Tour Scotland travel video of an Autumn road trip drive, with Scottish music, to visit the Gleneagles Hotel on ancestry visit to Perthshire. This is a luxury hotel, world renowned for golf on the King's, Queen's and PGA Centenary courses. Gleneagles has a unique combination of leisure activities including riding, shooting, falconry, country club and is surrounded by beautiful countryside, yet within one hour's drive of both Edinburgh and Glasgow airports. Construction of the hotel was commenced by the Caledonian Railway, which also built the nearby Gleneagles railway station. However by the time it opened in 1924, the Caledonian Railway had been absorbed by the London, Midland & Scottish Railway. It was equipped with its own dedicated railway branch line. An dance band leader named Henry Hall was involved in buying their pianos, and organising the dance band entertainment. He decided that radio broadcasts would be an ideal way to advertise the new hotel, so was given permission to move his Trafford Band from Manchester's Midland Hotel to the Gleneagles and form a new band in Manchester. The hotel's opening night was celebrated with Scotland's first ever outside broadcast on 7 June 1924. During World War II, as with many large country hotels, it was converted into Gleneagles Hospital under the charge of Dr Thomas Ferguson as Medical Superintendent. In 1948 ownership of the hotel passed from LMS to the British Transport Commission and in 1963 to British Transport Hotels. In 1981, British Transport Hotels sold Gleneagles to a newly-established private sector operator, Gleneagles Hotels plc. In 1984 it was acquired by Arthur Bell & Sons, which came into the ownership of Guinness in 1985 and Diageo in 1997. The hotel remained owned by Diageo, until it was sold to a private investment company Ennismore in 2015. The hotel was redeveloped in preparation for hosting the 40th Ryder Cup in 2014 played on the PGA Centenary Course.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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