It is a home fit for a clan chief - but not a police chief.

Two-hundred-year-old Tulliallan Castle has been HQ of Scotland's new national force since its creation.

But Chief Constable Sir Stephen House has barely used the Scots Baronial pile in the two years since it became his official seat of power.

And now, The Herald can reveal, voices are being raised in policing that the time may have come to take down the HQ signs and find something better to do at the castle.

Chief Superintendent Niven Rennie, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, sees no point in pretending the 1820 stately home, near Kincardine in Fife, is the nerve centre of Police Scotland.

He said: "I don't think in reality it ever was the HQ; it was HQ in name only. They have the occasional meeting there and the chief has an office - but he is never there."

Sir Stephen - who is often on the go around Scotland - prefers the less glamorous but more practical based at Randolphfield House in Stirling, the ageing concrete headquarters of the old Central Scotland Police.

This building, unlike Tulliallan, can act as a proper command centre for the force, despite, insiders whisper, reservations being voiced over its suitability as an HQ for the smaller legacy force.

Senior officers, meanwhile, now often hot desk between Stirling and bases such as the crime campus at Gartcosh outside Glasgow, and the new Glasgow divisional HQ at Dalmarnock.

Tulliallan Castle is very quiet - largely a picture postcard backdrop to the modern SCottish Police College that dominates is grounds.

Mr Rennie said: "The police college is the Crown Jewels of the police service in Scotland. We should maximise its use

We have always suggested that it would be good for a centre of excellent for European police training."

Jim Wallace, the liberal democrat deputy first minister and justice secretary, pitched Tulliallan as a European base for training on organised crime as long ago as 1999.

Sir Stephen has said he is open minded about the Castle and the college.

Asked whether he would put the pile on the market to help meet his budget problems, he said: "This is a Scottish Government building. It is not ours to sell. What we do is we pay the upkeep but they own it.

"I think government would be more interested in in being used for multi-service training service or cross public-sector, which we are very open to."

This aspiration fits well with broader desire for police and other emergency services - and the council and NHS - to share buildings and facilities. The Scottish Government is currently considering whether it should run it own public-sector leadership courses.

Mr Rennie and other police leaders stress that the castle and its grounds - which are criss-crossed by ancient rights of way and are far from as secure as a real HQ would need to be - has a special place in police hearts.

This after all is where all Scottish officers have been trained since shortly after World War Two.

Calum Steele, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said:

"Tulliallan Castle has got tremendous symbolism for the police service in SCotland and should not be lightly discarded.

"There is nothing wrong with having an iconic building for a headquarters.

"Whether it is appropriate or not in terms of its facilities is a different question altogether."

Sir Stephen planned the complex merger of Scotland;'s eight territorial forces and other law enforcement bodies from a draughty office in Tulliallan Castle.

Insiders stress the choice of the building as official HQ was political. One said: "The SNP wanted to avoid the accusation of Central Belt favouritism that would follow if they based the new national force in Glasgow or Edinburgh, even though that would have been much more practical."

Chief Superintendent David Flynn, head of Training, Leadership and Development, which is based at Tulliallan, said: "The Police Scotland College at Tulliallan is a vibrant centre of excellence in terms of the hundreds of officers and members of staff who attend courses there along with individuals from other organisations who participate in skills and knowledge development programmes. Tulliallan also provides a base for a number of Police Scotland corporate functions and remains the service headquarters."


A spokesman for the SPA said:  "Tulliallan is a national asset and a key part of the police estate. The majority of the site is used for training purposes with the corporate headquarters being sited in a very small part of the facility.  As the service develops proposals for both the efficient use of its estate and its long term training needs, best value will be a key aspect of the SPA's oversight.

"On a day to day basis, how the corporate headquarters at Tulliallan and forward command base at Randolphfield are used will be determined by the business needs and demands on the Police Scotland senior team."