The Scottish Ghost Town

Doing a Trump: Victorian Taymouth Castle built in 1842, under reconstruction

The purchase of Scotland goes on unabated. The Grousist brought reader’s notice to this particular example of a community wholesale take-over some weeks back – there is not a better description than ‘take-over’ – of this village and its castle. The interviews contained in the report below come from Connor Ghillies. They give more detail, including the anxieties of the residents.

Kenmore sits on the banks of the River Tay and is home to around 100 residents. Arizona-based Investors Discovery Land Company has snapped up a lot of real estate in the region. This is causing concern among the locals. Their view is the area is becoming “hoarded by the elite”. The locals fear the village is becoming a ‘ghost town’, the playground of American millionaires and celebrities. They have every right to be fearful, they are up against big bucks and even bigger muscle. For the record, the MP is the SNP’s Pete ‘comfy-slippers’ Wishart.

Electing a nationalist party was meant to stop rampant acquisition of property and land, but here we are with outside companies free to do as they please, including sealing off land, given the right by the local council, Perth and Kinross. There’s nothing more distasteful that a Scot on the make, and in these unsupervised cases there has to be councillors on the back pocket take.

There are fears a peaceful Perthshire village is becoming a “ghost town” for locals who claim American billionaires are taking over to create a “playground” for the super-rich. Kenmore sits on the banks of the River Tay and is home to about 100 residents.

Neighbouring Taymouth Castle, built in 1842, and its vast swaths of land have been bought up by an Arizona-based business which boasts of transforming the area into a plush resort for the mega-wealthy. It is one thing for a building to be sold for conversion to a hotel, quite another for it to become an island gated and cut off from the surrounding town and its culture.

Investors Discovery Land Company (DLC) – which claims to be one of the most exclusive residential real estate development companies in the world – has indulged in monopoly money, they have snapped up (bought) and subsequently closed the local hotel and post office. This has caused a massive inconvenience to residents.

Kenmore post office closed to all

The foreign business empire has also bought several homes as concerns mount that the area is becoming “hoarded by the elite”.

It has been reported DLC’s clients include billionaires, CEOs, presidents and celebrities. A recent sales brochure from the US firm suggested the plans would include “a community including 208 residential units and club suites” and is only “30 minutes by helicopter” to Scotland’s major cities.

The castle restoration project was given planning permission by Perth and Kinross Council in 2011. Locals suggest their surroundings are being strangled and have mounted a petition to “fight back”.

Campaigner Rob Jaimieson

Campaigner Rob Jamieson says “In their other developments their homes range from £3m to £50m. They are going to try and close this all off. They don’t want the great unwashed walking past their high-end homes. None of us will ever set foot in it unless we want to tug a forelock. It is everything that a rich person could ever want but they never have to leave the confines of that estate. They are not going to be going out for tea and scones to the local tearoom. It is abhorrence to those of us who live around here.”

DLC reject requests for interviews and remain aloof but insist all regulations are being followed, [a hollow response of no meaning] including Scottish legislation giving the public the right to roam on paths surrounding the historic castle. However, a spokeswoman did not deny suggestions the area will become a gated community. The company website states the golf course and amenities will be “reserved” for the owners.

Ingrid Sheilds, from the local protest group, said: “People have questions about what the future plans are. They own the Kenmore hotel; they own practically all these cottages here. A lot of the times when you come here it is literally like a ghost town. There is no one here. Restaurants are closed down and even the public toilets. Kenmore, as the village as it once was, has really been transformed.”

DLC officials said “hundreds of people” have already been employed [there is no evidence for this assertion. Ed] and they believe that will be “sustained for years to come”. In any event, the excuse ‘we are giving hundreds of people work’ is patronising bullcrap. They mean a lower number, temporarily trades work, and then jobs offered as cooks, waiters, cleaning staff and gardeners, Scots returned back to servants of the laird.

Of course, there is always the non-Scot local opposing view to be found.

Peter Ely’s house looks on to the exclusive resort and broadly supports what it will eventually become. The local community council chairman said: “The castle has been in disrepair for 40 years. Steps are being taken to convert Kenmore back to a sustainable village. Over the last 20 years there was a 20% drop in residential people living here. Since these guys have taken over and bought up all the spare holiday lodges, [the] community is benefiting to the extent that the village is again beginning to grow. It will not be a closed community. I suspect they’ll be using local facilities.”

The American investors claimed they were “working hard to reopen the community’s village shop and hotel”. It is unclear when the project will be completed. And there is every reason to believe areas will be blocked off from casual access.

You don’t pay millions for the privilege of living in a beautiful area of Scotland and expect to see scruff walking their dog by your window. The council are too weak and poverty stricken and too Tory to demand answers from the development company, or to stick constraints on what they want to do. Sounds familiar – eh?

POST SCRIPT:

You would be forgiven for thinking this is a Tory quotation, but it’s dear old batty Pete Wishart MP, Mr Comfy Slippers himself, talking of his constituency. “This is an opportunity to bring economic activity, jobs, high-value visitors to the area. [And on gating the area] DLC [the company] have the right to offer the necessary security for its guests”

After a long defence of the project and private profit, overlooking that Scotland should be making these changes and not foreign companies with no loyalty to Scotland’s prosperity, he finishes with, “In all, there was a sense that if done properly, this could be an opportunity to bring one of Scotland’s greatest built assets back into use and allow development for the community.”

So there you have, no sense of responsibility for the land he claims he wants free, just the same old capitalist sell-off as before.

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