end of Glen Coe and the edge of Rannoch Moor . The hotel is a major stopover on the West Highland Way and one of the few permanent settlements in the moorland area.
history
From the 17th to the 19th century
Kings House was built in the 17th century, but no precise dates and information are available from this period. Already at the time of General George Wade , who had roads built in the Highlands at the beginning of the 18th century , there was probably already permanent accommodation on the important connection through the Rannoch Moor. They can be traced back to 1746 when they were used as barracks for the soldiers of the British government troops who, under the Duke of Cumberland , pursued the rebellious Jacobites after their last uprising, which failed in the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The main features of the current buildings of the hotel date back to 1765. In the period after the uprisings, Kings House became particularly important for drovers and trade travelers on the important connection from the west coast to Glasgow . The stone bridge probably built in 1751 along the old military road over the River Etive behind the hotel also dates from this time . The bridge has been a listed building since 1977 .
Due to the lonely location and the strongly fluctuating demand, the management of the hotel was difficult and repeatedly led to changes of tenants. On the other hand, the location on the edge of the Rannoch Moor meant a monopoly for the Kings House. Nevertheless, the house had a bad reputation well into the first half of the 19th century. The first travelers to visit Kings House on research trips or in the early phase of tourism in the Highlands triggered by the works of Samuel Johnson and Walter Scott usually found it negative. Thomas Pennant mentioned Kings House during a trip in 1769 and described it as inadequately furnished. Dorothy Wordsworth spent one night with her brother William Wordsworth in King's House in 1803 and made a very negative note of their stay:
“Never did I see such a miserable, such a wretched place, - long rooms with ranges of beds, no other furniture except benches, or perhaps one or two crazy chairs, the floors far dirtier than an ordinary house could be if it were never washed [...] We sate shivering in one of the large rooms for three quarters of an hour before the woman could find time to speak to us again [...]. She had no eggs, no milk, no potatoes, no loaf-bread, or we should have preferred tea. [...] After another hour's waiting, supper came, - a shoulder of mutton so hard that it was impossible to chew the little flesh that might be scraped off the bones, and some sorry soup made of barley and water, for it had no other button."
“Never before have I seen such a wretched place, such a wretched place - elongated rooms with rows of beds, no furniture but benches, or maybe a crazy chair or two, the floors could be a lot dirtier than a normal house that never cleaned has been […]. We sat trembling for three quarters of an hour in one of the large rooms before the woman found time to speak to us again [...]. She had no eggs, no milk, no potatoes, no bread, or whether we would rather have tea. After an hour of waiting, dinner came - a shoulder of mutton so tough it was impossible to chew the little meat that could be scratched from the bones and some sparse, tasteless soup made from barley and water. "
Around the same time, in 1802, a military surveyor certified the house “more like a pigsty than an inn”. At that time, Kings House was an important stopover for drovers and traders in the Highlands. Wordsworth describes it as overcrowded with drivers, riders, carriers and other travelers.
From the 19th century to the present
.jpg)
In the course of the 19th century, Kings House continued to gain in importance. Tourists from the Victorian era who had discovered the Highlands as a destination were now increasingly joining the drivers and carriers . The most famous visitor at this time was probably Charles Dickens ; travel writer Herbert Byng Hall also mentioned the hotel. John Stuart Blackie used it as a starting point for field research on the Gaelic language . At the end of the 19th century the proportion of mountaineers and hikers increased and Sir Hugh Munro , author of the list of Munros with all Scottish mountains over 3000 feet (914.40 meters), was a regular visitor. During this time, the quality of the hotel had improved and there were some extremely positive reviews. With the expansion of today's A82, the hotel has also been accessible by car since the beginning of the 20th century.
In the early 1960s, the hotel was extensively expanded and modernized. At that time it belonged to the Black Mount Estate owned by the Fleming family (best known member of the family is James Bond author Ian Fleming ) . About two kilometers south of the hotel, the White Corries Ski Area (now Glencoe Mountain Resort ), the oldest Scottish ski area , had previously been set up in 1956 on the northern slopes of Meall a 'Bhùiridh .
Since the establishment of the West Highland Way in 1980, Kings House has been an important stopover on the 154 km long long- distance hiking trail . It is the only permanent place to stay on the 30 km route between Inveroran and Kinlochleven . A little way away from the hotel there are now areas for tents .
In 2014, the Christie's hotel became the property of Black Corries Estate , which already owns approximately 20,000 acres in this area of Rannoch Moor. The new owners are planning a comprehensive renovation, which should, however, preserve the character of a former inn for drovers and domicile for hikers and mountaineers. The Kings House Hotel was therefore closed on November 1st, 2017. A simple overnight accommodation facility ( bunkhouse ) built as an alternative was opened in 2016, but closed again at the beginning of 2018, so that hikers on the West Highland Way will not have any overnight stays in the 2018 season. The bunkhouse and hotel should reopen at the end of 2018. The presented conversion and expansion plans were approved by the Highland Council , but criticized by mountain sports and environmental protection associations as being oversized and not fitting the environment. After the revised plans finally received the necessary permits, the converted hotel reopened in February 2019. The various additions from the 1960s were removed and replaced by a new wing. The renovated hotel has 57 beds, another 32 places are available in the still existing bunkhouse.
In addition to the hotel, the settlement of Kings House consists of several outbuildings and two cottages .
Web links
- Episodes from the history of the Kings House Hotel ( Memento from May 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- www.scottish-places.info: King's House Hotel (English)
- Entry for Kings House Hotel in Canmore, Historic Environment Scotland database
Individual evidence
- ↑ Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
- ^ Dorothy Wordsworth: Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland , 1803, p. 177
- ↑ Entry on Kings House Hotel in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)
- ↑ Glencoe Mountain Resort - about us ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 26, 2015
- ↑ Christie's: 30 July 2014 Ref: PR17987 Glencoe's Kings House Hotel sold after highly competitive process
- ↑ Kings House Hotel website (accessed June 14, 2018)
- ↑ Page of the Kings House Bunkhouse (accessed June 14, 2018)
- ↑ ukclimbing.com, news, February 2018 (accessed June 14, 2018)
- ↑ Katherine Price: Latest openings: Walnut House at the Duncombe Arms, Kingshouse hotel, the Crown in Chiswick and more The Caterer, February 14, 2019 , accessed February 6, 2020
Coordinates: 56 ° 39 ′ 5 " N , 4 ° 50 ′ 27" W.