A man who spent £800,000 on refurbishing a mansion to rent it out on Airbnb has been banned from offering it to guests.
Graham Gardner bought Invergare Castle, in Argyll, Scotland, for £170,000 and then turned it into a luxurious Airbnb which people paid £1,200 a night for.
But locals who live around the B-listed castle, which can sleep up to 24 people, have complained the guests often hold loud parties and behave anti-socially.
At one point, neighbours complained guests had climbed up the castle’s tower and threw bottles of Buckfast from it while singing Scottish sectarian songs.
The police have received a whopping 28 complaints about parties at the mansion dubbed ‘Castle McGlasto’ since 2019 – although some of these will have been multiple calls about the same issue.
Argyll and Bute Council eventually banned Mr Gardner from renting the castle out but the dentist breached this order and did it anyway, according to the council.
Mr Gardner previously said: ‘Guests are warned to respect our neighbours and keep noise down.
‘We are aware that the council have noise monitoring equipment in our neighbour’s property and this has not registered any noise from our property.
‘We will continue to monitor our guests’ activities and maintain a peaceful environment for everyone.’
Indeed, the property’s listing on Airbnb does tell guests they cannot have ‘loud music after 10pm’ and prohibits ‘external/third party speaker systems’.
Mr Gardner went on to appeal the decision but Scottish government reporter Rob Huntley has sided with the council and stood by the ban.
The order was, however, amended to specify that Mr Gardner is only banned from renting the castle out to short-term guests.
He is still allowed to let the property out long-term, as a household.
It is on Scotland’s B list, which means it is a building of regional or local importance.
Mr Huntley said lifting the ban would be ‘severely detrimental to the residential amenities of residents’.
He believes the ‘short-term nature of the lettings must inevitably result in more frequent coming and going’.
The community council said: ‘Rhu is a conservation village. People choose to live here because it is quiet and peaceful.
‘The use of Invergare for Airbnb holidays/short term commercial lets/residential lets – whatever the owners wish to call them – have shattered that.’
Invergare was a 19th-century mansion at the centre of a murder mystery that scandalised Victorian society.
The mansion was home to Madeleine Smith, who went on trial 150 years ago for murder following the death of her secret lover after he drank cocoa laced with arsenic.
Smith was alleged to have given the deadly drink to middle-aged clerk Pierre Emile L’Angelier.
The case gripped Scotland and resulted in the country’s first ever not proven verdict.
Smith fled to America, where she married three times and died aged 92.
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