History of the Hotel
Lands of Loyal was originally built for Commander William Ogilvy in the 1850's who after a triumphant time on the battlefields of Waterloo returned to the area of his birth.
As son of the Earl of Airlie from Cortachy Castle near Kirriemuir, Commander William was fortunate to be a man of means and enlisted the local architects A & A Heiton to design Loyal House complete with adjacent stables and coach house, and there he lived out his days, unfortunately alone.
Loyal House remained in the Ogilvy family until the 1870's when it was sold to George Gilbert Ramsay of Bamff, a Professor of Humanities at Glasgow University. During the Ramsays' time here the footprint of the house more than doubled in size, when with the help of Andrew Heiton jnr a large extension was built in 1877 - 1878.
The Ramsay family still reside in Bamff today, less than 3 miles from the hotel.
By the turn of the century Loyal House had changed hands and had been acquired by the Jute baron John Cleghorn from Dundee. The success of the Cleghorn's was very well known as jute was one of Dundee's top exports at the time and John Cleghorn would regularly travel to and from New York. This was the Edwardian golden age of cruise ships and two of the best and fastest were the Mauretania and her sister ship the Lusitania, it was the former of these ships that inspired the remodelling of the grand hall, thus forming the building as you see it today.
During World War 2 the house was requisitioned, refugees from Clydebank were moved in, the newly terraced gardens were dug up for vegetables and large areas given over to pigs, all in the name of the war effort.
Sadly though the Cleghorn family, all who had served heroically could not bear to return to Loyal House after so many changes and the house was again sold.
This time two sisters Elizabeth and Jess along with their brother Donald Taylor took on the house and slowly, using only their vision, enthusiasm and ration tokens created the Lands of Loyal Hotel much as we see it today.