The JA Mar Hall resort, a 19th-century manor near Glasgow, appoints Frances Hope Director of Sales

The JA Mar Hall resort, ten minutes from Glasgow Airport, has appointed Frances Hope as Director of Sales. Announced on 3 November 2026, her arrival opens a new chapter for this 19th-century Scottish manor, transformed in 2025 at a cost of nearly 24 million euros (20 million pounds sterling). Her brief: fill the estate with meetings, events and leisure guests.

Frances Hope, a Hilton and Radisson Blu veteran

Frances Hope knows Scottish hospitality inside out. Before JA Mar Hall, she held senior sales roles at Hilton, Radisson Blu and Klarent Hospitality. The Prestige Awards, a Scottish industry honour, named her a “Dame of Hospitality” in 2013, then presented her with a lifetime achievement award in 2016.

Meetings and events come first

She oversees the entire commercial strategy: corporate clients, meetings and conferences, events, and leisure guests from the UK and abroad. The resort aims to strengthen its ties with businesses in Glasgow and the west of Scotland, broaden its events calendar to sport, music and film, and draw on the international sales network of JA Resorts & Hotels.

“This is an incredibly exciting time to be joining Mar Hall,” says Frances Hope, who wants to raise the resort’s profile in its local market, grow meetings and events, and reach new audiences, without losing the personal welcome that defines the house.

A team rebuilt since the summer

The announcement of her appointment also highlights four members of the team: Alan Grimes, head concierge, Victoria Kane, front of house manager, Sarah Fraser, sales manager, and Sarah Jackson, pastry chef.

At the end of July 2026, the resort had already announced three arrivals: Brian Scanlan, executive chef, formerly of The Ivy and Cameron House on Loch Lomond, Yasmine Gibb, food and beverage manager after seven years at Hilton Glasgow, and Conrad Cooper, executive housekeeper, who joins from Crowne Plaza Glasgow. Brian Scanlan’s cooking champions local producers and herbs from the estate’s kitchen garden.

€24m (£20m) to reawaken the manor

The Dubai-based Dutco group bought Mar Hall in 2024 and entrusted its operation to its subsidiary JA Resorts & Hotels, which also runs The Bruntsfield in Edinburgh. The estate relaunched in 2025 after nearly 24 million euros of works (20 million pounds sterling, at the ECB rate of 9 November 2026). It became the first hotel in Scotland to join the GHA DISCOVERY loyalty programme.

65 rooms on 97 hectares above the Clyde

Commissioned in the 19th century by Lord Blantyre and designed by the architect Sir Robert Smirke, the manor overlooks the Clyde, ten minutes from Glasgow Airport and an hour from Edinburgh Airport. According to its official fact sheet, it has 65 rooms and suites, from 24 m² classic rooms to three 115 m² Grand Suites, lodges included. The 240-acre estate, or 97 hectares of woodland, is home to an 18-hole golf course, a spa with seaweed-based treatments, a 20-metre indoor pool, and outdoor activities such as archery and falconry.

For dining, the resort brings together The Dining Room, which celebrates Scottish produce such as Orkney scallops and Perthshire beef, the Slàinte bar, The Gallery lounge and the Il Posto pizzeria, facing the golf course. Elsewhere in Scotland, we have also featured Andy Murray’s Cromlix hotel, near Dunblane, and the Fingal hotel, a former lighthouse tender moored in Edinburgh.