FRASER CROMARTY LEAVES
AVIEMORE FOR £20million
PROJECT POST AT
'haunted' CASTLE STUART
PGA professional Fraser Cromarty, formerly manager of Golf Highland, and in charge of developing and marketing the MacDonald Spey Valley course since 2005, is moving from Aviemore to carry out a similar role at the Castle Stuart estate, close to Inverness Airport where a £20million golf complex is being developed. The first of two 18-hole courses is planned to be opened in 2009. A start will be made to the seeding operation in early March.
“I am looking forward immensely to the new challenge. I won’t have a title because a lot of different jobs will come under my umbrella. I will certainly be diversifying a lot more than I have done at Spey Valley.
The plans for Castle Stuart include the two courses, a driving range, a clubhouse, a 57-bedroom hotel, 120 timeshare units, two apartment blocks containing 28 flats, a spa and a leisure complex.
The developers, Cornerstone Golf Development International and Moray Estate Development Co, have a 2012 completion target for the huge extensive project on 176 hectares of land at Balnaglack and Lonnie farms.
The man behind the project is Californian businessman Mark Parsinen, who was one of the key men behind the opening of Kingsbarns Links, Fife, arguably the most successful up-market, pay-and-play course to open in Scotland in recent years.
Log on to www.castlestuartgolf.com for more details and images.

"BIG ANGUS" DID NOT BELIEVE CASTLE STUART
WAS HAUNTED ....

Castle Stuart, on the Moray Firth, is perhaps the grandest tower house to be built in the Highlands in the 17th century. This is not surprising as it is owned by the Earls of Moray whose ancestor James Stewart, later Regent of Scotland, was given this land by Mary Queen of Scots, his half sister. Two square towers protect the main entrance and watchtowers cover the back. An Earl's coronet in stone caps the west tower.
The honeymoon suite at the top of the East tower is haunted. In the 18th century, the Earl of Moray offered a reward to anyone who would spend a night in the room, just to prove that it was NOT haunted. The local poacher, known as "Big Angus" feared neither man nor beast and took up the challenge. Next day he was found dead, face down in the courtyard below, a look of horror on his face.
So, did he jump or was he pushed?

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