MONTROSE, Scotland, January 8, 2026, 09:22 (GMT)
- Hillside Hotel in Hillside, near Montrose, is for sale at offers over £280,000, according to a property listing
- The Courier reported the owner is selling after 13 years, putting the village’s final bar and hotel in play
- Scotland’s blood service said several key blood types sat below its six-day stock target on Thursday
The Hillside Hotel in the Angus village of Hillside, near Montrose, has been put up for sale for offers in excess of £280,000, a property listing showed. The marketing describes a recently refurbished hotel and public bar with eight en-suite letting rooms and a car park.
The sale matters in a place like Hillside because there is not much slack. The Courier reported on Wednesday that owner Catherine Braes is selling up what it called the village’s final bar and hotel after 13 years.
The hotel trades as Hillside Hotel & Restaurant and bills itself as a small family-run business about three miles outside Montrose. Its website says it has eight en-suite rooms, a restaurant, and a dog-friendly bar, with on-site parking.
Agents are also pitching it as a “development” opportunity, language that in practice can mean anything from a straight handover to a change of use — if planners agree. The listing says alternative uses would be “subject to consent,” a shorthand way of saying planning permission is likely needed.
The uncertainty comes as Scotland’s blood service flagged tight stocks across several blood groups on Thursday. Scotblood, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service site, put O-negative at four days of stock left, with O-positive and A-positive also at four days — below its six-day target.
The service says blood demand can swing and supplies cannot simply be stored up, because blood has a short shelf life. It updates the stock figures online each weekday.
In Montrose, RNLI volunteers tried to widen the donor base earlier this week, using a training night to donate at Montrose Town Hall. A crew member, Jen Crews, said “blood stock levels can be really low at times,” while Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service officer Gwen Fenton said active donors have “fallen from around 3% of the population to under 2%.” RNLI
But none of this is guaranteed to land cleanly. The hotel sale could drag on or end with a buyer repurposing the building, leaving the village without a bar; blood stocks can also slip quickly if bad weather or illness keeps donors away and hospitals stay busy.
