Sannox Hotel – Unique & SBS
Sannox Hotel
Formerly The Ingledene Hotel
Sannox, Isle of Arran, KA27 8JD
To help our readers and the prospective hotel-room-owners as well as visitors to the Sannox Hotel, we have placed a note on our website to clarify some of the building’s history. First this..
The next photograph is a close-up of the wording on the plaque we have at the Sannox Hotel (formerly known as the Ingledene Hotel). Hopefully it is easier to read the larger letters..
^^ Was The SBS Invented ^^
^^ At The Ingledene Hotel? ^^
Source seems to verify this: Click Here.
The managing director of the current owner (2023) of Sannox Hotel is Russ McLean. He was brought up on Arran at the nearby Blackrock House Hotel in twin-village to Sannox, being Corrie and has known the Sannox Hotel for most of his life.
^^ Blackrock House Hotel ^^
Corrie, Isle of Arran, KA27 8JB.
Blackrock is the nearest hotel to Sannox Hotel.
On the topic of Sannox Hotel’s remarkable history, Russ recently commented…
“As kids growing up in Corrie, it was drummed into us that the generation before us, those who were in their late teens and early twenties when they went to serve in World War 2, many of whom gave their lives, should always be afforded the fullest measure of respect.
Many days at Corrie and Sannox were lifted when you got to meet one of these former service personnel. Not that they would speak much of the atrocities they had witnessed. Nor of their friends who were unlucky and did not return home after the War.
But you could tell from the way they carried themselves. They all had a military bearing that was unmistakable. If you were very lucky, you could buy a coffee and listen to some of the less traumatic events these guys went through. The “training days at Folbot” that brought them back, like military boomerangs to Sannox and the Ingledene. The front garden with tables at Sannox will forever be associated with those veterans.”
^^ Sannox Hotel ^^
Originally…
^^ Ingledene Hotel Lunch Garden ^^
Time Here Chatting With Veterans Was Hubling.
“Though more often than talk, the sound of silence was the most memorable thing when in the company of these gentlemen. That was enough to realise the depth with which their pilgrimage went. One had travelled all the way up from Madingley War Cemetery in Cambridgeshire where he was paying homage to a American buddy. So profound was that day listening to the profound words of this man who had served his country that I visited Madingley a few years later whilst working in London.
I think every human being should take some time to pay respects at Madingley or one of the many cemeteries tended by the War Graves Commission. It was sunrise and I was driving back to Scotland. But seeing so many headstones of soldiers who never got to live their full lives hit hard and forever. I could only marvel at sitting on a nice summer’s day with someone who had actually seen what happens before the fallen leave the battlefield.”
^^ Madingley ^^
The Cambridge American Cemetery
Russ concluded…
“It is sad now that very fewof that brave generation remain. Though there is a comfort in that their children and grand-children still make the journey to the Ingledene.”
In an endeavour to help those children and grandchildren who often turn up looking for the Ingledene Hotel, only to find the Sannox Hotel, we are going to rename the new Tea-Room: “The Ingledene”. It will still be attached to the Sannox Hotel. But this will help relatives visiting Sannox, to find the place where their grandfather or one of his pals was billeted.
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It is strange to us to think of these “folbots” drying out in the shed behind the Ingledene/Sannox Hotel.
A profound dissonance that the photographs from 80 years ago of these historic vessels being tested at Sannox Bay are very similar fibre-glass canoes that still ply the waters in front of the hotel nowadays.
Though those 8 decades separate two very different times and purposes.
^^ Lieutenant Roger Courtney ^^
More Than Just Mentioned In Dispatches
After the events at Sannox on the Island of on Arran, Lieutenant Courtney went up to Inveraray Castle and came back a Captain! Plus he was given command of twelve marines for the first Special Boat Section.
Source: Click Here
It is as the “Ingledene Hotel” that we have had daughters and sons of those who trained here for the Special Boat Service, approach us and asked to visit/stay at the hotel. When having a conversation in 2018, shortly after having bought the (closed-down) hotel, it became apparent how important it is to veterans and their families to be able to stay at the hotel. In addition to the 12 new jobs at the renovated hotel (and newbuild village shop), this is one of the reasons we decided to retain the building for it’s original use. Here is the SBS plaque presented to the Ingledene Hotel during October 2000…
^^ The Special Boat Service Plaque Presented At Sannox ^^
^^ Walter Marshall At The Centre ^^
Photo courtesy of the Voice For Arran + Walter Marshall + the Ingledene Hotel (now named the Sannox Hotel).
=> We believe passionately in keeping hotels open as hotels because they provide jobs and local amenities.
Indeed we have turned down numerous offers for Sannox Hotel from property speculators wanting to do the same to the Sannox Hotel as befell Blackrock House Hotel. Not under our watch. We have had to fight the temptation to sell Sannox Hotel. Especially after the managing director was injured aboard the ferry (for full transparency, details of that TBI will appear here in due course).
After this hotel’s use as barracks for the SBS during World War 2 an the formation of the Special Boat Service (here), there was quite a contrast:-
=> From dire, wartime matters of life and death, to something altogether different…
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Sannox Hotel
Something Quite Different
Before narrating this second part, we should preface the words with a caveat. The first part of this page pays homage to the memories that folk have, or their family forebears had of Sannox Hotel.
But with a bizarre turn of events, we move from the profound matters and gravitas of World War 2, to something quite different.
