COVER STORY EXCLUSIVE USE
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York business supremo Marc Lino and his wife Lynne, who hire it out for corporate gigs (taking flight to a local cottage when guests arrive). Te venue is part of the Susan Reid Collection of luxury homes that are available to the exclusive use market. “Te house manager worked for
the family [the Connollys] and now works for us,” says Reid, founder and owner of the business. “He’s got lots of stories to tell.” For movie buffs there are occa-
sional visual reminders as to some of the lofty luminaries who have stayed at the house in the past, including the likes of Steve Martin and Robin Williams. And there are even etch- ings on the wall outside one of the rooms, bearing the names of some of the Hollywood A-listers who have stayed there. “We don’t encourage guests to
go out onto the roof to have a look as there’s no railing, but it’s just another very intriguing facet of this unique property.” Recent parties who have visited
the property include a grouse shoot- ing group from France (who have vowed to come back every year), and six media executives from Amster- dam who did some fishing and off- road driving in between planning the future of their company. Te house also played host recently to twelve couples - three of whom were from the US and were apparently seduced by the whole story, which is brought to life by local Lonach Highland men who pipe guests into dinner. “Tey loved it because they said
we just don’t have this history and heritage,” says Reid. “Tey joined in the Ceilidh, which was a complete laugh because it’s not something they were all that familiar with, but they were doing it and have been raving about it ever since.”
n ACHNAGAIRN CASTLE, KIRKHILL, NEAR INVERNESS “Squadrons” of Porsche-driving Chinese millionaires and a fleet of helicopters flying down the glen is just a taster of some of the high- rolling events hosted by a refur- bished country house-cum-castle in the Highlands. Achnagairn House, owned by
former UBS banker Michael Lacey- Solymar and his wife Gillian, an ex-BBC consumer affairs correspon- dent, has recently been the setting for exclusive use bashes for some of the most prestigious corporate
A shooting party outside Scone Palace, in Perthshire, which is making one of its private wings available for hire
brands in the world including Mer- cedes, Louis Vitton and the world’s largest fund manager, Black Rock. Te property, which boasts
62-bedrooms spread across the main building and nine luxury villas dotted around the estate (reclaimed and put to use after a developer went bust), also has a huge ballroom. “It’s our USP. It’s a quite incred-
ible size,” says Lacey-Solymar, whose Perfect Manors venture also includes the exclusive use Cortes House mansion near Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, and the luxury villa Perfect Sunshine on the Caribbean island of Antigua. “Te big wall dates from 1660 and parts of the building before that; the ballroom was added 104 years ago by the then owner who wanted to put on a lavish 21st birthday party for his daughter.”
n SCONE PALACE, SCONE, PERTHSHIRE When it comes to the pecking order of buildings, palaces generally rank first in the opulence stakes. Scone Palace, just outside Perth, is a venue not only steeped in history, being for nearly a thousand years the crowning-place of Scottish kings and the home of the Stone of Scone, it has also just opened up for the first time one of its private wings for corporate hire. Although its Balvaird apartment
has been available for some time, the new offering will see 13 double bedrooms and one single made available for guests who want to take in some of the tasting notes of one of Scotland’s most historic buildings. “Guests get to say they’ve stayed in
a palace. It doesn’t get much better than that,” says Susan Reid, who also manages the property as part of her luxury collection. Te state drawing and dining rooms are some of the
finest and grandest in the country and even though the family are still resident - the Earl and Countess of Mansfield - they can be made avail- able on request as part of a corporate hire package. “It’s really rather nice and special,”
adds Reid.
n RAEMOIR HOUSE HOTEL, BANCHORY, ABERDEENSHIRE Murder, mystery and suspense seem to be at the heart of an 18-bed country house hotel nestled deep in Royal Deeside in Aberdeenshire. Raemoir House Hotel, in Banchory, has apparently played host to the famously disappeared noble, Lord Lucan, who vanished without trace in 1974 after being accused of murder. And, as I’m talking to current owner Neil Rae, he reels off another mystery associated with the property: the case of ‘Te Vanishing Air Ace’. According to a newspaper cutting he later sends me, Alfred Ogilvie, DSO DFC, went missing on June 24, 1957, but stayed at the hotel on the day he disappeared. Te day he vanished, an editorial explains, Miss Sheila Clift, secretary at the hotel at the time, received a parcel of nylons from Ogilvie, post-marked ‘Moffat Dumfriesshire, 21 June’. “Later Ogilvie was seen in Moffat with an unindentified woman,” the article explains. Although I think that might
indeed solve the mystery, I listen as Rae rifles through some of the other famous names that have stayed at the property, whose ‘Ha Hoose’ (Hall) is one of the oldest still in use in Scotland. According to Rae, Charl- ton Heston, Dame Judi Dench and former Prime Minister and Chan- cellor, David Cameron and George Osborne, have all been guests at
various times. “We’ve got a visitors’ book dat-
ing back to 1947, it’s an enormous leather tome. But all the names are there,” he says. With a bar apparently made from
an old bed, and a huge preserved carp sitting above it, not to mention a helipad and board rooms to attract the corporate customer, Raemoir House Hotel is a certainly an intrigu- ing Highlands destination.
n DUNDAS CASTLE, EDINBURGH With sweeping views and the Forth Rail Bridge as its backdrop, not to mention its proximity to Edinburgh airport, Dundas Castle is a natural choice for jet-set corporate types. Dating back to 1416 and with a
600-year-old ‘Stag Chamber’, the castle has proved a big hit with the US market, particularly for team- building events where guests have been split into ‘clans’ for a Highland Games for up to 200 people with activities such as whisky tasting, highland dancing and falconry. Other activities include a Wild Goose tablet-based treasure hunt, discov- ering the history and stories of the Castle and Estate; 4 x 4 driving or clay pigeon shooting; plus, a range of team-based challenges organised by the estate’s partners. Te venue has also organised a ‘Downton-style experience’, where guests can live the upstairs downstairs life, an of- fering which caught the attention of ABC News. “We bring the same passion and
commitment to the events we create for our corporate clients and offer total flexibility, whether it is for a board meeting for 10 or a gala din- ner for 600,” says owner, Sir Jack Stewart Clark.
EVENTSBASE | AUTUMN 2016 | 27
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