Fife hotel unveils new plans ahead of re-opening

An Aberdour hotel, which suffered flooding damage during the unprecedented thunderstorms last month,is hoping to open its doors again in the near future.

The ground floor of the Woodside Hotel was underwater after the torrential rain on Wednesday, August 12 and owners John and Lis McTaggart were forced to close.

It was the latest blow to the hotel, following months of closure during lockdown.

However, John remains positive and is hopeful that the hotel will be open once again very soon.

He said: “The whole of the ground floor was under water, as Aberdour High Street was a river that night.

“We had water coming in off the High Street as well as coming in down the hill from the car park at the back.

“We have had to allow time for the place to dry out and we need to get new flooring in most of the ground floor.

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“We could have done without this obviously, but it’s 2020 and no one knows what is coming next.

“We’re keen to be open again for the start of October.”

Last week, Signal Architects lodged an application with Fife Council on John’s behalf to amend planning permission the hotel has previously received to reduce its size.

The plans will see the use of two of the hotel’s wings - Doune House and Middle House - changed to residential properties and reducing the number of rooms in the hotel in a bid to ensure the business is sustainable in the future.

John explained: “There was planning permission to convert these parts back to houses when we bought the hotel in 2017. Permission expired so we had renewed it.

“The parts of the hotel we’re talking about were always residential properties,but at some point they became part of the hotel.

“The plans will make them residential properties again.

“With this application, the plans haven’t changed much. We had the permission already, but there’s just been a few amendments to layouts.

“Once the work is done, it would be a nine-bed hotel, which is probably more viable in the longer term, especially given what the hospitality industry is going through just now.”

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