Kinloch Lodge, a historic hotel on the Isle of Skye, has been sold outside the Macdonald family for the first time since the property was built in 1676. The buyer, Wickman Hotels, already owns two other hotels on Skye and plans a phased £1.6 million investment programme, while pledging to preserve the character that has made the hotel internationally renowned rather than reinvent it.

The lodge began as a farmhouse before becoming a shooting lodge in the early 18th century and was later converted into a hotel in 1972 by Lady Claire Macdonald, a well-known Scottish cookery writer once tipped to join The Great British Bake Off as a judge, and her husband Lord Godfrey Macdonald, High Chief of Clan Donald. The couple ran it for decades before their daughter Isabelle took over in 2010. Managing director Edward Wickman said the new owners had "a great deal of respect" for the Macdonald legacy and intended to look after the hotel rather than change it.