Loch Ness hotel by Fort Augustus gets permission for new building
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Planning permission has been granted for new accommodation at a Loch Ness-side hotel with breathtaking views over the waters.
Now named The Inch, the application by the owners is under the property's former name, Inchnacardoch Lodge Ltd, for the 17-bedroom hotel on the northern outskirts of Fort Augustus on the A82.
Permission has been granted for the erection of a new single-storey block behind and to the side of the main hotel, with a dilapidated shed to be removed to make way for it.
Permission, however, is subject to requirements including that the new accommodation – comprising six en-suite bedrooms – be used for staff accommodation only "and for no other purpose or use".
Explaining the reasoning for this the decision notice states it is: "To ensure that the development does not become used for permanent residential occupation in the interest of the area's visual amenity, in recognition of the lack of private amenity space and in accordance with the use applied for."
Transport Scotland raised no issues with traffic access during consultations but Highland Council’s south forestry officer Grant Stewart had flagged up that the site is located “almost entirely within woodland which is listed on the Ancient Woodland Inventory as ancient semi-natural origin woodland” and required a tree survey to be produced.
Measures aimed at protecting trees on the site are included as conditions to the permission.
An tree planting scheme is required to be carried out "in the first planting and seeding seasons following the commencement of the development, unless otherwise stated in the approved scheme."
The decision notice continues: "Any trees which within a period of five years from the completion of the development die, for whatever reason are removed or damaged shall be replaced in the next planting season with others of the same size and species."
Protection measures are also to be put in place for all retained trees during construction work, with an arboricultural consultant to be employed to ensure approved Tree Protection Plans are implemented to the agreed standard.
And an updated Tree Planting Plan and maintenance programme has to be submitted to, and approved by, the planning authority before construction begins.
The decision statement notes: "The Tree Planting Plan shall include the planting of at least 60 whips and 10 heavy-standard sized trees and it shall be implemented in full during the first planting season following commencement of development or as otherwise agreed in writing by the Planning Authority."
On its website the hotel details how the main house has been a feature of the landscape for more than 150 years.
A former hunting lodge, and a base for the RAF during World War II it became a hotel in the 1950s.
The website continues: "The Inch still retains all the charm and features from its fascinating past with the bell used to call the hunters home at night still in working order on the side of the building and period features throughout the hotel.
"At the side of the hotel is a woodland path leading through the woods to the abandoned hanging shed used for the game collected on hunts – a great reminder that this was, and remains a working house."
