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New owner plans to boost Garynahine estate    28/11/10

The new owner of Garynahine estate on Lewis plans attract more of the global upmarket hunting and fishing fraternity.

Multi-millionaire Doug McGilvray is looking to an international clientele to help boost visitor numbers at the private sporting estate. He also plans to convert the stables into a restaurant.

Mr McGilvary - who wife Kaye hails from Ness - also owns Borve House Hotel on Lewis.

He also purchased the 3,200-acre Leys Castle estate near Inverness last week.

Mr McGilvary is chief executive of Inverness-based crane-hire firm Weldex which he started in 1979. He part-sold his shareholding to Edinburgh-based Dunedin in a deal valued at £100 million this summer.  The firm operates about 100 cranes for the oil and offshore wind industry. It has also supplied cranes to build the new Wembley stadium and Heathrow airport expansion.

Christopher Buxton of Cambridge put Garynahine on the market with a price tag of £1.5 million.  Less than two dozen crofts are located on the estate.

The property includes the 10-bedroomed lodge, ghillie's bothy, keeper's flat, stables and outbuildings.

The estate boasts some of the best salmon fishing in the islands and contains virtually the whole of the Lewis Blackwater River system from the headwaters to the sea including over 40 fresh water lochs.

It also offers grouse, snipe and woodcock shooting with sporting rights over about 10,400 acres of 10,400 of crofting land. Red deer has recently enroached onto the estate and stalking is available.