Luss Estates Wins 2017 Helping it Happen Rural Business Award 2017 from Scottish Land & Estates
Luss Estates is delighted to have been awarded the 2017 Helping it Happen Rural Business Award at the Scottish Land & Estates Awards, jointly awarded to Luss Estates and Drimnin Estate.
Estates, farms and land-based businesses that have helped their local region to flourish have been recognised at the first-ever Helping it Happen awards ceremony.
Organised by Scottish Land & Estates and sponsored by The MacRobert Trust, winners were announced across seven diverse categories from housing to tourism, education to conservation.
The Helping it Happen initiative was launched by Scottish Land & Estates in late 2014 to highlight how landowners on estates and farms across Scotland can play a key role in delivering benefit and enabling success in rural Scotland. More than 200 case studies have been compiled, culminating in the inaugural awards held in Edinburgh.
The event was hosted by former Scotland and British & Irish Lions rugby internationalist, Doddie Weir, and attendees at the dinner also played their part by raising money for charity partners RSABI and Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance.
David Johnstone, chairman of Scottish Land & Estates, said: "People who have the interests of rural Scotland at heart know that the best way to achieve vibrant and successful communities is to work together towards common goals.
"Landowners and estates are often stereotyped as detached and remote from communities and it is important that we continue to change that perception and show what has and can be achieved.
"Helping it Happen demonstrates much of the unsung work that estates, farms and other land based businesses undertake, and there could have been many more winners than those announced at the ceremony. My congratulations go to all those who play their part in Helping it Happen in their region."
Simon Power, estate manager for the MacRobert Trust and one of the judging panel for the awards, said it was a difficult process to choose the winners.
Simon Power said: "It was an extremely challenging process to choose the winners in each award category given the wonderful work that is undertaken by estates across Scotland. The MacRobert Trust is delighted to support the awards and promote, through Scottish Land & Estates, the role estates play in their communities: from protecting and enhancing the biodiversity and landscape under their management to helping young people to the welcome estates provide to visitors to their areas.
"This has been the first year of the Helping it Happen awards but I'm certain it will go from strength to strength due to the outstanding stories that estates are generating on a daily basis."
Joint winner - Luss Estates Judges Summary
Luss Estates Company has long had a desire to grow the local economy and the sustainability of the local community. The first big steps were made by facilitating the development of two international golf courses. This was followed by the refurbishment of the Loch Lomond Arms Hotel, and the creation of the Luss Strategic Development Framework. The Luss Seafood Bar, The Clan Shop, Luss Filling Station and Luss Smokehouse have been developed in the village, all but the later operated by Luss Estates.
Joint winner - Drimnin Estate Judges Summary
Drimnin's win reflects the outstanding restoration work undertaken on an estate in a very remote location: renewal work which has included the four year restoration of St Columba's Chapel and the addition of a new small distillery, completed in 2017, producing a premium single malt using renewable energy from wood chip harvested on the estate.