Spa Spotlight So Stobo at Stobo Castle, Scotland
It’s a family affair European Spa met with the Winyard family, owners of Stobo Castle, billed as Scotland’s only destination spa embarks on a future with a new generation at the helm
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n January 2019, after 40 years as managing director at Stobo Castle, Stephen Winyard stepped aside, becoming chairman and handing the reigns to his wife, Mandy, and their three children Taylor, Elliott and Mitchell. Dating back more than 1,000 years, Stobo Castle was purchased by the Winyards in 1975, opening as one of the UK’s first health farms in 1978. Gaynor ‘Granny’ Winyard, a trained beauty therapist, had one aim: for every guest to leave “utterly relaxed, looking trim, feeling vibrantly alive and superbly fit, and radiating good health”. Two generations on, the calorie-controlled diets and strict regimes may have gone, but many things about 50
this wellness-focused destination spa remain the same. Arriving at the castle late on a snowy January afternoon, its austere grandeur – everything you’d expect from a castle in the Scottish Borders – is juxtaposed by an entirely heartfelt welcome, roaring fires, guests strolling around the hotel in robes, unique and daringly modern interiors, a gigantic indoor olive tree taking centre stage and, in the background, the tranquil blue glow of the So Stobo spa pool. “The castle was derelict for more than 30 years before Granny Winyard took it on,” explains managing director Elliott Winyard. “She devoted herself to Stobo and creating something unique; that’s what makes it www.europeanspamagazine.com