A change of ownership at Skye’s Kinloch Lodge

Kinloch Lodge on the Isle of Skye, has announced a change of ownership from the Macdonald family to the Wickman family – fellow Skye hoteliers:

“We are delighted to be handing the keys to the Wickman family, and know they will be custodians of great integrity for Kinloch,” said Isabella Macdonald, who took over the running of Kinloch Lodge from her parents, Godfrey and Claire Macdonald, in 2010:  

“Together with my parents, over more than five decades, we have established Kinloch as a hotel of global renown that feels like a family home to guests from all over the world. It means a great deal to us that the Wickman family value family hospitality as part of their vision for positive, generative tourism in our unique setting of Skye.”

The 18-bedroom hotel on the shores of Loch na Dal has been in the Macdonald family since the 16th century. It became a shooting lodge in the early 19th century, and has been run by the family as a hotel since 1972.

In that time Kinloch Lodge has earned international recognition for its hospitality and dining: it was ranked the best hotel in Scotland in Condé Nast Traveller’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2025 and holds a Michelin Key, the Michelin Guide’s award for the world’s most outstanding hotels.

The Wickman family has kept hotels on Skye since the early 1990s, when Kevin and Mary Wickman took over the Cuillin Hills Hotel in Portree – itself  originally a Macdonald family shooting lodge. In 2024 the family acquired Flodigarry Hotel in Trotternish, another former Macdonald property, whose grounds include the cottage of Flora MacDonald, celebrated for her part in the escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie after Culloden. Kevin and Mary’s son, Edward, now leads the family business.

With Kinloch Lodge joining the Cuillin Hills and Flodigarry hotels, the family now cares for three hotels on Skye, each with its own historic connection to Clan Donald. Edward said:

“We have a great deal of respect for the legacy of the Macdonald family in hospitality and tourism, on Skye and beyond – and we are very conscious of the responsibility that comes with continuing it.

“Kinloch is not a hotel to be reinvented; it is a hotel to be looked after. Our ambition is a simple one: three very special hotels, in three very different corners of this extraordinary island, each telling its own part of Skye’s story.”

Taking ownership of Kinloch with immediate effect, the Wickman family is keen to reassure the hotel’s loyal guests, employees and network of suppliers and collaborators that it is business as usual:

“Continuity, quality and consistency are paramount in our commitment as Kinloch’s new owner-operators,” Edward added: “It is the feeling of Kinloch – the amazing team, the award-winning food, the Macdonald portraits and the stirring views – that people travel for and return to, time and again, and none of that changes.

“Over the coming years we will invest carefully and substantially in the fabric of the hotel: a phased £1.6m programme that will enhance what guests love about Kinloch rather than alter it. We look forward to welcoming guests, longstanding and newcomers, to Kinloch and to Skye for generations to come.”

The Macdonald family were advised by Savills. Steven Fyfe, director in the hotel capital markets team at Savills Scotland, commented: “Kinloch Lodge is a unique hotel on Skye with a global reputation for excellence.

“The Wickman family will continue the excellent work the Macdonalds have carried out over the years, and their experience in running a small group of successful hotels on the island made it clear that they would be the ideal purchasers.”

www.kinloch-lodge.co.uk

Photography: Andrew Tobin, of left to right, Godfrey and Claire Macdonald, Kevin Wickman, Isabella Macdonald and Edward Wickman