Aberfeldy’s Crown Hotel is scheduled to be transformed into a combination of flats, a restaurant and retail units by the North Yorkshire-based developers New Cavendish Estates.

Company chairman John Guthrie explained: “We purchased the property in October last year. It had been closed for some months and we didn’t see its future as a hotel.”

Mr Guthrie said NCE planned to invest £1.5 million in the scheme, with work scheduled to start “as soon as possible”. The 530 square metre Crown’s bar and basement nightclub have been earmarked for retail use, with six “good quality” flats to be created on the hotel’s two upper floors.