JULY 2005 – The ruins of the Hotel Sutherland Arms in Lairg, Scotland. Photo © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
On our way into the Scotish Highlands we stayed for a night in Lairg, a sleepy village situated directly at the beautiful Loch Shin, a good stop on your way to the North. The next morning we visited the Falls of Shin, enjoyed a forest walk and the (not so) dramatic waterfalls.
However, we had (once more) issues finding an accommodation for the night in Lairg. We had been on the road for quite a while that day, and the description of the Sutherland Arms Hotel in our guidebook (which was updated in 2005) sounded extremely nice:
“Sutherland Arms Hotel – Traditional country house style hotel on the banks of Loch Shin. Spacious corridors and 25 pleasantly furnished rooms. Small bathrooms, double rooms and Scottish breakfast from 80 pounds.”
Not so. When we arrived in the late afternoon, we found the building to be closed. We decided to opt for the Carnbren B&B that we had passed a few minutes earlier on the A836. This turned to out to be a nicely decorated accommodation.
My photo shows the closed Sutherland Arms Hotel as we arrived. By the way, the bartender of a pub told us that “the hotel was closed down around 1999/2000” which seems to be in line with my research. The building seems to have been demolished in 2007. What followed was a long and tedious process of finding new use for the ground which finally resulted in a happy end for the community.
Oh, and I also found this image of the hotel when it was still operating. It must have been nice. Back in its heydays.
The question remains why the author of the guidebook did not realize his error for the 2003 and 2005 editions of his book (when the hotel was closed around the year 2000 already)?
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | 21-JUL-2005 |
| Location | Lairg, Scotland |
| Camera | Sony DSC P-72 |
| ISO | 100 |
| Exposure | 1/125 sec at f/4.5 |
| Digital Image Source Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 2048 x 1536 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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