This is the 18th century country property in South Lanarkshire that has been revived with a £1 million makeover by the pair behind the five-star Blythswood Square Hotel in Glasgow.

Hans Rissmann and Peter Taylor have today unveiled the Strathaven Hotel as they set out to build the distinctively Scottish hospitality group, The Rissco Collection.

Acquired by its new owners in January, the hotel is set in three acres of grounds with the refurbishment programme nearing its end.

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The new restaurant and bar area has already been completely redesigned and the final phase will see a grand ballroom open soon too.

Both spent more than two years looking for the perfect opportunity in the Strathaven Hotel - which has 22 rooms and employs 48 staff - after previously working together to launch the Blythswood.

The partners hope to reposition the hotel as a premium destination for weddings and business conferences when the 200-capacity ballroom reopens, and also plan to double turnover to £2 million a year by hosting around 60 weddings annually.

The Herald:
Hans Rissmann and his wife Lydia in the new Strathaven Hotel bar

Mr Rissmann described how his father was a hotelier, something which saw him “born and bred into the industry.”

He added: “It has always been my ambition to have a hotel of my own.

“When we found the Strathaven Hotel, we immediately loved the Georgian front to the building and we liked the challenge of reinvigorating the interiors to bring them up to date.

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“The hotel had lacked investment in recent years and the local competition had improved, so it had lost trade, but this is a great area and Strathaven has great potential.”

The ambitious pair hope to create a group of five hotels across Scotland over the next decade.

The investment in the Strathaven Hotel was supported by a £1million loan from Bank of Scotland.