PLEASE NOTE: THIS PAGE IS FREQUENTLY UPDATED AND THE NARRATIVE COPY-EDITED FOR TYPOS ETC. IT IS MAINLY FOR PHOTO-UPDATES.
Sannox Hotel Hotel Sannox, Isle of Arran, KA27 8JD
Renovation Progress Photos: Latest Update 11 November 2021
The uploading order of these photos on this Scotlsion (formerly Argyll Group plc) website are in a random sequence. This is because the photographs come from several different cameras and camera-phones. It is important to upload all progress photos to one central point as we head to the date when the hotel and new village shop will open.
^^^ Sannox Hotel: Exterior Paintwork Being Applied ^^^
Condition before pressure washing, render-prep and repaint…
The external light cabling is being replaced and properly affixed to the hotel, rather than this current old “cable-droop”…
^^^ Sannox Hotel: Exterior Paintwork Being Applied ^^^
The exterior starting to look like it’s old self.
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^^^ Sannox Hotel Renovation ^^^
The majority of the internal renovation is completed. Now, after the horrendous Covid pandemic and the tortuous CalMac newbuild ferry bankruptcy (source: click here) leaving the island of Arran with a highly subsidise and poorly managed ferry service with ship crew and staff doing there best against all odds, here at Sannox at least, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel in regard to the hotel re-opening.
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The white flecks of paint littering the tarmac ground are from the K’Archer pressure washer that was required to prepare and clean the building for repainting. Thesis white speckled detritus will be cleaned from the floor once the exterior building works are competed.
It has been several years since the Sannox Hotel exterior was cleaned, prepared and made ready for painting.
It is a relief that the high specification Northern Lighthouse Board formula paint is being utilised. This ensures this coastal hotel has the best of coatings. Able to let the building breathe, yet also withstands the worst that rainy weather and sea storm has to offer.
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^^^ Spot The Difference ^^^
To the left is unpainted hotel, to the right is high-specification paintwork now applied.
Whilst focussing on the hotel renovation, it is also worthwhile appreciating the location and views. These help to make this particular place pretty special…
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^^^ Sannox Hotel ^^^
^^^ Island of Arran ^^^
A trout stream flowing from Glen Sannox in front of the hotel, with the sea at Sannox Bay and a beautiful beach in front. None too shabby a location.
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^^^ Double Depth Building ^^^
It is often unrealised that Sannox Hotel had a complete additional building added to it many decades ago. So what seems like a relatively modest size building from the main road, is actually double-depth with a total of 44 rooms that needed to be fully renovated (plus a lot of roof work to renew/overhaul.
After a long renovation journey, it is a relief to be on the final furlong, with seemingly small mundane jobs as painting the front entrance to the hotel and arranging a new front door being completed this month (November 2021)…
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^^^ Specialist Northern Lighthouse Board Formula Paint ^^^
This paint is the same special formulaic coating system that we were fortunate enough to acquire a trade account with for the previous Scotlsion/Argyll Group project up at our Noss Head Lighthouse Station HQ…
CONDITION “BEFORE” PAINTING…
^^^ Immediately Previous To Sannox Hotel ^^^
Our Noss Head Lighthouse Restoration Project
CONDITION “AFTER” RENOVATION & PAINTING…
The Noss Head Lighthouse was completed the same year we bought the Sannox Hotel for renovation.
There has been a very substantial renovation of every one of the 44 rooms in this building.
We return to the exterior prep., and painting scheduled for, and being undertaken in November 2021…
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The front elevation of Sannox Hotel “before” and “after preparation and re-painting…
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Sannox Hotel
Southern Ground Floor Elevation Renovation
^^^ Sannox Hotel ^^^
^^^ Southern Ground Floor Elevation ^^^
The exterior walls have been high-pressure cleaned and dried. The prepped with any gaps in the current rendering remedied. The hotel is likely to have a revised planning application submitted in order to future-proof it from current Covid contagion and variants that will undoubtedly arise. Such an amended planning consent would mean re-rendering at this point when a significant amount will be removed is a redundant and expensive exercise.
