More hotels along Scotland’s answer to America’s Route 66 have been snapped up in a multi-million-pound spending spree.

A new company was formed to purchase the establishments along the North Coast 500 (NC500) with the intention of upgrading them to fill a gap in the market for high-quality accommodation.

Highland Coast Hotels recently sealed the deal on its first acquisition – the picturesque Kylesku Hotel, run for the last 12 years by Tanja Lister and Sonia Virechauveix.

But now it has announced the acquisition of another three hotels on the NC500 tourism route in Sutherland.

Highland Coast Hotels is taking over the Newton Lodge, near Kylesku, the Royal Golf Hotel in Dornoch, and the Royal Marine Hotel in Brora. It is understood staff at the three establishments were informed of the move last week.

The 22-bedroom Royal Golf Hotel, which overlooks the first tee of Royal Dornoch Golf Club, and the 21-bedroom Royal Marine Hotel, have been owned for more than a decade by a consortium led by Inverness businessman David Sutherland.

Mr Sutherland said: “Highland Coast Hotels have extremely positive plans for the hotels and intend to build on what has been achieved.

“They are fortunate to inherit a staff with outstanding levels of quality and commitment, to whom we express our gratitude.We are confident that the new owners will make a valuable contribution to Sutherland’s visitor product and continue to underpin the communities of Brora and Dornoch in particular.”

East Sutherland and Edderton ward councillor Deirdre Mackay said: “I am delighted to learn of the plans for Sutherland and the Marine Hotel.

“This hotel is an iconic feature in the village and it is so good to see this change of direction which plans to build on the existing qualities of the hotel but with a strong community focus.”

“Brora has so much to offer in terms of the environment, culture, health and wellbeing and I am pleased to support the new management in their ambition to work with the community to make Brora a great place to visit and live in – it’s a win win!”

Company chief executive is Roddy Watt, who hails from Ballachulish and is based at Doune, Perthshire, and its chairman is David Whiteford, who is standing down as chairman of the North Highland Initiative - which launched the NC500 six years ago.

The NC500 has been hailed by various top travel publications, National Geographic and American broadcaster CNN as one of the world’s greatest drives and highlighted on TV shows such as Top Gear.

It is estimated to be worth more than £22m a year to the local economy.

However, the route has been described as both a highway to hell and a road paved with gold - boosting tourism but with complaints from residents of speeding motorists and, conversely, also of slow moving convoys of motor homes and long tailbacks of bikers.

Recently Highland Council unveiled its plans to deal with tourism pressures with a £1.5m package of funding, designed to “create a good experience” for visitors.

Seasonal rangers, more parking enforcement, more toilets, more litter collection , more provision for motorhomes, and bus services to tourist sites on Skye are all promised as part of the council’s drive to manage visitor pressures.

The funds will be spent over two years, tackling the longstanding issues around tourism infrastructure which became all too apparent last year when staycationers headed to the Highlands in droves.

Now the hotel buy-ups are expected to lead to significant job opportunities as it is intended to keep the hotels open all year round.

Mr Watt said that the company was focusing on slow, environmentally friendly tourism integrated into local communities.

He said: “We are responsible people who are setting out to create hopefully something special in the Highlands which will support local communities and supply chains along with others such as craftspeople and artists.”

Highland Coast Hotels Ltd was incorporated with Companies House in 2019 and, along with Mr Watt and Mr Whiteford, another three directors are listed: Kenneth Neison, Hugo Robinson and James Tillman.

Mr Watt, an entrepreneur with some 30 years’ experience of starting, building and operating businesses in the hospitality sector, said the new company was his idea and had been four years in the making.

“A couple of planets aligned,” he said. “There was a significant increase in tourist activity in the Highlands, triggered by the launch of NC500 in 2015.

“I also identified, with one or two notable exceptions, that the quality of hotels in that part of the work was suboptimal and many were under invested, creating a gap in the market around NC500.

“Our strategy is to acquire hotels and invest substantially in developing them by way of more bedrooms or extra restaurant, bar and other facilities.”