Argyll Hotel History
The Argyll was the first of the two hotels to on Iona open its doors. In the middle of the 1860’s, the enterprising then owner John MacDonald, decided to covert the single storey croft house into an expanded two storey building. He wished to cater for the increased number of visitors and tourists that were arriving on to the island. In doing so, he proved to be a keen exemplum of recycling and local procurement, since he mainly used stones garnered from the Nunnery ruins for the construction of his enterprise. There is a very indignant letter from the Duke of Argyll in the hotel's deeds, which castigates MacDonald and demands that he "desist from using the Nunnery as his own personal quarry". The first guests were nevertheless welcomed into the granite built building in 1867.
Since then the hotel has continued to service the expanding numbers of visitors to the island, and whilst various owners have come and gone over the years, the unique nature of the island and the idiosyncrasies of hotel have continued weave a spell over visitors. There are many stories regarding the hotel that should really be compiled into a book, simply because they trace such an interesting social history. One owner of the inter and post-war period, Mrs Campbell had a small penchant for the local brew and often found herself a little tired and emotional in the evenings; to the extent that one regular guest remembers as boy being sent into the kitchen to find out what was happening to the dinner. To his surprise he found a rather sonorous old lady fast asleep upon her back on the kitchen table. Unbelievably, the guests then filed in one by one and helped themselves to the mutton stew as she continued to sleep the evening away.
To give a more balanced view of the landlady, despite her narcoleptic tendencies at dinner, she nevertheless took great care of her guests and in particular looked after and nursed one visiting war casualty, Mr David Thompson. He in turn never forgot the care and understanding he was shown, and returned every summer for the next 46 years. He brought his friends with him from Perth who soon reached quite a number and who in turn began the yearly Iona Open Golf Championship.
Another war story that we only learned about a few years ago, involves two young naval officers who were on the grim convoy duty to the Russian front. Essentially they had come out of Glasgow in atrocious weather in order to avoid the U-Boats and had tried to make it up the West Coast. Unfortunately the weather and U-boats quickly broke up the convoy and they ran for shelter amongst the islands. As the dawn broke the next day they found themselves looking at an idyllic island surrounded by white sand beaches, and they decided that if they survived the war they would meet up and visit the place together. As the war and its aftermath then progressed, they lost touch with each other, and indeed each thought that the other had not made it through alive. Suffice to say, several years later to their mutual joy and astonishment they were unexpectedly reunited in the dinning room of the Argyll Hotel; they had each kept the promise to return.
There are many other tales to tell, of friends reunited, of loves found and lost and above all of happy holidays full of family, friends and fun. These stories continue to be told and extended as more people visit the island and the hotel. Over 65% of our guests are returning clientele, with the majority coming back year on year - and as such we often entertain several generations of the same family. The grandparents would have brought their children to the island years before, and then as the family grew and their children in turn became parents they would all visit together.
"A Word about Ourselves" - The present day proprietors and staff
Daniel Morgan and Claire Bachellerie.
Though we maybe owners in name, we very much feel we are but tenants of the Argyll Hotel who are tasked with maintaining a long tradition of Hebridean hospitality as well as caring for a building full of history and character. Neither of us hails from the island, but we swiftly fell in love with the Scottish West Coast in our formative years, and cherished the warmth and hospitality that we were so often shown. We therefore jumped at the chance when the hotel came up for sale in 1998, and have relished the time we have spent with the Argyll; both in terms of the challenges it has presented, and especially the people we have grown to know as friends: islanders, guests and staff alike.
Neither of us has any catering or hospitality qualifications, yet we both worked through our university years in various bars and restaurants. We were also both fortunate enough to have come from families who have a love of good food and wine. Claire is from a small village near Aix-en-Provence in France and moved to Britain for her university, slowly making her way further north as the years progressed. Daniel grew up in Kent in England and then had several years in Canada before moving to Edinburgh to work and study at the Centre for Human Ecology.
The environment has played a major part in our education and approach to running the hotel. Claire had experience from environmental management and work with various Scottish charities, and Daniel had worked with the Isle of Eigg Trust upon which he wrote his PhD on sustainable island management and land reform. The result has been to balance the hotel's appreciation of the good things in life with the responsibility of managing the business in an ecologically and socially appropriate manner.
