Kinloch Castle Sale, Isle of Rum
18 March 2023
The Isle of Rum Community Trust have released a statement following the report by the Daily Mail that J Hosking has pulled out of his plan to buy Kinloch Castle.
In today’s Daily Mail, we are informed that J Hosking has pulled out of his plan to buy Kinloch castle on Rum. This is disappointing. However, it is perhaps never a good sign of things to come, if a prospective major player in the life of our island chooses to communicate repeatedly with this community, on subjects of such importance, by these means, rather than in a more conventional manner. Indeed, dialogue with Mr Hosking and his representatives has rarely felt full, open and constructive and we feel vindicated in our concerns that this may have had negative implications for any future working relationships had the sale gone ahead.
Since the announcement by NatureScot of the proposed sale of Kinloch Castle to this buyer in June 2022, the Isle of Rum Community Trust have worked hard to ensure that any sale must represent a good deal for the community who live on Rum. Over the last 8 months, we have made a number of, we feel, reasonable requests to the proposed buyer (and the seller) relating to the possible positive and negative impacts on Rum of these proposal. None of these have been substantially answered. This has been unfortunate.
We will continue to represent and stand up for our community and their majority views, and for the wonderful environment and heritage of our island. We look forward to working with NatureScot, the Scottish Government and other partners in finding a sustainable future for the Castle site which will deliver benefits to everyone on Rum and to the agendas of Community Empowerment and Engagement, Land Reform, Environment and NetZero, as well as that of Heritage.
We thank NatureScot and the Minister, Ms Slater, for their invaluable support to date.
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