The family-owned Sonas Collection has announced the relaunch of Knipoch House Hotel, a country house hotel near Oban in Scotland.
The 26-bedroom hotel marks the fourth property for the collection as the largest hotel and the first outside of the Isle of Skye.
Officially relaunched on 15 March, Knipoch House Hotel has been designed to create an “elegant and relaxing experience” for guests, from a wood panelled reception hall, a firelit lounge, three dining rooms, and most bedrooms having panoramic views of Loch Feochan.
Sonas was founded on Skye by Anne Gracie-Gunn and her late husband Ken, from their passion for sailing and desire to showcase the Hebridean waters, the Gaelic language and culture through hospitality.
Within the past nine months Sonas Collection has invested over £1m to reinvent this venue with a complete renovation to the bedrooms, the bathrooms, dining rooms, bar, and lounge.
Dating back to the 1600s, the hotel retains its history with original fireplaces, stone walls and wood panelling. Guests can enjoy amenities like a private hot tub and walking paths through nature from the hotel.
Additional offerings are planned to continually improve upon the guest experience together with an outdoor terrace barbecue and dining area currently underway to embrace the spring and summer weather.
Knipoch House Hotel also offers modern Scottish dining in its onsite restaurants headed by chef Andrew Engledow, who has joined the Oban venue from his previous position at the group’s Duisdale House Hotel. He has a focus on locally sourced ingredients from Argyll and seasonal flavours that reflect the surrounding area whilst introducing a twist to his dishes.
Gracie-Gunn, owner and director of Sonas Collection, said: “I, together with my highly skilled team at Sonas are truly delighted to be relaunching this wonderful property which I have admired from afar for many years. It is a perfect fit for our Skye-based collection and will enable us to offer our guests yet another location to explore under the Sonas brand.
“It has been a great pleasure to have worked alongside each of our skilled tradespeople to develop this well-known venue in Argyll. Our guests, from near and far, can now enjoy our sympathetic designs, our Hebridean hospitality, our freshly prepared locally sourced menus and drinks selection under the close eye of our group general manager Andreas Maszczyk.”
Maszczyk added: “I am honoured and so delighted having the opportunity to expand with Anne the Sonas Hotel Collection Group from the Isle of Skye to the mainland of Scotland. It’s a real privilege for our whole team at the Sonas Hotel Collection to be welcoming the Knipoch House Hotel into our collection.
“Since we took over, the hotel has been awarded a rising star hotel award and it is wonderful to get to work with the team to relaunch the “sleeping beauty”. The Knipoch House Hotel is an iconic country house hotel. The investment already completed has created the most beautiful new rooms, and the hotel is perfectly located for leisure and business.”