Angus’s part at the centre of Scotland’s Year of Homecoming 2014 celebration has been thrown into major doubt.
The Courier can reveal that operations at the Queen Mother’s childhood home are now under the control of specialist property consultants following the sudden and unexpected resignation of castle director David Broadfoot.
Mr Broadfoot’s departure comes after more than two years in the key role, during which he played a high-profile part in further developing the 600-year-old Angus landmark’s position in the Scots tourism industry and instigated a number of major changes in the promotion of the Glamis Castle brand.
Property specialists CKD Galbraith confirmed the development in a brief statement, with Wattie Barbour, the newly-appointed managing agent at Glamis Castle, saying the board of trustees of Strathmore Estates had accepted the resignation of Mr Broadfoot, a former Gordon Highlander who arrived in Angus from a similar role at Cawdor Castle.
“This, we understand, was due to the very difficult logistical circumstances of David working at Glamis and living in Moray,” added the statement.
Mr Barbour also told The Courier that, due to Mr Broadfoot’s unexpected resignation, the board of trustees are reviewing the event plan for the Year of Homecoming 2014.
Glamis is scheduled to play a significant part in next summer’s celebration and has been programmed to stage a major showcase of art and culture on July 5/6, the weekend after the National Trust’s 700th anniversary re-enactments of the Battle of Bannockburn.
The Spirit of Glamis event has already secured £50,000 of VisitScotland support, with the V&A, RSNO, Perthshire singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean and author Ian Rankin on the wish list for who might be involved.
Angus Council had also been due to make a decision on whether it would contribute a further £50,000 towards the costs of organising the spectacle but, at the last minute, the report before strategic policy committee members was removed from the public agenda and taken in private.
Council chief executive Richard Stiff told elected members the decision had been taken in light of “commercially sensitive” information emerging.
Mr Stiff had suggested the authority’s backing should also be dependent on the word ‘Angus’ appearing in the event’s title.
His report indicated that, without a high level of sponsorship, it would be unlikely the event would be able to run at the scale proposed by Strathmore Estates.
After considering the matter in private, committee vice-convener Paul Valentine said: “We have deferred a decision on a financial contribution to the 2014 Spirit of Glamis homecoming event pending the outcome of further discussion with the organisers.
“Once these discussions have taken place, the committee will reconvene as soon as possible to make its decision.”