Derelict landmark Kintyre hotel could be re-opened
Geograph - James T M TowillA landmark Kintyre hotel which has been closed for decades could be returned to use after refurbishment plans were given the go-ahead.
The former five-storey Keil Hotel will be expanded, gaining a garden store, office, laundry and accommodation units, along with leisure facilities and an outdoor seating area.
The hotel is understood to have been unused since 1990, having opened as a hotel after World War 2, following use as a military hospital.
Argyll and Bute Council has now given planning permission for the works, with one objection and two representations having been received from the public.
A council officer said in a handling report that the site occupies an elevated and visually prominent position on the western edge of Southend.
The report stated that the hotel remains the dominant feature within the site, and has historically formed a landmark building visible from both land and sea.
The officer wrote: "This application seeks detailed planning permission for the comprehensive refurbishment, extension and redevelopment of the long-established Keil Hotel together with associated tourism infrastructure.
"The proposal comprises the restoration and modernisation of the existing hotel building, construction of an extension, provision of self-catering accommodation units, refurbishment and conversion of the former generator building, erection of a leisure building, ancillary operational buildings, additional parking provision, landscaping and associated infrastructure works."
Hotel will be 'brought up to date'
It added that the development seeks to provide "modern visitor facilities" that help it secure long-term commercial success.
Under the proposals, the original bar area, restaurants and kitchens on the lower and upper ground floors will be retained and brought up to date.
The redevelopment would bring the building up to date with modern disability standards and the applicants say it would help the area's tourism.
Argyll and Bute Council is currently consulting on a potential tourism tax in the area.
Since closing at the start of the 1990s there have been attempts to turn the hotel into flats and to redevelop the hotel, but none of those proposals progressed any further.
