BYCRONANSCANLON
ONE of Donegal's best known family run hotels has been put on the market with a guide price of 5.5 million euro.
The landmark Highland's Hotel in Glenties has been in the Boyle family for almost sixty years.
However, the present owner Johnny Boyle, has decided to leave the hotel business in order to concentrate on the other passion in his life: Painting.
Johnny, a renowned artist, and his wife Christine have been running the hotel with the help of their seven daughters in recent years.
BELFAST
The hotel was originally a hunting and fishing lodge belonging to the Marquis of Cunningham in the nineteenth century. It was purchased by Johnny's father, also Johnny, in 1948 after he left Belfast where he also worked in the catering business. Christine and Johnny bought the adjoining McDevitt Institute (The Tech) in 1978 on which they built the present ballroom and the present hotel has been renovated and extended since.
"The hotel industry has changed and with new technology, and marketing has become more aggressive," Johnny said in a letter sent to friends and suppliers.
"In this climate, maintaining the essence of a traditional family hotel, providing quality with value, has become more challenging. One other aspect is the development of my other career as an artist. Painting is progressively taking up more of my time and I find it so rewarding," he explained.
Over the years he has built up a large following for his landscapes ofDonegal and has featured in many solo and collective exhibitions.
TRIBUTE
He also paid tribute to his daughters, and in particular to Sinead who returned home from London to work there, whose contribution was a major factor in the hotel's success.
He paid a special tribute to Christine who stepped into his mother's shoes and involved herself in the day to day running of the hotel. Johnny also thanked all the staff, present and past, who worked there down through the years.
The hotel is being sold by Francis Brennan of Joe Brennan & Son Estate Agents. It has 25 en suite bedrooms, a living quarters and a separate staff accommodation. The restaurant can seat 74 diners and there are two function rooms, one to accommodate 500 and the other to take 80.