Our next door neighbour, the very kind Chief Engineer Joe Perkins who said to Russ McLean one day that Victor Meldrew used to live here at Sannox Hotel.
=> “Surely not” was the reply from Russ.
Yet after a couple of telephone calls when he returned to Sannox Hotel, Russ discovered that the neighbour was quite correct.
=> The actor, Richard Wilson who played the Victor Meldrew character started out by holidaying at the Sannox Hotel (in those days known as the Ingledene Hotel) ~ Click Here.
The holidays turned into longer stays as Mr Wilson grew fond of the island and his time at a pace which was paradise compared to earlier years on the mainland.
In case you are scratching your head wondering who Victor Meldrew is, here is an excerpt from the award winning television series: “One Foot In The Grave“.
^^ Answering The Dog & Bone ^^
After some enquiries, we understand it may be possible to have Mr Wilson preside over the re-opening ceremony for Sannox Hotel. That’s if he is still answering his old dog and bone.
One way or another, the old Sannox Hotel, with a major “back-to-bricks” renovation has quite a bit of history to it. As well as being located in an exquisite place on the Isle of Arran….
^^ Sannox Beach & Sannox Hotel ^^
It is strange to think that such a beautiful location was where an iconic actor spent his formative years growing up…
.^^ We Trust The Sannox Hotel ^^
Re-Opening Ceremony Goes Better Than This!
Mr Wilson Used To Spend His Summers At Sannox
…in the Ingledene Hotel.
This was the previous name
of the Sannox Hotel.
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Conclusion
Sannox Hotel – Unique & SBS
The fact this hotel is being kept viable as a local amenity via a unique hotel-room-ownership structure (where we ban mortgages to ensure the bank CEOs cannot asset strip hotels and destroy jobs: click here) and has, at the time of writing achieved 90% of the major back-to-brick renovating (July 2023) is something we had doubts about during the Covid pandemic and the near-collapse of the government owned lifeline ferry service.
^^ The Arran Ferry: MV Caledonian Isles ^^
Photo taken on 19-4-2019.
The very day of a major TBI accident
caused by negligence on the ferry.
Sannox Hotel Project Manager Injured
Here [1] + [2] + [3] + [4]+ [5].
There were recent dark days during this time of pandemic and injury of the company director in charge of our Sannox projects.
At times in the on our Island Hotel Project, it has felt like hit after hit (and not in a good way). Though a good friend did mention that the mettle of an organisation can be assessed during times of adversity…
But the old man thought of those youngsters who were billited at the Sannox Hotel (then named the Ingledene) from 8 decades earlier. Most just a year or two older than his grandsons. Someone’s son or grandson, many of whom had trained at the idyllic island hotel, only then to go and fight in World War 2.
=. If those young men could muster the courage to do that, then surely being hit on the head by a big boat is something that could be survived here at modern-day Arran too?
It is fair to say that whilst the recovery at the Stroke Unit was going on, the sacrifice of previous generations, many of whom had their lives ended by their 24th birthday, provided a remarkable amount of backbone and hearty spirit to get through the current setbacks.
As a wise man and wartime Prime Minister Mr Winston Churchill said…
On a co-incidental note of history: none of us here who own the Sannox Hotel project realised that a century or so ago, our MP would be the wartime prime minister. Just like Sannox Hotel, the extraordinary history of places and people can be learnt every day. A picturesque island hotel with a hidden past. Whilst on the other side of the country at the HQ of the group of friends renovating the hotel is located, came a revelation none of us had the faintest idea of? Our previous century’s MP…
^^ MP For Dundee ^^
9th May 2008 to 15th November 1922
We have had to raise certain issues with our local (2021) Dundee politician about struggles with red-tape at Sannox. Little did we realise that were it 100 years earlier, owe would have been writing to Winston Churchill!
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From World War 2
^^ Folbot Evolution From Sannox, Arran ^^
From the early days at Sannox Bay, through active service (here and here), some near to our mainland HQ at Arbroath…
80 Years After Roger Courtney Departed Sannox
Things Could Have Gone Either Way?
Good or Bad?
Roger Courtney became a commando in mid-1940 and was sent to the Combined Training Centre in Scotland. He was unsuccessful in his initial attempts to convince Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes and later Admiral Theodore Hallett, commander of the Combined Training Centre, that his idea of a folding kayak brigade would be effective. He decided to infiltrate HMS Glengyle, an infantry landing ship anchored in the River Clyde. Courtney paddled to the ship, climbed aboard undetected, wrote his initials on the door to the captain’s cabin, and stole a deck gun cover. He presented the soaking cover to a group of high-ranking Royal Navy officers meeting at a nearby Inveraray hotel. He was promoted to captain and given command of twelve men as the first Special Boat Service/Special Boat Section.[11]
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Sannox Hotel – Unique & SBS
Kayaking nowadays at and from Sannox Hotel means being able to take a relaxing trip across to one of the many local islands, as opposed to training for the SBS and doing your duty in winning World War 2.
^^ Kayaking To Ailsa Craig Island ^^
2023 (c) Hillwalking and Sea Kayaking in Scotland
We are determined to keep the local amenity of Sannox Hotel for reasons that are important to the island community and places far beyond the shores of these islands. Some of the World War 2 veterans, resident and trained at Sannox Hotel, distinguished themselves in a way where we really do want to keep the hotel functioning as a hotel.
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