Sharrow Bay hotel closes with parent company set for liquidation

The Sharrow Bay hotel in the Lake District has closed, with its parent company is set to be placed in liquidation, after a “perfect storm” of difficulties created unsustainable trading conditions.

The 17-bedroom property, which sits on Ullswater in Cumbria, has been placed in the hands of Portland Business Recovery by its sole director Andrew Davis.

Sharrow Bay was pioneered as one of the first British country house hotels by Brian Sack and Francis Coulson in the 1950s. It was snapped up by entrepreneur James Caan in 2012, following the collapse of Andrew Davis's Von Essen Hotels group, and was bought back by Davies in 2013.

Davis has said the business became untenable following poor trading in 2019, which was attributed to Brexit and nearby roadworks, deficiencies in the lease, which prevented vital works from being completed, and the Covid-19 lockdown.

He said he remains hopeful that the holding company can agree to changes to the lease, which may allow the property to reopen with the injection of new funding. It is anticipated that Mike Fortune and Carl Faulds from Portland will be appointed liquidators on Friday (2 October).

Fortune said: “The impact of Covid-19 lockdown caused the enforced closure of the business in March, and the subsequent social distancing restrictions effectively made reopening unviable for the company. Sadly, the tourism and hospitality sector has been hit the hardest and the harsh reality is that many businesses are now facing critical financial distress due to the loss in income during the temporary closure and due to the ongoing restrictions which has caused a reduction in footfall when they have reopened.”