Premier Hospitality

Crossbasket Castle Hotel

Crossbasket
Written by Roma Publications

Crossbasket Castle Hotel

Crossbasket

Situated overlooking the glorious River Calder, Crossbasket Castle near Glasgow has a rich history dating back to the early 15th century.  More recently, the building was saved from ruin by Steve Timoney and Alison Reid-Timoney in 2011 who have transformed it into the luxurious five-star hotel.

Opened earlier this year, the hotel is part of the ICMI Collection and boasts eight en-suite bedrooms and a four-storey bridal tower. The restaurant is overseen by legendary French chef Albert Roux, OBE, KFO and his son Michel Roux Jr serving seasonal dishes with the best local produce available.

After cutting ties with the original architect on the project, Glasgow-based Smith Findlay Architects were brought in to take over. Gordon Smith, Director at the practice, talked to Premier Hospitality about the work and that he and his team faced:

“It had been derelict for quite a number of years and it had been listed as a designated building in danger. It was in a pretty bad state. The roofs were leaking and the first task the client had to do was to make it wind and watertight which involved a complete reroofing of the castle.

“There was a fairly strict brief. The previous architect employed had submitted the project for planning permission and that was to convert the castle into eight bedrooms and to provide a ballroom extension to the castle. So when we took it over all the outstanding granted planning applications and listed building consent applications had still to be made. We had to make some fairly radical alterations to the new build extension ballroom.

“When we were appointed, the bedrooms had been designated and all period features where possible were retained which was extremely important because the castle is category A listed. Unfortunately due to water damage a lot of features had been destroyed so these were reproduced exactly using plaster and timber panelling mouldings.”

As such all rooms have ornate and luxurious period style beds, antique furniture and antique chandeliers.

Crossbasket

Gordon added:

“The windows were all replaced in timber, in the style of the original castle. The new linked ballroom extension was designed in sympathy with the castle, using external stone, timber windows, and a slate roof and has a full length balcony which overlooks the River Calder.”

Given the castle’s rich history, it was subject to strict planning and building warrant regulations with regards construction and it was this that Gordon identified as they project’s challenge. However, working with Steve and Alison Timoney, who have a proven track record in the renovation and conversion of listed buildings ,meant the stature of the project made up for the difficulties.

“The main challenge initially was to ensure the client obtained all the necessary permissions because work was proceeding quite rapidly and some of these applications had to be retrospective. In order to do that we had to work very closely with the local authority who were extremely co-operative.

“We saw the project as extremely prestigious and it came even more prestigious when ICMI came on board. Our involvement was fairly intensive and provided an opportunity for us to extend our experience within the high end hotel and catering market.”

Crossbasket

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Roma Publications