Gleneagles Hotel

Gleneagles Hotel is a luxury hotel near Auchterarder, Perth and Kinross, Scotland.HistoryThe hotel, which opened in 1924, was built by the former Caledonian Railway Company which also built the nearby Gleneagles railway station. The hotel itself once had its own dedicated railway branch line.During the Second World War, as with many large country hotels, it was converted into Gleneagles Hospital under the charge of Dr Thomas Ferguson as Medical Superintendent.The hotel's golf course and luxurious surroundings meant that golf and grouse shooting at Gleneagles had, by the 1950s, become a fixed part of high society's calendar, along with yachting at Cowes and polo at Deauville.When the hotel was being built, an up-and-coming dance band leader named Henry Hall was involved in buying their pianos, and organising the dance band entertainment. He decided that radio broadcasts would be an ideal way to advertise the new hotel, so was given permission to move his Trafford Band from Manchester's Midland Hotel to the Gleneagles and form a new band in Manchester. The hotel's opening night was celebrated with Scotland's first ever outside broadcast on June 4, 1924.