Prestigious prizes for Blair Castle – as seen in TV’s Victoria

A Scottish castle featured in the TV series Victoria has won a prestigious prize.

Blair Castle and the Blair Castle Caravan Park are both ending the current season on a high having picked up two more top industry awards at the Scottish Outdoor and Leisure Awards held in Glasgow.

Blair Castle, currently featuring in the ITV drama Victoria, has been named the 2017 Best Visitor Attraction and the Caravan Park also scooped the 2017 Best Campsite award.

Stunning Blair Castle, which features in ITV’s Victoria

The Scottish Outdoor and Leisure Awards (SOLA) were created in 2016 to showcase and reward outstanding contributions to Scotland’s outdoor and leisure industry. Having launched only last year, SOLA now attracts over 25,000 votes from the public, in support of their favourite destinations and attractions, creating a shortlist of 115 finalists across seventeen different awards.

Blair Castle and its popular Caravan Park, which offers luxury caravan holiday homes, Scandinavian woodland lodges and timber family camping pods, were both asked to take stock of their business and provide a submission in support of their win. An independent judging panel of top leisure industry experts then performed assessments of the customer facing elements of the business, before selecting the winners.

Julia Sim, head of sales and marketing at Blair Castle, said: ‘The castle has enjoyed an amazing year welcoming record numbers of visitors from all around the world. We continue to offer a journey through the fascinating history of the castle and its residents over the years. Queen Victoria’s visits were also captured in the current series of ITV’s Victoria, which was an amazing way to show of the castle’s history and the incredible grounds of the estate.

Blair Castle’s pair of prestigious trophies

‘The caravan park continues to be a relaxing family orientated park where people come and enjoy the spectacular scenery and have access to first class accommodation and facilities. All our staff throughout the estate are extremely proud of these two awards as it is a joint effort from everyone.’

Julia continued: ‘SOLA exists to promote and reward the leisure businesses across the nation displaying unrivalled quality, and contributing to Scotland’s reputation as one of the world’s best tourist destinations. We are delighted to support them in this.

‘As part of the continuing development of tourism here at Atholl Estates we are introducing six new wooden lodges over the Winter of 2017/2018 ready for first bookings in May 2018. We also we continue to upgrade toilet and shower blocks in the Caravan Park.

‘As there is such  interest in the life of Queen Victoria at the moment, especially in the early years of her reign, we will also be launching a Victoria Exhibition at the start of the 2018 season. More details will be revealed on that very soon.’