We have deployed the high-specification paint system as used by the Northern Lighthouse Board. This enables the interior structures of the building to breathe whost resisting onslaught of rain and bad weather as it goes onto the exterior walls.
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^^^ Sannox Hotel ^^^
Our company, Scotslion Ltd., would like to thank the Northern Lighthouse Board project manager who worked on their lighthouse tower at our Noss Head Lighthouse site for helping our company secure a rare trade account to purchase the highly specialist paint as deployed by the NLB onto their lighthouse towers.
The high quality ensures all of our coastal building renovations stand the best chance of remaining in very good condition for longer.
NEW UPDATE
Following the injury of our company director sustaining a blunt force trauma to the skull aboard MV Caledonian Isles, he was diagnosed with a stroke later that day. Due to ongoing investagatory protocols and legal matters we are limited in what can be written. But the facts are, the senior management atCalMac have let themselves down badly. A poor ferry service affects the whole island. A dangerous ferry has affected the renovation progress at Sannox.
Our apologies to the local community and visitors for the further unexpected delays CalMac have ended up causing islanders. This affects the timing of Sannox Hotel being completed and re-opening..
We have managed to continue with the renovation of Sannox Hotel, but between Covid and an already compromised ferry service with the MV Glen Sannox almost 5 years late in the building and nowhere near completion, this is a major reason Sannox Hotel and the new village shop are not yet open.
^^ MV Glen Sannox: Copyright Paid: Here ^^
Contributor: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo
Copyright Trolls Will Be Reported To The UK & US Police For Prosecution
The Caledonian MacBrayne ferry MV Glen Sannox undergoes a sea trial, accompanied by tugs, on a short trip under her own propulsion from Ferguson Marine yard in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde. Picture date: Tuesday February 13, 2024.
^^^ CalMac & CMAL Management Mess ^^^
Click Here
As a direct result of the traumatic brain injury (TBI) suffered by our director managing the project at Sannox Hotel, we have reluctantly taken the decision to place the hotel for sale. It is unfair to the local community and visitors that our director being disabled should delay the hotel renovation and re-opening.
To reassure our neighbours and friends at Sannox and Corrie, we have declined two offers from folk wanting to turn Sannox Hotel into a private home.
We intend for Sannox Hotel to re-open as a hotel and especially have a new village shop into the process.
Our group of companies have spent over 20 years renovating closed buildings and creating jobs. We are not letting an injury from a dangerous CalMac vessel cause a viable hotel to be turned into a holiday home and several jobs lost to the island.
By locating a new owner to open Sannox Hotel as a hotel, this will take remedy the disablement of our project managing director and provide a fresh pair of eyes to complete this project.
NEW UPDATE 2
The “Apart-Hotel” Option
To date we have turned down TWO offers from folk wishing to convert Sannox Hotel into a private home.
Scotslion Ltd., have worked hard at creating new jobs and renovating old, closed buildings.
We are determined that the Sannox Hote will re-open as a viable hotel WITH a new village shop added as this has worked well elsewhere in what we do.
Given Covid has put a significant minority of folk off of staying in open-plan shared hotels due to the “D” variant and new “F” and “G” variants, the feedback we have from prospective guests is that over 86% would prefer to stay in their own, private bedroom (plus bathroom and kitchen/small lounge).
In the industry, this layout for new places is termed…
APART-HOTEL GUEST SUITES.
Here is an example of one such format derived from the planning permission we secured for Sannox Hotel (before Covid arrived)…
^^^ Apart-Hotel Format ^^^
An example of one private guest suite out of seven in this hotel:
plus the new village shop and tea-room.
This is to ensure guests and locals are covid-safer.
If this is what it takes to make Sannox Hotel return to being a viable community asset that can be utilised by local residents and island visitors, then so be it.
We will soon engage in a consultation on the island with a view to amending the planning application if necessary. then we will study that change in the current planning permission and invest the required amount to make this happen.