Nominated Best Visitor Attraction at the Highlands & Islands Tourism Awards 2016
Having been awarded the coveted 5* Visitor Attraction grading by Visit Scotland earlier this year, the MacLeod Estate team are delighted that Dunvegan Castle & Gardens has been nominated in the Best Visitor Attraction category at the prestigious Highlands & Islands Tourism Awards this year. It is further confirmation that Dunvegan has recovered its rightful place as a world class heritage attraction on the Isle of Skye.
Hugh MacLeod, Estate Director, said: “To receive a nomination for Best Visitor Attraction is fantastic news, especially at the end of a record beating season with over 143,000 visitors with all the additional pressures that brings to a place that was designed to keep people out. It recognises the estate team’s hard work and commitment whatever the weather and the positive impact of the rolling programme of major capital investment in Dunvegan Castle and the wider estate since 2008. These numerous improvements include the restoration of the castle’s roof, windows, historic collection and interior state rooms, extensive landscaping works in the castle gardens, a new main gate ticket office, refurbishment of the MacLeod Tables Cafe, Gift, Castle and St Kilda shops and a resurfaced car park and landscaped extension area. This nomination also recognises the legacy of my late father who had the vision to see that in order to Hold Fast in the modern world, Dunvegan had to adapt from being a medieval fortress designed to keep people out to a place focused on welcoming people in. Since those early make or break days in the 1960s, our dedicated team have extended a warm Highland welcome to millions of visitors which has the beneficial ripple effect of underpinning many Skye businesses that rely on the crucial visitor spend that generates.”
Being nominated in this category will help reinforce the estate’s mission to preserve the heritage of the Macleod Estate by being commercially successful in all we do to enable continuous reinvestment and to develop and share the unique history of Dunvegan Castle & Gardens with our visitors.
